Denying Leave can cause emotional distress – Granting Leave can hamper project deliveries! What to do?

By: Gireesh Sharma
Date: September 9th, 2008

I read an interesting case study in Human Capital magazine that was titled ‘hey! I put in my papers!”. The case study was about a brilliant engineer joining a big brand employer and leaving the organization within 2 years with dejected feelings. Among many unfortunate things that happened to this engineer, the most prominent was related to one of the most common problems in the organizations – employee leave and absenteeism. This engineer needed 1 months leave to prepare for his entrance exam to a business management school. Instead of being straight forward, he asked a leave on pretext of being ill. When he reported back, he was asked lots of explanations and was asked to report to HR. Whatever happened left him and others hurt . This incident prompted him to seek opportunities outside the organization. Lastly, he left – at a hefty 60% financial growth to one of the competitor. Who lost – individual or the organization? Read the rest of this entry »