Team Leads / Operations Managers: Need Advice on a Chronic Attendance Issue
Looking for opinions from fellow TLs, OMs, and people managers.
I have an agent who has a long-standing pattern of attendance issues: absences almost every month, frequent tardiness, and recurring reasons related to illness. To be fair, most of the time he submits valid medical certificates. During a previous triad session with the OM, he openly admitted that his attendance problem is already behavioral and that he understands the consequences of his actions.
The challenge is that our OM is very focused on controlling attrition, so termination is something management would rather avoid if possible.
This agent was transferred to my team about two months ago from another team where his attendance record was already poor. Unfortunately, there was little to no documentation from the previous leadership. When he joined my team, I gave him a month to adjust and avoided immediately escalating the issue. However, I consistently reminded him about attendance expectations, conducted coaching sessions, and documented follow-ups.
Recently, he informed me he would only work a half day because his alarm didn’t go off. To me, that’s no longer an uncontrollable circumstance but a preventable issue.
Now here’s where it gets more complicated: he sent me a chat message claiming that I’m okay with other agents being late and that I don’t correct them. This is simply not true. I’ve been strict with attendance across the board and regularly coach and follow up with team members when attendance concerns arise.
I don’t want to get into an argument or emotional back-and-forth with him. At this point, I’m trying to determine the best leadership approach while balancing fairness, accountability, and attrition concerns.
Questions:
How would you handle this situation?
At what point do you stop treating attendance as a coaching issue and start treating it as a performance/accountability issue?
How do you deal with an employee who deflects responsibility by claiming unfair treatment?
If attrition is a concern, what alternatives have worked for you before moving toward termination?
Would appreciate insights from anyone who has dealt with similar cases.