Dive Brief:

• What should HR do if an employee consistently fails to show up for work, or even meetings? Be careful not to rush to judgment when it comes to discipline, according to an article from SHRM.
• A legal expert quoted by SHRM explains that before disciplining a worker for that sort of behavior, you need to ensure that the employee is not engaged in concerted activity protected by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
• The same expert cited a recent legal case involving a Facebook post in which an employee disparaged a manager about workplace issues and was fired for it. In this case and others, the NLRB found the worker had the benefit of protected activity by trying to improve working conditions. In short, when someone skips a meeting, get into the reasons why it happened (hostile boss, bullying co-worker, etc.) before taking action.

Dive Insight:

SHRM uses the example of employees who may not want to come to work or attend a meeting because they find a co-worker problematic for a variety of reasons. So looking into a person’s reason for not showing up to work, a meeting or for any specific work obligation may uncover that larger problem.

Bottom line, the article notes, effective HR professionals will uncover underlying reasons for that sort of workplace problem. If an employee fails to show up for meetings or work, investigate before jumping to conclusions.