OP - here's a stretch. Be non-DC-like and decide to be helpful. Offer your employee one of your own "five back ups".

Anonymous wrote:Don't make this about back up care, make this about her work performance. If she's missing deadlines, thats what you should be concerned about.

Totally agree with this. OP the issue sounds less with her missing time for school closings and more with her being behind in her work. You seem to think the two are correlated, which makes sense, but a diligent employee can ususally still meet reasonable deadlines even with the school closings. Does she have the capacity to work from home, in terms of access to secure network, access to her email? A company phone/blackberry for handling calls etc?

Don't make this about back up care, make this about her work performance. If she's missing deadlines, thats what you should be concerned about.

-Does your employee earn enough money for back-up care?
-Does your company have a contract with a day care center to provide subsidized back-up care?
-Will you admit that this winter was an unusual year in terms of the large number of snow days?
-Do you want your company to be family-friendly?
-What sorts of best-practices do you want to implement to keep employees productive LONG TERM?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP how is your office set up to handle when an employee is out and what about staying late. I had a boss, who no lie, was crazy about this stuff. We were supposed to have coverage when we were out, but rarely did people cover as much as needed. We couldn't take our work home because of confidentiality issues. And, we couldn't come in early or stay late. Boss would not open the doors until 8:45 and at 5:15 he made the rounds and if someone was still working, he'd tell you you had to go. And if you didn't, he'd log you out of the system.

It was by far the most toxic and miserable work environment I've ever been in.

OP here. We do not have rigid hours, which is why I am able to work part time. I often feel I work full time but with a flex schedule because I do take work home with me. I would not care if she took all those days off if she was getting her work done but she is missing deadline after deadline. This is a very busy time for us with multiple deals going on as well as year end.

I agree that the bigger issue is with her performance. I would put her on a PIP.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it is a state of emergency (we live in Boston now) we get a free day off. Otherwise we take vacation time.

I think it is great that you have all that back up care, but for whatever reason, she does not. I can't tell if you are her boss or not but if you aren't, it would seem pretty petty for you to go to your boss to complain.

If you are her boss and don't have a clear policy on snow and vacation/whatever time, I think it would be pretty hard to reprimand her for taken the time she's earned for snow days.

I am her direct boss. I would not be petty unless all her work falls on me since I delegate work to her.

Also wanted to add that we are a small company and don't have a set policy.

Wait, did she take PTO? Even if you don't have a specific policy, if you are not working at the office and you are not working at home, then by definition you are on PAID TIME OFF. What is complicated about that?

Anonymous wrote:There is a mom in my office has taken off every snow day, which has added up tremendously. If she worked from home or made up the work, I would be fine with it but she has not and has fallen behind. Not sure what the norm is.

I am also a mom of two and have 5 rounds of back up including teachers who would also be off for snow. I sometimes scramble for sick care but never for snow days or random school closings because I can plan for that.

What is your work policy? What do you do when you have to stay home for snow or other school closings?

Take vacation time? Make up work?

Not everyone has the same support network you do. I am a single mom with not one family member in this state and no friends that I would ask to do something like this. Everyone has their own problems.

That said I would be mortified to miss work like this because I am a single mom. I would take vacation, work from home, take leave without pay, make up the work at night, bring my kids in with me if possible even for an evening or two....

If she missed the work she should take paid time off. Do you know if she did NOT use leave?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:5 back up plans for childcare? You REALLY don't want to be stuck with those kids, do you? Are you jealous of your employee because she's an actual mom?

I don't work full time so I am not sure what your point is. I just have a lot of friends and former teachers seem to like our family. We also pay well.

You are not helping yourself here, OP.

Anonymous wrote:
OP here. We do not have rigid hours, which is why I am able to work part time. I often feel I work full time but with a flex schedule because I do take work home with me. I would not care if she took all those days off if she was getting her work done but she is missing deadline after deadline. This is a very busy time for us with multiple deals going on as well as year end.

Maybe you need to address the performance issues vs. worrying about her calling out. I think if you take care of the performance issues, the second problem will resolve on its own.

Is she exempt or non-exempt?

Anonymous wrote:OP how is your office set up to handle when an employee is out and what about staying late. I had a boss, who no lie, was crazy about this stuff. We were supposed to have coverage when we were out, but rarely did people cover as much as needed. We couldn't take our work home because of confidentiality issues. And, we couldn't come in early or stay late. Boss would not open the doors until 8:45 and at 5:15 he made the rounds and if someone was still working, he'd tell you you had to go. And if you didn't, he'd log you out of the system.

It was by far the most toxic and miserable work environment I've ever been in.

OP here. We do not have rigid hours, which is why I am able to work part time. I often feel I work full time but with a flex schedule because I do take work home with me. I would not care if she took all those days off if she was getting her work done but she is missing deadline after deadline. This is a very busy time for us with multiple deals going on as well as year end.

OP how is your office set up to handle when an employee is out and what about staying late. I had a boss, who no lie, was crazy about this stuff. We were supposed to have coverage when we were out, but rarely did people cover as much as needed. We couldn't take our work home because of confidentiality issues. And, we couldn't come in early or stay late. Boss would not open the doors until 8:45 and at 5:15 he made the rounds and if someone was still working, he'd tell you you had to go. And if you didn't, he'd log you out of the system.

It was by far the most toxic and miserable work environment I've ever been in.

Here is what I would do:

A. Set a policy. Without one it is hard for employees to know what is acceptable or expected. A good/typical policy is that employees are allowed to use accrued vacation time as unscheduled leave due to bad weather. You may need to adjust this tough if like my company vacation is use it or lose and we start out with all our vacation days in January even thought they aren’t really accrued (for example, if we took all leave in January and left our job in march we’d have to pay back the days we used that were not really accrued.

B. Talk to this employee and let her know that while you understand that weather is unpredictable and that she needed to take time off, however, she also needs to think about a back-up plan and that taking unpaid leave is not acceptable. Let her know that you expect her to make up the time that she has takes off and do what is necessary to get caught up on her work.

I also agree that this time of year you need to account for people taking some time off for these sort of situations. Not every winter will be as bad at this one

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it depends on how she is accounting for that time off. If she is taking vacation days then I don't see what the problem is. If she were to take a regular vacation then she wouldn't be expected to make up that work right? If she is just not showing up but expecting to be paid and not taking vacation time, then yes she should make up that work.

I also don't know ow people are suppose to find back-up care. It is one thing if yuo have family in the area or friends who are willing to watch your kids, but not everyone has that luxury.

In every job I've ever had, you are expected to get the job done whether you are on vacation or not. You cover things before you go, do things in advance and then make up the work that comes in while you are gone when you get back. There is no one that takes over for you just because you take a vacation. So, I can see OP's point that there is a problem is the work isn't done.

NP here. Right, I agree (though in my office, we have backups who work your portfolio in your absence), but it really has nothing to do with snow days with kids, but more in how she's managing her work overall, no?

Anonymous wrote:I think it depends on how she is accounting for that time off. If she is taking vacation days then I don't see what the problem is. If she were to take a regular vacation then she wouldn't be expected to make up that work right? If she is just not showing up but expecting to be paid and not taking vacation time, then yes she should make up that work.

I also don't know ow people are suppose to find back-up care. It is one thing if yuo have family in the area or friends who are willing to watch your kids, but not everyone has that luxury.

In every job I've ever had, you are expected to get the job done whether you are on vacation or not. You cover things before you go, do things in advance and then make up the work that comes in while you are gone when you get back. There is no one that takes over for you just because you take a vacation. So, I can see OP's point that there is a problem is the work isn't done.