Every year I write a Ten Best and Ten Worst Corporate Practices list for Business Week. Every year, it's far easier to come up with the Ten Worst list than the Ten Best! And I'm keeping my eyes open, all year!
My favorite Ten Best item for a long time has been the employee referral bonus program. Paying our employees to bring us talent seems like one of those win-win-wins we're always looking for. Today, I have a new Ten Worst list item: requiring employees to prove their absence for a family member's death, by way of a note from the funeral home.
Ay carumba! If we haven't hired people whom we'd trust not to fabricate a family member's death, can we call ourselves managers? If an employee is bereaved and chooses not to attend a funeral, is s/he any less entitled to a day off to grieve?
I heard about this policy today (it was called a Best Practice by a member of a discussion group, not one of our groups I'm happy to say) and I must say that the news seriously depressed me. What have we come to, when we say to employees "You'd better bring me proof that your Aunt Mabel died. Maybe she didn't die. Maybe you don't even have an Aunt Mabel." That's not an employee failing - that's a leadership failure, if we even have to have that conversation. I'd rather bite my tongue in half.
How can anyone justify these Medieval HR policies? Got any idea? Please fill us in! Cheers -- Liz
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