Late Clerk, Overloaded Colleague and an Admission Rush
You are the office superintendent of a private junior college in Guwahati. It is the third week of the July admission season. The office has five staff: a head assistant, two clerks, a typist and a peon. Rekha, the clerk who receives fees and processes scholarship forms, has been late 11 times in the last 30 working days, usually by 25–40 minutes, though she often stays until 6 p.m. to clear pending receipts. Junmoni, the second clerk, has told you she is doing both data entry and parent enquiries and has stopped taking lunch. The typist begins 15 days' leave next week. A parent has written that a fee receipt took four days. You have also heard from a reliable colleague that Rekha is preparing for a state government examination. The principal has asked you to 'sort out discipline' before the new session.
1. How do you investigate the situation before taking any disciplinary or roster action?
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Investigate before you label. Three things need separating: punctuality, output, and cause. Check the attendance register and fee-receipt timestamps to confirm the 11 late arrivals and the four-day receipt delay - are they the same days? Ask the head assistant whether Rekha's late arrivals coincide with an early counter rush that Junmoni covers. Speak to Rekha privately, not in front of the office, and ask an open question: what is making the morning difficult? Do not mention the examination rumour; it is unverified and irrelevant unless it affects work.
At the same time, map the workload: count fee receipts, scholarship forms and parent enquiries per person per day for one week. If Junmoni is skipping lunch, that is a supervision failure you own. Also check whether the four-day delay came from Rekha's absence from the counter or from a missing signature upstream. Only after this do you decide whether the issue is conduct, workload, or both - the remedy differs, and a premature warning would destroy the trust you need for the admission peak.
2. Set out an immediate roster and workload plan for the next three weeks.
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Publish a counter roster. Rekha handles fees from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Junmoni handles parent enquiries and data entry in the morning and joins the counter in the afternoon; the head assistant signs receipts when either is away. Move scholarship form collection to a separate window with a token system, because mixing it with fee collection creates the queue. Bring the peon into simple filing and dispatch so the typist's leave does not fall entirely on the clerks. Set a same-day receipt rule: a receipt is issued when cash is received, and the day's collection is tallied and signed before closing. For the typist's leave, prepare standard templates and a pending-letters list now. Give Junmoni a written task list with priorities, not just more work. Review after one week using actual queue lengths and receipt counts.
3. What do you say to Rekha about punctuality, and how do you document it?
Read the worked answer
Open with the standard, not the person: 'Office hours are 9:30 and the fee counter opens at 10. I need to understand what is happening in the mornings.' State the impact - parents waiting, Junmoni covering alone, the four-day complaint. Then listen. If the cause is transport or a family matter, consider a time-bound adjustment with the principal's approval, such as a 10 a.m. start compensated by a shorter lunch, but only if counter coverage is protected. If the cause is preparation for another examination, say clearly that study is supported but cannot be done at the cost of the counter. Set a written expectation: no more than two late arrivals in the next 30 days, with a follow-up date. Record the conversation in a file note with date and agreed actions; do not put it in a public register or humiliate her. If the pattern continues, escalate to the principal with the record. Do not threaten discipline before you have removed the workload cause.