Guidelines for calling in sick

[ritz]

Does your call or support center have guidelines for when employees need to call if they will not be into work on a particular day - for example, calling in sick. Do they need to call in by a specific time or a designated number of hours prior to their shift? If so, what are the guildelines? Are there any penalties for failing to call in by the specified time?

Our call center has proposed guidelines and I am curious to see if there are any standards in the industry.

Thank you!

[Please Hold]

The policy in our call center is to call at least 30 minutes *prior* to your shift starting. Agents are instructed to talk to a supervisor or manager as opposed to leaving a voice msg. If you have to leave a voice msg, leave a msg w/ all the shift supervisors. If you leave a voice message CSR's should call back and talk to someone in person. Generally sick agents call the day/night before their shift so there's time to obtain replacement CSRs if necessary. Thankfully our CSR's like coming to work, so our absentee rate is rather low (knock on wood).

If you're going to be late, we ask that you call---if possible.

I worked in another center that was substantially larger than the one I'm in now, and *ALL* agents needed to call a voicemail number indicating if they would be tardy, or absent for their entire shift <--this system was abused by quite a few people, since there was never anyone on the other end to give you a hard time about calling out :)

Please Hold!