A reader writes:
I handle a small crew of software program builders based mostly within the London workplace of a small-to-medium firm with places of work in a number of international locations. The office norms in every of our places of work are very totally different, with totally different ranges of PTO and differing expectations in firm tradition.
I work very carefully with a crew over within the U.S., and some weeks in the past took a few my crew members (Steve and Colin) over to our U.S. workplace for a week-long go to. That is a part of a “cultural trade” between places of work — I went over there the primary time simply earlier than the pandemic struck in 2020, they returned the go to earlier this 12 months, and we’ve now performed the reciprocal go to once more.
Because the supervisor of a crew, I attempt to be truthful about illness — if somebody says they’re too unwell to work, that’s not one thing I can contradict. I’ll solely dig deeper if I see a sample (e.g., each Monday after their crew performs soccer or one thing apparent like that). I’m additionally pretty relaxed in regards to the concept of “too unwell to come back into the workplace, however okay to work at home” — since all of us discovered about correctly about contagious diseases, I’m fairly more likely to take that possibility myself, however I wouldn’t ask somebody to try this until it was a fast “ship me your work up to now, so another person can end it” for a time-critical challenge.
Nonetheless, a state of affairs cropped up throughout this final journey to the U.S. that fully blindsided me. Considered one of my crew members (Steve) messaged me on the morning of day 4 saying he was “feeling unwell after yesterday,” didn’t sleep nicely, and wouldn’t be coming to the workplace that day. My preliminary response was “poor chap, really feel higher, hope to see you again within the workplace tomorrow.” Speaking to him the subsequent day, although, plainly all he was affected by was tiredness and some aches and pains — arguably symptomatic of a fever, however from his description, extra like jet lag had caught up with him.
On condition that the opposite crew member touring (Colin) and I had each been struggling the identical jet lag all week — Colin had been very vocal about getting virtually no sleep — listening to it described this fashion left me feeling a bit of puzzled.
I’ve performed a number of enterprise journey over time, and my expectations can be that somebody would solely name out sick throughout an organization journey in the event that they had been actually unable to work — I’m pondering vomiting and diarrhea or comparable. Tiredness and aches and pains would simply be par for the course, for me, and one thing you’d simply suck up (and possibly complain about within the workplace a bit). Mainly, until clearly contagious or bodily messy or comparable, I’d anticipate somebody to be at the very least making the trouble to get to the workplace throughout a piece journey.
I’d by no means actually thought of it earlier than, however basically it appears I’ve totally different requirements and expectations for “illness when in your regular working location” versus “illness when on a enterprise journey.”
First, is having totally different ranges of expectation like this affordable? Second, how ought to I’ve performed this to the crew within the U.S. workplace? I didn’t actually inform them a lot, simply “Steve is just too sick to work as we speak,” and possibly left them with the impression that he was loads sicker than it seems he truly was.
This was Steve’s first ever enterprise journey, so my temptation is to take a seat him down sooner or later and clarify the “totally different requirements” factor, and say that sooner or later, I’d anticipate him to make extra of an effort … however am I method off-base?
It’s good that you simply’re questioning this as a result of it’s trickier than it appears on the floor.
First, sure, I do assume there are totally different requirements for calling out sick whenever you’re on a enterprise journey. While you solely have a restricted time in a location you’ve traveled to for enterprise, you ought to make an actual effort to point out up for work on all the days you’re anticipated to. That doesn’t imply you’ll be able to’t take a sick day in case you want one — clearly sickness or harm can occur at any time, and in case you’re too sick to come back in (or contagious), you shouldn’t. But when it’s extra “I’m drained/jet lagged/simply really feel meh” … yeah, you’d typically suck that up and go in since you’re solely there for a restricted time, your organization has paid to ship you there for a purpose, and many others.
Nonetheless, we don’t truly know what was up with Steve. It’s undoubtedly attainable that your interpretation is appropriate — he was simply jet lagged — nevertheless it’s additionally attainable that he was sicker than you realized. Additionally, some well being circumstances are aggravated by exhaustion or jet lag, and it’s attainable that’s the case with him.
You’ll be able to’t actually know which of those it was with out asking … and the act of asking is extra prying than a supervisor ought to actually be doing. You’re higher off taking him at his phrase: he was too sick to come back in that day. Which additionally means (a) don’t sit him down after the actual fact and inform him he ought to have made extra of an effort and (b) your clarification to the U.S. crew (“Steve is just too sick to work as we speak”) was positive.
Nonetheless! What you can do is ready expectations for enterprise journeys forward of time sooner or later — particularly with junior-level workers or individuals who haven’t traveled for work earlier than (as was the case with Steve). Forward of the journey, you’ll be able to go over expectations about issues like how bills will work, any variations in cultural expectations between the places of work, and many others., and embrace the best way to deal with sick depart … which you possibly can body as “though you is likely to be drained from the time distinction, we ask that you simply make each effort to work all 5 days until you’re genuinely too sick to work — which after all does occur.”
