Question on person working another job

[HR IN AL]

I have a employee who apparently is working another job at night and works for us during the day. We have lots of people that work other jobs. However, He made the comment to a Supervisor that he was so sleepy he could barely stay awake. My problem is he is a forklift driver. If he falls asleep on job, we could have someone hurt or himself. Has anyone ever had to deal with anything like this? There is nothing in our handbook about not working another job but if the other job is putting our employee and others around him in jeopardy, don't we have the right to discuss with him and tell him he has to make a decision because we can't put others in jeopardy? Any thoughts would be appreciated. I have never had this issue before.

[cnghr]

Personally, I think you have every right to talk to him about it if his ability to do his day job is compromised, particularly when it's an issue of safety.

We do have a policy in our handbook regarding outside employment, and one of the things stated in that policy is that they are not have an outside job that will "adversely affect the quality of work performed". I think having a policy like that makes it much easier when these kind of discussions are necessary.

We've had some situations arise with second jobs that compromised the employee's ability to do their job for us, although nothing that affected safety. In all of those cases, the employees were talked to about the affect of the second job on their performance or attendance and in every case, they wisely chose to quit the second job and keep their (better-paying, with benefits) jobs with us.

[Dasher]

HR Rule #1 -- deal with the performance. Sleepy on the job (especially for a forklift operator) is not acceptable and is cause for an intervention. Whether they are sleepy because of another job or a hot date -- the performance on the job is the issue at hand.

You probably already have a policy about poor performance.

[Holly Jones]

Absolutely agreed with Dasher. The issue isn't really whether the employee is working another job, staying out all night partying, or sitting up all night taking care of a sick pet, the issue is just that the employee doesn't appear ready to safely perform the job tasks.

Addressing the cause of the poor performance rather than the performance itself can lead to sticky policy situations down the road when other employees may wish and be able to engage in the same off-duty behavior without the negative effects on performance.

[NaeNae55]

Agree. Sleepiness is a performance and a safety issue. This is how it should be addressed.