The Essential Guide to Family & Medical Leave

186 | the essential guide to family and medical leave
orders and returns to be put off until the following day, if necessary. And, Leticia asks
two of the company’s summer interns to take over the customer satisfaction surveys
until Jody returns from leave. By making these minor adjustments, Leticia ensures
that her short-handed team will still be able to get its work done.
• Hire a temporary replacement. Whenever coworkers won’t be able to take
on the employee’s job duties—maybe they’re too busy or don’t have the
necessary skills—it’s time to look outside the company. Just make sure
that any temp you hire understands that the job is for a very limited
time; otherwise, you might be faced with a legal claim when the time
comes to let the temp go.
• Hire a consultant. If you need to replace someone who does highly
creative or technical projects, consider hiring an outside consultant: an
independent contractor who specializes in particular types of work. If the
work is specialized and really can’t wait, it might be worth the expense
to hire a pro for specific tasks like rolling out a new computer system or
designing new company branding or collateral.
• Outsource the work. It sometimes makes sense to hire an outside company
to do an employee’s work—for example, if no one in-house has the skills
but an outside agency offers the same service.
Example: Sanjiv works in the bookkeeping department and spends a week each
month processing payroll. The rest of his time he collects accounts receivable. Sanjiv
plans to take ten weeks of FMLA leave when his daughter is born. Although his
coworkers can pick up his accounts receivable work, only his manager, Brenda, knows
how to do the payroll. Unfortunately, Brenda will be preparing the company for an
audit while Sanjiv is out and won’t have any time to devote to handling the payroll.
Brenda decides to use an outside payroll service while Sanjiv is out. It costs significantly
less than hiring a replacement or training another employee to do the payroll.
And, Brenda knows that the outside service knows how to handle deductions, withholdings,
and other wage adjustments, which assures her that the company won’t
run afoul of wage and hour or tax laws while Sanjiv is out.