Job abandonment occurs whenever an employee simply disappears from work without gaining advanced permission. Put simply, the person goes AWOL (i.e., ‘‘absent without leave’’), and you’re left wondering what to do. Can you terminate the person outright? Doyou have to give written notice and time for the employee to respond?

Understand that there is no law that requires you to act a certain
way in response to an employee’s abandonment of his job. What you do is a matter of company policy and past practice. Although you have a fair amount of discretion in handling such matters, you should err on the side of caution: Pulling the plug on workers who act irresponsibly may feel good, but it’s not necessarily the optimal way to respond. After all, your reputation as a fair employer may be at stake.

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It’s best to provide AWOL employees with written notification that they will be terminated if they don’t respond by a specific date. Here’s how it works: Many companies have policies that define job abandonment as unapproved time away from work for three consecutive days. Let’s assume you don’t hear from an employee on Monday —a simple no-call, no-show. You’d probably call that employee at home and leave a message on the home answering machine stating your concern. (Of course, when enforcing policies of this sort, you must be sensitive to human health concerns. There is always a possibility that the employee was in an accident or may be hospitalized and unable to communicate with you.)

By Tuesday afternoon, you’ll make a second phone call. In this message, inform the employee that you’ll be sending an overnight FedEx or Airborne letter to the individual’s home (see Appendix U for a sample letter) for a Wednesday arrival. Your voice mail message should state that if she doesn’t report to work or at least call by Wednesday afternoon, you’ll assume that she’s abandoned her job. You’ll process her termination accordingly.

What if the employee’s home phone number is no longer in order? Send the letter anyway. Ditto if the letter comes back undeliverable. It’s the employee’s responsibility to keep you informed of address and phone number changes. If an employee fails to do that, it further demonstrates the employee’s irresponsibility. Process the termination onWednesday. The termination date should beWednesday; most states will permit you to pay the employee only through the last day worked. In this case, you would pay the individual only through the previous Friday.

Taken From : The Hiring and Firing Quention and Answer Book