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.
If you can run your business successfully and exceed your customers’ expectations based on “if he comes to work”, then keep him.
I suspect you cannot. I also suspect the unnecessary stress he puts on you consumes you most of the work week and again on Sunday and takes away from more impactful things you can be doing for your business.
I would hire his replacement.
If and when he returns to work, you can schedule him into a part time work rotation if you have the work available.
I would explain to him, you cannot guarantee that his position or hours will be available should he decide to return.