Episode 387 - Absent on Purpose

you've seen this before. You've got someone on the team who always seems to have a mysterious illness or personal emergency the moment something inconvenient hits the schedule, an extra shift, a big event, a scorching hot day, and they vanish again and again. So let's be clear. This is not about the occasional sick day or family emergency. We're talking about a pattern, and patterns reveal priorities. So let's get into that. This isn't a scheduling problem. It's a trust problem.

When someone calls off to avoid tough work, they're not just skipping a shift, they're breaking trust. Your team is counting on each other to show up, especially when things get hard, and when one person keeps opting out of the hard stuff. The message is loud and clear. I'm only here when it's easy. So leaders, listen up. Your culture gets built around the behaviors you allow. If you let this slide, you're not just enabling one person, You're

showing everyone else that reliability is optional. And here is what this does to the team, and who suffers the most. The people who do show up, the ones sweating it out, the ones working doubles, the ones who feel the weight of being dependable, and someone else plays hide and seek with accountability. What happens next is incredibly predictable. Resentment builds, morale drops, team cohesion breaks down. You can't lead a

high performance team with cracks like that. Here's the leadership challenge. Stop hoping and start acting. Hope is not a leadership strategy. You can't hope they get better. You have to address the issues. So here's what you do. Step one. Call out the pattern, not the person. When you sit down with this employee, keep the emotion out of it. Say something like, I've noticed a pattern where you've called off every time there's an extra event or when extreme weather

is expected. It's becoming hard for your team. To count on you. I want to understand what's going on. You're not accusing, you're observing, you're not punishing, You're looking for answers, but you're also being firm. Step two set the expectation. Make it crystal clear. Reliability is a non negotiable. We all have to step up when things get tough. That's the deal. We need to be able to trust that when the team needs you, you'll be there. Right now that trust is not there, what are you going to

do to rebuild it? This puts the responsibility back where it belongs on them. Step three write it down. If this isn't the first conversation, document it. Patterns need paper trails. Protect yourself and your team by making it formal. If the behavior doesn't change, a conversation is a start, but accountability needs to be written. Step four. Reinforce the standard with the team. When without naming names, remind your team that every person is counted on to show up when

things get tough. Let them know you see their hard work. Let them know that it's valued. But also make it clear every player on this team carries weight. If someone's always dodging the load, they're either going to fix it, or they're going to find themselves off the team. So loyalty is built in the trenches. Trust doesn't come from shared coffee breaks. It comes from shared leadership, from stepping into the mess together and knowing the person next to

you won't run when it gets uncomfortable. So here's the big takeaway from this episode. You don't have a team unless every member of your team knows how to carry their endo the rope. And if someone keeps letting go of their rope, they're not part of the team. Their aliability. Leaders don't just manage schedules, they protect the integrity team. So don't look the other way, address it, set the standard,

and lead with backbone. This has been the seven minute Leadership podcast and I thank you for listening.