I work in Human Resources and have for 8 years. Just wanted to preface my message with that statement...this is the opinion of an HR person.
In my opinion, a person has an ETHICAL obligation to report anything that may be construed as stealing from the company. Misreporting hours as worked when a person is actually out, is stealing. If you think this may be happening, you should report it. Period. Again, my opinion.
One thing to ask before I continue with my recommendation to you...does your company have "personal" days or "family sick leave" of some sort? For example, at my company, I get 14 days of vacation, 10 sick days, and 40 "other days" (which can be used for family illness, court dates, and other life events that require you to be out.) If you have these at your company, this may be what he is doing...he may have something major going on that no one knows about. Or...has this guy been out for any medical problems in the past or do you know if perhaps his immediate family may have medical problems? I am just thinking of the possibilities of how he may legitimately be out, but maybe just isn't advertising the real reason for the leave to the general employee population. For example...maybe he is being granted intermittent Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) time. He could be caring for a sick child, parent, or spouse and is taking the time off to do this (for example, chemo treatments, kidney dialysis, elder care, etc.) OR, he may have his own medical problems that he is dealing with. I have seen many people in this situation who are hesitant to tell co-workers the real story...they like their privacy and as a result, everyone thinks this person has an unfair amount of vacation time or worse yet, is stealing through the act of misreporting time. This causes morale issues but it is the employee's prerogative to maintain their confidentiality and the supervisor of the employee is not allowed to break this confidentiality.
Here is what I would do. I wouldn't ask questions or get nosy...I would simply go to the employee's supervisor (not sure if it is the same as your supervisor) and say something like this:
"I am not ______'s supervisor, nor am I accusing him of any wrondoing. However, I feel it is my ethical obligation to bring to your attention that during the course of my workstation scheduling duties, I have noticed that this person is out quite a lot. He may or may not have a legitimate reason for this, but I thought it was my obligation to bring this to your attention and put it in your hands to investigate it accordingly."
Note - there are no questions asked. There is simply a statement made. After you do this, tell YOUR supervisor (if it is a different person from the other employee's supervisor). Then, your supervisor will not be blindsided if the other supervisor approaches them. Also, you are covering your bases in the event the employee's supervisor does nothing and it turns out later on that the person WAS stealing and that you knew about it all along and didn't report it (it will be your word against the supervisor's word).
If this doesn't get results, I would give up. I wouldn't take it higher...put the owness on the supervisor of the employee. If they choose to do nothing, at least you did your part by reporting it. Again, make sure your supervisor is informed of the action you took. Good luck!
Dianna
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