Workaholics and Leave Refusal

This is employees refusing to take a Break when needed.

Some years ago, one of my employee’s daughter of less than 6 years had Chicken pox.

You can imagine how this would be on a child and the additional stress of taking care of that child would reflect on someone’s mental
and physical health.

When i was told, i called her and told her not to worry about work and that she should take a break completely from work but she insisted on doing some work since she had her laptop with her.

I was insistent that she should forget work and concentrate on taking care of herself and her child and told her to take some more days off than the HRM granted her.

Next day, while using the official reporting work tool ( Slack), guess who had logged on and send her briefs? This same employee.

Haba! I called her again and reiterated that i wanted her to take a complete break from work and that she was dealing with a lot.

I practically had to tell her that i was going to ask the IT guy to block or change the password before she took the much needed break from work.

Later i began to ponder about her hesitation to take time off.

👉🏽 Has she worked in other organizations that don’t let employees take a break off work to handle personal issues?

👉🏽Is she afraid she was going to lose her job for the long break because this is chicken pox and health wise, she could also spread this in the office?

👉🏽 Was she afraid that her salary was going to be deducted for period of absence.

Dear Employers,

👉🏽 Let’s normalize time off from work for our employees.

👉🏽Let’s allow employees take time off to sort out personal issues.

👉🏽Let’s remember that according to Nigerian Labour Law, employees are entitled to 12days off as Casual Days.

👉🏽 Let’s remember that anyone can fall sick at any time so they deserve full recovery period.

👉🏽 Let’s also be kind not to deduct their salaries for those days off work.

👉🏽There are exigencies that happen in real life and sickness is one of these and could happen to anyone.

Back to the story at hand; some days after our conversation and on my way to pick up something from the car, i saw her entering the office and i had to stop her.

I asked her why she came to work when she still had 3 days permission to be off work and she said, she was tired of staying at home and decided to resume. Moreso, her daughter was better.

This girl and work are like 5 and 6. 😀

If she can be stubborn, i am also permitted to be stubborn so i sent her off to continue her 3 days outstanding break again😀.

She didn’t like it one bit but workaholics need to remember that sickness can take its toll on one’s mental health and physiological framework.

Let’s learn to take a break graciously too.

To those women combining careers and taking care of children less than 10 years old, i doff my hat.

As the International Women’ Day is fast approaching, I celebrate you ALL.