Darkened Software

Had a situation recently were someone at work needed to leave early and someone else had to pick up their bug.  The person picking up the bug complained that he was taking over a bug just so someone could go off and do something they deemed unimportant.  This does point out a common mistake in reasoning that employers and other people make.

You have to ask yourself:

If someone needs to leave early one day a week to go LARP’ing is it any different than someone else leaving early to drive his kid to Chemotherapy treatment?

In both cases them being able to leave early makes the employee happy which I suggest you do any time you can because if they have any loyalty at all they will then help the company out when it needs it the most.  And that time will come.  As a lead do not let people ever bitch about why other people are not at work.  It really should be a “don’t ask don’t tell situation” and people should never feel pressured to explain or come up with excuses as to why they need to leave.

Now in the case when it is not just an occasional event:

As an employer you really do not care if someone chronically leaves work early to donate time at a hospital or drink themselves to death while raving.  The end effect in either case is they might not be getting enough work done for you to be on your payroll.  In the chronically missing in action case the reason for is does become a little important.  If you think the reason is fixable you can decide if they are worth trying to wait it out.

I really dislike the double standards at a lot of these work places, some people can send out an email every day about how they are leaving early to take their kid to some event and no one thinks twice about it.  But if some 18 year old sent out an email ever day about leaving early to skateboard at the park before the sun goes down they would be on probation in a hell of a hurry.