A reader writes:
I handle a small crew of software program builders based mostly within the London workplace of a small-to-medium firm with places of work in a number of international locations. The office norms in every of our places of work are very totally different, with totally different ranges of PTO and differing expectations in firm tradition.
I work very carefully with a crew over within the U.S., and some weeks in the past took a few my crew members (Steve and Colin) over to our U.S. workplace for a week-long go to. That is a part of a “cultural trade” between places of work — I went over there the primary time simply earlier than the pandemic struck in 2020, they returned the go to earlier this 12 months, and we’ve now performed the reciprocal go to once more.
Because the supervisor of a crew, I attempt to be truthful about illness — if somebody says they’re too unwell to work, that’s not one thing I can contradict. I’ll solely dig deeper if I see a sample (e.g., each Monday after their crew performs soccer or one thing apparent like that). I’m additionally pretty relaxed in regards to the concept of “too unwell to come back into the workplace, however okay to work at home” — since all of us discovered about correctly about contagious diseases, I’m fairly more likely to take that possibility myself, however I wouldn’t ask somebody to try this until it was a fast “ship me your work up to now, so another person can end it” for a time-critical challenge.
Nonetheless, a state of affairs cropped up throughout this final journey to the U.S. that fully blindsided me. Considered one of my crew members (Steve) messaged me on the morning of day 4 saying he was “feeling unwell after yesterday,” didn’t sleep nicely, and wouldn’t be coming to the workplace that day. My preliminary response was “poor chap, really feel higher, hope to see you again within the workplace tomorrow.” Speaking to him the subsequent day, although, plainly all he was affected by was tiredness and some aches and pains — arguably symptomatic of a fever, however from his description, extra like jet lag had caught up with him.
On condition that the opposite crew member touring (Colin) and I had each been struggling the identical jet lag all week — Colin had been very vocal about getting virtually no sleep — listening to it described this fashion left me feeling a bit of puzzled.
I’ve performed a number of enterprise journey over time, and my expectations can be that somebody would solely name out sick throughout an organization journey in the event that they had been actually unable to work — I’m pondering vomiting and diarrhea or comparable. Tiredness and aches and pains would simply be par for the course, for me, and one thing you’d simply suck up (and possibly complain about within the workplace a bit). Mainly, until clearly contagious or bodily messy or comparable, I’d anticipate somebody to be at the very least making the trouble to get to the workplace throughout a piece journey.
I’d by no means actually thought of it earlier than, however basically it appears I’ve totally different requirements and expectations for “illness when in your regular working location” versus “illness when on a enterprise journey.”
First, is having totally different ranges of expectation like this affordable? Second, how ought to I’ve performed this to the crew within the U.S. workplace? I didn’t actually inform them a lot, simply “Steve is just too sick to work as we speak,” and possibly left them with the impression that he was loads sicker than it seems he truly was.
This was Steve’s first ever enterprise journey, so my temptation is to take a seat him down sooner or later and clarify the “totally different requirements” factor, and say that sooner or later, I’d anticipate him to make extra of an effort … however am I method off-base?
It’s good that you simply’re questioning this as a result of it’s trickier than it appears on the floor.
First, sure, I do assume there are totally different requirements for calling out sick whenever you’re on a enterprise journey. While you solely have a restricted time in a location you’ve traveled to for enterprise, you ought to make an actual effort to point out up for work on all the days you’re anticipated to. That doesn’t imply you’ll be able to’t take a sick day in case you want one — clearly sickness or harm can occur at any time, and in case you’re too sick to come back in (or contagious), you shouldn’t. But when it’s extra “I’m drained/jet lagged/simply really feel meh” … yeah, you’d typically suck that up and go in since you’re solely there for a restricted time, your organization has paid to ship you there for a purpose, and many others.
Nonetheless, we don’t truly know what was up with Steve. It’s undoubtedly attainable that your interpretation is appropriate — he was simply jet lagged — nevertheless it’s additionally attainable that he was sicker than you realized. Additionally, some well being circumstances are aggravated by exhaustion or jet lag, and it’s attainable that’s the case with him.
You’ll be able to’t actually know which of those it was with out asking … and the act of asking is extra prying than a supervisor ought to actually be doing. You’re higher off taking him at his phrase: he was too sick to come back in that day. Which additionally means (a) don’t sit him down after the actual fact and inform him he ought to have made extra of an effort and (b) your clarification to the U.S. crew (“Steve is just too sick to work as we speak”) was positive.
Nonetheless! What you can do is ready expectations for enterprise journeys forward of time sooner or later — particularly with junior-level workers or individuals who haven’t traveled for work earlier than (as was the case with Steve). Forward of the journey, you’ll be able to go over expectations about issues like how bills will work, any variations in cultural expectations between the places of work, and many others., and embrace the best way to deal with sick depart … which you possibly can body as “though you is likely to be drained from the time distinction, we ask that you simply make each effort to work all 5 days until you’re genuinely too sick to work — which after all does occur.”