Receptionist Relief

[misstricia1969]

 In my office (A mid-size Non-Profit Organization) we have a receptionist who takes her vacation two or three days at a time and has over 30 sick days that she takes at random.  We have a pool of about 15 admins who relieve her when she is out.  We have been using a one hour increment schedule on the days where she is out.   This is causing a conflict in our office.   I am thinking of some sort of two person rotating list.  That way only two people are affected at a time.  The order of the rotation would be determined by a lottery system.   Due to funding issues we cannot hire a temp to help.  

I would like to see what the forum’s opinions of this or if you all may have a better solution to this issue.  

Thank you for your responses.  

[gee4]

Firstly how does she get away with 30 sick days - is there not a sickness policy in your place of work?  The longer she is allowed to do this, the longer she will milk the situation.

In my first year of employment with my current company we are not allowed any sick days, that means if I am off sick, I don't get paid.  Thereafter we are only allowed something like 2 weeks sick in any one year.

I suggest you address this immediately as she is only taking what you have rightfully allowed her to.  Does she have health problems?  Does she supply a doctor's line?  Also maybe you should re-address your company sickness policy as others may follow suit.

As for the rota, instead of a one hour rotating system, try a full day or a half day.  Every hour is surely a bit of a disruption to other colleague's work.

[alisonfaebeith]

I'm curious to see the responses to this as I have a similar situation (except there are only 5 of us to cover).  In our case, covering whole or half-days would be far more disruptive than an hourly rotation as we still have to do our own work and there is a limit to how much of it can be done at reception.

[raindance]

This situation requires a two-pronged approach.  The "conflict" is arising because you are all fed up with this person who is taking time off sick.  You don't actually know WHY she is taking time off sick and you are not really entitled to that information - only her manager is.  But you still have to pick up the work.

Firstly, there is the work to be done.  Ideally, the burden of work would be shared in half or whole days amongst the pool of admins.  You don't say much about your reception/company set up, but if reception has a computer which is linked to your company network, then it may be possible for the person at reception to continue doing some of their own work.  

Secondly, someone - perhaps the senior admin if that is you or someone else - should speak to their manager about this matter.  The fact that you are fed up with your receptionist colleague is not the issue here; the thing you need to emphasize is the impact it has on your ability to do your proper jobs.  If you can provide evidence - such as projects being delayed etc - then maybe something concrete could be done.

The matter of sick leave should be addressed by a good manager.  It is possible that your receptionist is swinging the lead and taking sick leave when she just doesn't feel like going into work.  It is also possible that she has a chronic condition which means that she cannot always guarantee she will be fit for work.    There are a number of conditions which come into that category and which cannot always be managed by medication.  I had an assistant some time ago who had two serious conditions which meant that she took more days off sick than one might expect, but her conditions were statemented to us by her doctor and so we made allowances for her.  

[misstricia1969]

Thank you for your imput.  

Our receptionist has been working for our company for over 10 years and our policy is to allow an employee to roll over their unused sick time up to 30 days.    Most of the time she is out it is for scheduled tests and the like.  And for her husband as well.  She also has about a month of vacation.  So she is entitled to the time off.   So there really is not much we can do about her taking time off.  Only maybe to get more advanced notice or her time off.  

I am leaning toward presenting the half day rotation.  This way each person would only have to be on the board once every few months.  

Thank you for your input.  

[bohorquez]

We're a larger firm and with a total 6 assistant and 1 receptionist.  We take 1 hour shifts with the max of 2 hours.  We assign 1 person to be the backup for the whole day.  Meaning if I'm at the desk for 2 hours and need a potty break, then the backup assigned will come up the desk while I run to the ladies room.

Our receptionist also delivers, sets up and cleans up beverages from each conference room.  Her "backup" is assigned to her for 2 weeks.  The point of the backup is to cover the phones while the receptionist makes coffee, takes beverages to a conference or cleans up.  The backup also covers the phones for potty breaks and the receptionist lunch hour.  It works out really well for us.

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Bridget
Wife to Eduardo (12/4/99), Mommy to Aaron (10/26/01)