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Glenn's Upcoming Public Seminars |
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Tifton, GA
ABAC |
6/24/08 |
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Milledgeville, GA
Georgia College &
State University |
6/25/08 |
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Augusta, GA
Augusta State University |
6/26/08 |
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Call 1-800-538-4595 to
reserve seats. |
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“You
can ask your employee to type a letter and
find it satisfactory to receive the letter
requested. If you have a truly good
employee, you can expect to receive from
that same request a grammatically correct
letter, envelope with postage, and proper
attachments.” |
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Tori Caldwell
The Farrar Law
Firm
Hot Springs, AR
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Dear Glenn,
We sent an
employee home to get a release from her doctor before
she came back to work. She has been gone for a week.
How long do you give someone to get a release and do you
pay them sick pay while they are gone?
Mike in
Louisiana
Dear
Mike,
First, the legal
disclaimer. I'm not a lawyer, so ask an attorney for the
legal answer.
Assuming this is
not a worker's comp claim, she's not out on
disability, and you are not covered by FMLA, I
know of no reason why your
stated policy on absenteeism would not apply.
For example, if your policy allows five paid sick days per year
and she has already exhausted them, she should not get paid.
As for how long it takes to get a release, I don't see
why it would take any longer than a few minutes once she
gets in to see the Doc.
Sounds like she's misconstrued being sent to get a
doctor's release as being given a vacation. Just as
vacations have a specific return date, so must she. Call
her yesterday and let her know the "vacation" is over.
Thanks for your question.
Glenn in Nashville
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Glenn's
Personal
Blog
Click on this pen to see what
Glenn's
on a rant about now.
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I miss the good old days when
my cell phone was just a phone. It didn’t have a camera, GPS, e-mail,
MP3 player, Internet access, games, or play movies.
The best part was
that people could press a simple on/off switch to shut their
phones off during my seminars. Those really were the good old days, as
in 2002.
Last week I
reluctantly traded in my relatively simple cell phone for an AT&T Tilt,
which is like my old phone on steroids. It has a GPS that tells
me where to turn (and politely nags me when I don’t), a
camera, WiFi and Bluetooth (technologies for connecting to other
devices wirelessly), 3G Internet access (fast for a
cellphone), plays videos, music, and even runs Microsoft Word,
PowerPoint, and Excel.
While I still haven’t
figured why anyone needs to watch the latest Harry Potter
movie or run a PowerPoint application on their phone, I bought
Steroid Phone for two specific reasons:
First, I’m ready to
replace the GM vehicle I travel in for business with another brand, but this
will mean giving up OnStar. Though I’ve never needed it, there’s
a great feeling of security in knowing that if I break down in
the middle of nowhere and hear banjo music coming out of the
woods, I can press a button and say “I’m
stranded and lost.
Figure out where I am and send help fast!” Steroid Phone allows
me to do this, from any vehicle, or even if I'm not in a
vehicle.
Second, Steroid Phone has
a miniature QWERTY keyboard and handwriting recognition (which is
saying a lot since I can’t even recognize my own handwriting
half the time). I also bought an external, fold up, nearly full
size keyboard that connects via Bluetooth. As a writer who
travels a lot, this is ideal for situations when there’s not
time to boot up my laptop, but my mind is suddenly overwhelmed
with fleeting RTE's (random thought eruptions).
The problem was that I
couldn’t figure out how to use half the gadgets on Steroid Phone.
This is where Lauren Collier came to my rescue. She's the 21-year-old
AT&T employee who sold me the phone. She quickly impressed my
beautiful bride with her patience, and she needed a lot since
I'm a slow learner.
She immediately
impressed me because she has what Dave Ramsey calls “the heart
of a teacher”. I have little patience for customer service reps
who know their stuff, but talk in geek-speak no one else can comprehend.
She impressed both of
us with her enthusiasm, which was obviously sincere. The
first thing I usually suggest to people who want a raise is to get
excited about their job. When they tell me they can’t, my
response is, “Then how are you ever going to earn a raise?”
Lauren was truly as excited
as I was about me becoming the proud new owner of a Steroid Phone.
But what spoke loudest about Lauren was the tiniest thing she
did.
Steroid Phone came
with a $100 rebate. Without me asking, she completed the rebate
form for me, addressed the envelope, and even wrote my return
address on it.
I didn't ask whether
this is company policy, or just another shining example of
Lauren going the extra mile, because it
didn't matter. At that point, I was the only customer in the
world as far as she was concerned. And as far as I was
concerned, Lauren Collier was AT&T.
I explained what I do
for a living and that I am the author of a #1 National Best
seller titled
"How to Be the Employee Your Company Can’t Live
Without" (which has now become a best seller in Mexico,
South Korea, China, and Bulgaria, thank you very much). In that book, there are chapters and sections
titled:
"Treat Your Job Like It’s Your Lifelong Career, Even If It’s
Only a Stepping Stone"
"Act Like You Own the Place"
"Be a Professional at Whatever You Do"
"You Are an Extension of Your Company to the General Public"
and
"The Customer is Always Watching"
I informed Lauren
that I could have written those about her. She then informed me
that her boss, Michael Gilbert, had read the book, and even
suggested that Lauren read it.
Coincident?
I think not. All managers who achieve excellence have at least three things in common:
1. They are constantly
improving their own knowledge and skills.
2. They invest
in training their employees.
3. They attract
and retain the best people.
Just as toxic
behavior is contagious, so is excellence.
I’ll bet you my
Steroid Phone that Lauren will go as far as she wants to go in
her career. This won't be because she has special technical
skills. Those can be taught or bought. She’ll go far because she
has the attitude and work ethic that all the money in the world
can’t buy.
To Your
Success,
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