I think I know the answer but I am curious what other ideas people have. I have an employee that has a long track record of his personal life negatively effecting his work life. The 8 or so hours a day he is as work he is very good and big contributor. The other 16 hours of his day are the issue. However, in the last month he has missed work due to getting a DUI, later on it was fighting with his girlfriend and then columnated in her kicking him out and him need to move all his stuff out. Personal stuff, not my business but it is effecting my business. Well now he needs extended leave to deal with another personal matter. He can’t give me a time table on his return but he says over and over that he isn’t quitting. Well, if he can’t come to work and can’t give a timetable to when he can, that sure sounds like quitting to me. The issue that I don’t know how to deal with is that he is a big contributor, he is great with his skilled job and with customers. I don’t want to loose him but I can’t just hold a job for an undetermined amount of time. I also feel for the guy, he just keeps making poor personal decisions. My guess is reddit would say to just fire him for not being about to coming to work and move on. Is there any reason to not do that? Like I said he is great at what he does, if he is here to do it.
I’ve had this conversation with staff before, and what I say is that what you do on your own time is not my concern, unless it’s affecting your ability to work and perform your job. That’s when we need to have a discussion on expectations for work.
You may want to tell this guy exactly this. That you love his work, when he’s able to work, and that he’s a valuable contributor to the team and that doesn’t go unnoticed. However, if you are needing an undetermined amount of time off, that you have scheduling to do, and things that need to get done, and that you’ll need to keep him off the schedule until he’s able to return to work. That may mean that you won’t be able to just automatically insert them back in to the schedule when he gives the all clear.
You could maybe treat this as a leave of absence, like a medical leave (even if not officially as such) and state that you will leave it in his hands to reach out when he’s ready to come back, and that you and him can talk about a gradual return to work.