Senior Citizen Care

When dealing with senior citizens, having full-time care is a necessity. Often times, employees that work as caretakers understand the impact of not showing up to work without calling. Indeed, the nature of their work reflects their commitment to the well-being of other human beings. For example, recently an employee for a senior health care center did not show up to work. Their day off was unexpected because they did not call beforehand. After attempting to call them numerous times and trying to get in touch, soon it was clear that the individual was just not going to come in that day. The organization had to call through our list of caretakers and find a suitable replacement as the need for trained bedside sitters are paramount. Meanwhile, our senior citizens were compromised because they did not have adequate care for the time being. Clearly, such an event had serious implications for the seniors.

The triggers to the conflict were policy and value-based. Surely, the organization had clear policies regarding sick days and not showing up. If sick or unable to attend work, the employee must call the company within eight hours so that we can have enough time to find a suitable replacement. By not calling anyone, the employee broke a clear policy that we had. Also, another trigger to the conflict was value and ethic based. Mainly, the nature of the job requires taking care of elderly people and being aware that they are human beings, not just products on an assembly line. In not showing up to work without calling ahead of time, the individual went against company values of having integrity, commitment and drive for doing the right things. Finally, it is also true that the individual broke what was a procedural rule. The company had clear policies of how to address sick days and calling out; however, they did not follow it. 

The approach that was used was power-based. Mainly, when there is a no-call, no-show, there is a serious impact on the reputation of the business. For example, if elderly people feel as though we do not have enough staff to take care of basic things, then they generally feel neglected. If that is the case, then the news carries over to their families, who may opt to use a different elderly care provider than us. It's important to understand this through a life course perspective. Consequently, the way that the issue was dealt with was power-based. The individual was reprimanded through termination. While this approach may seem harsh and a bit over the top, it was appropriate given the severity of the problem. Within our organization, employees are given power over their day when it comes to making a clear cut schedule and choosing which days to work. In exchange, they submit to the rules and regulations that are in place so that everything goes smoothly. However, if that is breached, then it is important that power is appropriately used in order to show other employees what the punishment is for such behavior. 

For the future, better training and focus on such values could be placed for the job. For example, when people are hired, it could be mentioned from a strong standpoint that those kinds of behaviors are not acceptable. By incorporating it into our training processes, it would be a very clear policy from the start. That way, employees would understand the repercussion, to begin with. Also, throughout the training process, we could stress that there are serious implications to a no-call, no-show. Finally, if the situation arises where we have to deal with it again with another employee, it may be more effective to have clear policies laid out so that everyone knows the implications. In doing so, future employees would have a clear understanding of what is at stake. Unfortunately, there was little room for any other action except termination. In the case of this individual, it would have set a precedent for other individuals to do the same thing. Such an event would have a lasting impression in terms of how we dealt with that behavior.