A.     What can I do to avoid leave problems?

General Guidance

  1. Expectations – The most important step you can take is to clearly communicate your expectations to staff. Supervisors must clearly communicate to employees that they are expected to be at their workstation, ready to work at the beginning of their assigned shift. Employees also need to know that they need to maintain regular and predictable attendance; that they need to return from breaks in a timely manner; and that they need to follow procedures for requesting and obtaining approval for time off in accordance with department procedures.

    These expectations should be in writing either in the employee’s performance standards or in a separate list of administrative expectations. The expectation should clearly state that instances of tardiness may result in the time being charged to accrued leave, leave without pay, or absence without leave, depending on the circumstances.

    Supervisors should reinforce this written expectation through oral discussions with new employees in the first few days of employment, and in group discussions with all employees annually.
  2. Modeling – Managers and supervisors must serve as positive role models in all areas of attendance.
  3. Recording Tardiness on Timecards – As mentioned above, the initial instance of tardiness, or infrequent instances of tardiness which do not impact service delivery or coworkers, can be addressed by letting the employee make up the time and need not be recorded on the timecard. More frequent instances of tardiness, or tardiness which affects customers or coworkers, should be charged to accrued leave, leave without pay, or absence without leave.
  4. Tardiness of Less than Six Minutes – The County’s payroll system (ATKS) computes payroll in increments of six minutes (1.9 hours, 2.0 hours, 2.1 hours, etc.), with 0.1 hours equaling six minutes. This being the case, some employees will assert that leave cannot be charged for a tardiness that is under six minutes. This is not true. Once an employee has been counseled and advised that future tardiness will result in charges to their leave balance or absence without pay, a sub-six-minute tardiness may be recorded on the timecard by having the employee not begin work until the next six-minute increment of time has started.

    For example, if an employee’s shift begins at 8:00 a.m. and they arrive to work late, at 8:03, the supervisor can direct the employee to not start performing their work duties until 8:06, and charge 0.1 hours of leave/absence without pay in ATKS.

In setting and communicating leave expectations, you need to be prepared to answer the following:

Tardiness

  • Everyone is late occasionally – how often is too often? Is it OK to be late once a week, once a month, once a quarter?
  • What happens if I’m a few minutes late? At what point does a “few minutes” become a problem?
  • If I am late, how do I code my timecard?
  • Can I skip a break or take a shorter lunch to make up a fifteen-minute tardy? Can I make it up at the end of the day? Do I have to use vacation time?
  • At what point do you charge a tardy as Absence without Leave (AWOL)?
  • If I call the Lead or leave a message before work starts, does that count as approval?

Sick Leave

Vacation

Once you have asked yourself these questions and formulated your answers, you should discuss the matter with your manager and with Employee & Labor Relations to ensure that your expectations are reasonable and in conformance with any pertinent MOUs, department or County policies and state and federal law. You can then reduce the expectations to writing to present to and discuss with staff.

Scenarios and Recommended Action Steps

Scenario I – George is a Fiscal Office Assistant II who works from 8:00 ‑ 5:00 with a one-hour lunch. George drives his children to childcare in the morning and is 5‑10 minutes late about twice a month. George’s tardiness does not have an adverse impact of service delivery or on his ability to complete his workload.

Recommended Action – There are two alternatives which should work in George’s case. As long as the instances of tardiness remain infrequent, you could allow George to make up the 5‑10 minutes by extending his workday by the length of the tardiness on those days he is late. Alternatively, if office coverage permits, you could allow George to change his work hours by starting at 8:15 or 8:30 and either reducing his lunch to 30 or 45 minutes or extending his workday to 5:15 or 5:30.

Scenario II – Jane is a Benefits Analyst who comes in between thirty minutes – two hours late approximately once a month. Jane usually cites automobile problems or traffic as the reason for her tardiness. Jane’s tardiness results in client interviews having to be reassigned to other employees or in clients having their interviews rescheduled. Jane’s supervisor has counseled her about tardiness on three occasions but has not issued any written warning.

Recommended Action – The nature of Jane’s work and the nature of her tardiness do not lend themselves to adjusting her work schedule or allowing her to make up the time. Jane’s tardiness must be corrected, and it is obvious that verbal counseling has not solved the problem. At this point, the supervisor needs to document the problem in writing to Jane. Employee & Labor Relations can be contacted to assist with drafting the counseling memo. The supervisor should advise Jane that they are available to assist her in resolving the problem, but that ultimately it is Jane’s responsibility for getting to work on time. The supervisor should also state that continued tardiness will not be tolerated, and that recurrences will result in disciplinary action.

Scenario III – Judy is a Planner II who has worked for the County for six years. Judy is frequently tardy ranging from a few minutes to several hours. Although you have only been Judy’s supervisor for the past eight months, it is your understanding that this has been a long-standing problem. There is no documentation in Judy’s file and no reference to tardiness in past performance evaluations. Over the past six months, you have counseled Judy verbally and then in writing regarding her tardiness, and last month you gave Judy a formal letter of reprimand. Today, Judy arrived for work forty-five minutes late. When you asked her about it, she started to cry and accused you of harassing her. Judy then said that your harassment had given her a headache and that she was ill and needed to go home.

Recommended Action – First, you should advise Judy that discussing her tardiness does not constitute harassment but if she is truly too ill to remain at work, you will approve sick leave for the remainder of the day. You should also tell her that, upon her return the next day you will meet with her to discuss the situation. On her return, you should ask Judy why she was late. You should take careful notes of Judy’s response and advise her that you will consider her statements before determining what action to take. You should then discuss Judy’s response with your manager. Absent a compelling excuse for the tardiness, you should recommend to your manager that Judy be disciplined. If your manager agrees, you or your manager should contact Employee & Labor Relations for assistance in drafting the Skelly Intent Letter.

2026-03-19