While hiring counselors to open our new offices, I’m often asked what our Collegewise policy is on sick and personal days. Here’s how I explained it to a new counselor (who happens to run marathons):
“We don’t have a set number of sick or personal days. If you’re sick, don’t come in. If you have to get your car fixed in the morning, go get your car fixed. If you’ve just run another marathon and can’t physically stay standing up, lie back down and come to work the next day.”
We hire smart people who want to work hard and do a good job. We expect them to do both of those things. In return, we trust them enough to treat them like adults. In thirteen years, we’ve had very few instances where someone abused that system. It’s much easier to start with trust and address the anomalies individually.
When you start by trusting your employees, co-workers, students, or customers, that trust is now theirs to lose. The few who won’t work to keep it probably never would have worked to earn it. But the rest will appreciate and remember how you chose to start the relationship.