Soldato
Just looking to get some other thoughts and input on this situation as I have absolutely no experience in the matter, either professionally or personally!
I'm an employer and one of our guys is expecting on 10th October. We're only a small team of 7 so we've been really flexible with scans, classes, etc, and haven't asked him to set a pat leave date (which is supposed to be decided on the 15th week of pregnancy, with 28 days notice to alter it).
His job is on-location, so requires travel and working away. This work is client-facing, so isn't easily cancelled or rescheduled; certainly not at cost to us, and potentially losing a client because of the disruption. When he isn't on location (ie no active jobs) he takes up a secondary role in the office that's below his experience/salary.
We have a job this Sunday with an overnight stay on the Saturday as it's 4 hours away. It's a 3 person job and we've got another 2 off on holiday but him and his wife are concerned he'll miss the birth. The holidays and job has been booked in for at least 2/3 months.
We would obviously feel terrible if he misses the birth of his child but what are we supposed to do? He also dropped something along the lines of "if the work was local then obviously it'd be easier as I could just leave". Trouble is even that is incredibly disruptive; the job would have taken months to organise and we'd have to start from scratch. Best case scenario is we would lose £2000-3000, worst case scenario is we would lose the client and the whole cost of the project.
Obviously this situation is much easier with office workers and the like where a client wouldn't even know if you left at lunch, but how does this work in such an on location/client facing role? How can we be "kind" over what could be the next 3/4 weeks without putting our business into jeopardy and losing income? Do people just literally get up and leave work whatever they're doing when they get the call?
I'm an employer and one of our guys is expecting on 10th October. We're only a small team of 7 so we've been really flexible with scans, classes, etc, and haven't asked him to set a pat leave date (which is supposed to be decided on the 15th week of pregnancy, with 28 days notice to alter it).
His job is on-location, so requires travel and working away. This work is client-facing, so isn't easily cancelled or rescheduled; certainly not at cost to us, and potentially losing a client because of the disruption. When he isn't on location (ie no active jobs) he takes up a secondary role in the office that's below his experience/salary.
We have a job this Sunday with an overnight stay on the Saturday as it's 4 hours away. It's a 3 person job and we've got another 2 off on holiday but him and his wife are concerned he'll miss the birth. The holidays and job has been booked in for at least 2/3 months.
We would obviously feel terrible if he misses the birth of his child but what are we supposed to do? He also dropped something along the lines of "if the work was local then obviously it'd be easier as I could just leave". Trouble is even that is incredibly disruptive; the job would have taken months to organise and we'd have to start from scratch. Best case scenario is we would lose £2000-3000, worst case scenario is we would lose the client and the whole cost of the project.
Obviously this situation is much easier with office workers and the like where a client wouldn't even know if you left at lunch, but how does this work in such an on location/client facing role? How can we be "kind" over what could be the next 3/4 weeks without putting our business into jeopardy and losing income? Do people just literally get up and leave work whatever they're doing when they get the call?
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