Read Case: "The Artful Dodger"

Janet had considerable difficulty developing the schedule for her nursing unit for the coming 2 weeks. The nursing department was in a marginal position overall as far as available nurses were concerned, so her flexibility was limited. To make matters worse, within an hour after Janet developed the new schedule, a part-time licensed practical nurse named Bonnie turned in a request for a personal day on one of the days she was scheduled to work.

The request caused Janet to realize that she had been seeing Bonnie's name in connection with scheduling difficulties often in recent months. Looking back over the preceding 6 months' schedules she discovered that the current request was the fifth time in 6 months that Bonnie had requested time off on a scheduled weekend day. Even more significant was the pattern of Bonnie's use of sick time. She had called in sick four times, all of these on Saturdays or Sundays. All in all, Bonnie had worked only about half of the weekend days she was scheduled to work over a period of 6 months.

Janet was displeased with Bonnie's attendance and unhappy with herself for not discovering the problem sooner. She believed she had to confront Bonnie about the problem, but she also believed her unit could ill afford to lose a nurse when replacements were so scarce. Nevertheless, she believed she could not allow Bonnie's attendance pattern to continue.

Questions

1. What are the hazards Janet faces in (1) dealing firmly with Bonnie's behavior and (2) ignoring Bonnie's absences and saying nothing?
2. Assuming Janet decides to confront Bonnie, how should she go about doing so?