John is a distribution employee with three years of average service. He has never had a performance issue, although you can remember one day when he didn’t call in sick according to company policy. Two weeks ago he transferred from the second shift to the first shift. Almost immediately he started coming in late to work. Thus far he’s been tardy six times in the first two weeks.
When you spoke to him about it, he told you he’s been having car-pool problems and difficulty with the time difference between second and first shift. You issued a “verbal” even though he said, “All I really need is time to adjust.”
John was between 5 and 15 minutes late on each date marked “L.” You issued a verbal on January 10. When do you take further action? (Circle the dates as directed above.)
If x occurs, y may happen—the result can vary on a case-by-case basis.
The exercise, “The Case of John Wasastar,” illustrates this point. No two people who work on the exercise will end up with identical results. Note that a five-month time frame—from January to May—is used in the case. Most managers will terminate within that length of time if an employee does not improve the problematic behavior. If, in applying this exercise to your own company, you need more months, you can add them.