On leave, and productivity concerns

Q: I am the manager of a medical coding team. My coders are typically dependable and conscientious.  They all take a few breaks throughout the days because the work is very monotonous and repetitive. Over the summer, I had to be out because of an illness within my family. When I returned, I observed that the breaks were longer and there were more breaks than when I had left. There is more chitchat and hanging out in different areas. I reviewed a number of reports that our management team can analyze. It seems that our productivity dipped quite a bit when I was gone.  This is disappointing because I trust every one of them. I don’t want to aggressively monitor my employees, but this will not reflect well on me if this continues. Should I put them on warnings?  If I do, there will be about 10 warnings.  If our numbers don’t improve, I will have to do some explaining.  Can you help me?

A: I hope all is well with your family member.  Sometimes it is difficult to take a leave, and then resume working as if you had never been out in the first place.  There are some positives here. We know your team members are capable of performing in a productive way.  It sounds like you had observed this for a period of time before your leave.  You observed their productivity levels before you took your leave of absence. This information is helpful because it tells me that they are capable of returning to that level of performance.

I always recommend starting with a candid approach. If you have a regular meeting, you could share your observations. Your message might sound like this:

I am glad to be back! I appreciate all of your support while I was out, and since I have returned. I have to share some observations though.  For a year prior to my leave we were coding 18 patient records per day.  I reviewed several reports, and I discovered that we now code 14 records every day.  And our errors have increased.  When I returned, I observed that there seemed to be a few longer and maybe even more frequent breaks.  I am ok with the music in the background and reasonable breaks, but we need to be more watchful of our time and accuracy.  Does this make sense?

I would recommend that you share your observations, but it is also helpful to rely on more objective data, like your reports.  I think with you gone, the office had become more relaxed, and the 15-minute breaks may have evolved into 20-minute breaks, along with walking around the floor more than before. It is easy to slip into bad habits. It is better to share your concerns sooner rather than later. You don’t want the chattiness to continue and create a larger problem than it is right now.

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