Can You Terminate an Employee for Excessive Absenteeism?

When your employees don’t show up for their shifts, your company can suffer severe consequences, including a drop in employee morale, financial damages, and operational inefficiency.

So, what can you do about it? Is it possible to terminate an employee for excessive no shows? The answer is yes, but it’s not the only solution.

What is excessive absenteeism?

Generally, your employees can be absent for a range of excused absences, including vacations, holidays, family emergencies, or sick time. These types of absences are largely accepted by business owners due to their benefits for employee mental health and allowing their business to attract highly skilled coworkers.

However, if you have noticed your employees missing consecutive days of work for unacceptable reasons or extended periods, you might be dealing with excessive absenteeism. You’ll need to know how to identify this so you can either make reasonable accommodations to rectify the employee’s behavior or deal with the employee before their behavior spreads and impedes team morale.

It is important to note that the U.S. Department of Labor does not have any federal laws that determine what constitutes “excessive” absenteeism — or how many days spent missing work are too many. Setting these standards and guidelines comes down to the employer, who should offer guidelines in the official employee handbook and attendance policy.

The impact of excessive absenteeism

The consequences of excessive unexcused absences or low employee attendance rates in your company can be catastrophic. These include:

• Financial losses from having to find a replacement, possibly with costlier agency workers.
• Increased administrative costs of dealing with absenteeism.
• Reduced operational efficiency and lower quality of products and services.
• Reduced morale across the team, especially if other full-time team members have to pick up the slack.

Common reasons for excessive absences

Episodes of absenteeism can stem from a range of causes, including:

• A serious health condition or chronic illness (and accompanying medical appointments)
• Family member or child care issues
• Job hunting and attending interviews
• Workplace harassment and bullying
• Heavy workloads and burnout
• Low morale or disengagement
• Seasonal illnesses

Can I terminate an employee for absenteeism?

If you are dealing with an employee who is frequently absent or late, you might be wondering whether you can terminate their employment. The short answer is yes, you can. But there are multiple steps you need to take to avoid wrongful termination and the legal consequences of it.

First, it is essential to introduce an objective attendance tracking system. The right software or app can help you build your case and provide a wealth of evidence to the employee in question — as well as their lawyers.

Additionally, you will need to keep in mind vital federal laws like the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). If your employees have taken FMLA leave or are absent because of a disability, attempting to terminate their employment might lead to a discrimination claim against your company.

FMLA includes job-protected leaves of absence due to:

• The birth of a newborn child and for their care (within one year of birth).
• Placement of a child for adoption or in foster care, or to care for a newly placed child (for up to one year of placement).
• Care for an employee’s spouse or child who has a serious medical condition.
• A serious health condition that makes an employee unable to perform the essential functions of his or her job.

If you are dealing with an employee who is excessively absent or can no longer perform essential functions within the company, you should partner with an experienced law firm for legal advice to navigate your case before you happen to violate any labor laws or state laws.

Excessive absenteeism can have severe consequences on your company’s well-being and operational stability. However, if you are wondering whether you can terminate an employee for excessive absenteeism, you should keep in mind that both employers and employees have rights.

That is why if you have a robust attendance policy in place and can demonstrate that those excessive absences were not due to Family Medical Leave Act or American Disabilities Act leaves, you might proceed to take disciplinary actions

How to prevent and handle excessive absenteeism

Employee termination should always be the last resort for employers dealing with excessive absences, even if they’re plainly violating your attendance policy. Before settling for this solution, managers should work with the human resources department to outline a strategy to help a concerned employee and boost the overall team morale. Here are some of the steps you should take:

Create an attendance policy

Introduce a robust employee attendance policy that both you and your employees can refer to when you first become concerned with their absences.

It’s important to make sure your team understands exactly what’s required of them. If you have a worker or two who are consistently calling in, it may be worth running over the rules again with your entire team —without singling anybody out — to ensure that they understand that you expect on-time attendance.

Improve your workplace culture

While sometimes excessive absenteeism is caused by issues at home, it’s also often caused by issues at work. Burnout, bullying, and disengagement are some of the most common reasons for excessive absenteeism. To combat these issues, consider these tips:

• Create a workplace culture that makes it easier for concerned, bullied, harassed, or unhappy employees to bring their concerns to you.
• Help your employees find work-life balance by introducing hybrid work models, which can also reduce absences related to childcare and eldercare.
• Invest in mental and physical wellness programs.
• Provide incentives to engage in the workplace, such as professional and personal development opportunities for your employees.

Hold a private meeting

When you notice an employee is missing a lot of work, it may be time to hold a private meeting with them. The purpose of this meeting should be to try to determine what is causing them to miss work often and work with them to develop a solution. Are the hours they are scheduled to work interfering with their personal life? Is the commute difficult? Is it something involving childcare or medical issues?

Once you know the cause of their absences, you can develop a solution with actionable steps that your worker can follow and you can track to help improve their timeliness. Sometimes, if it’s being caused by a particularly personal problem, you won’t be in a position to offer a solution, but you can guide them towards seeking outside help that would be more qualified.

Try to be accommodating

Employee turnover can be costly. In fact, it’s estimated that staff member turnover can range from 40–400 percent of an employee’s annual salary. In most cases, you’ll want to work to develop solutions with your worker rather than taking immediate drastic action.

Take disciplinary action

Finally, if your solution that you agreed upon with your worker doesn’t work and your employee is still missing work consistently, then you will have no choice but to take disciplinary action. Your employee handbook should outline the protocol that you should follow. 

Some companies use a points system where workers accrue points for tardiness and absenteeism, while others use a rolling attendance system where attendance infractions on a six or 12-month period are recorded. After the time period ends, the calculations begin again.

At the end of the day, no matter which system your company follows to deal with attendance infractions, it’s important to be proactive and ensure that it’s dealt with in a way that’s professional and conducive to a solution. Treat your team fairly by expecting the same attendance requirements from everyone. At the same time, don’t forget that even good employees can have a bad week that throws off their work ethic.

Never let one worker consistently slide; you will risk frustrating workers who are always there and on time. Instead, work to develop solutions that make it easy for your team to succeed — both in their work and with their attendance — to motivate your entire team to do their best.

Keeping track of employee absences

Regardless of how you plan to handle absenteeism, you need to make sure you’re keeping an accurate record of it if you want to address it. For some business owners, this might mean manual tracking, such as using spreadsheets and physical records to manage employee attendance. The problem with this approach is that manual methods can be unreliable and time-consuming.

This is why most savvy business owners choose to invest in software that tracks and monitors absence rates, such as Buddy Punch. Buddy Punch’s simple UI and reporting makes it easy to see when employees clock in (or don’t) to create an accurate log of absenteeism.

Developing an absence management strategy

Terminating an employee for excessive absences is certainly an option for most employees — but it should not be the very first option you consider. Instead, high rates of absenteeism are a telltale sign that your employees are unable to keep up with the workload, feel unsafe at work, or suffer from chronic conditions. Always look at the hidden root causes of absenteeism before you take action.

Introducing the right absence management strategies can help you reduce unplanned absence rates while creating a better workplace for all.

Related Reading:

• How to Identify and Prevent Excessive Tardiness at Work
• Creating an Employee Attendance Policy: Guide & Template
• The 12 Best Time and Attendance Software for Small Businesses