The HR for Health support team fields some wild questions, so we know you’ve got HR drama. Some of the HR gray areas we hear about can be handled with better people management, and some are potentially expensive compliance red flags. Sometimes they’re both. Either way, the tea in our Trigger Warning newsletter is always piping hot. Here are some of the latest questions readers like you have asked.
Hear from Sharyn Weiss, founder of Weiss Practice Enhancement: a practice management firm for dentists who want actionable, easy-to-implement guidance to enhance their systems and leadership. HR for Health’s very own Sarah McCormick, HR Support Lead at HR for Health, weighs in with guidance from the legal compliance side. Together, we’ll help you get your practice on track.
Caught Playing Candy Crush on the Clock! Now What?
Reader Question: We let employees keep phones at their desks in case a child or caregiver needs to reach them. But I recently found one employee playing a game on her phone. When I asked, she said she was just bored. Can I send her home? And how do I implement a stricter cell phone policy?
Sharyn Weiss: There’s two issues at play here: the misuse of cell phones and a bored employee. For a cell phone policy, simply request employees stash phones in their lockers to retrieve during breaks and lunch. If there’s an emergency, employees can be reached through the practice number – as we did in the “olden days” before cell phones became a 5th appendage.
But frankly, this isn’t the real problem. Apparently, you have an employee who’s so detached from the practice’s needs she can’t think of anything to do. Suspending someone as punishment won’t inspire her, plus it generates a parent/child dynamic. You want an adult/adult relationship with employees.
Before you have a candid conversation with her, let’s check the following:
- Is it possible you’re overstaffed and this person legitimately has nothing to do?
- Does this person have a clear job description which includes how she should help her colleagues when her primary tasks are completed?
When you meet, begin with curiosity questions.
Hey bored employee, how do you genuinely feel about your role here?
What do you do here that makes a difference?
What do you imagine your team members think when they see you playing on your phone while they’re busy working?
What do you think you could/should be doing to help them if you’ve completed your immediate tasks?
And finally, the big daddy questions:
If you were me and an employee told you they were on their phone because they were bored, how would you perceive that employee? What would you say and do with that person?
Sarah McCormick: Before you overhaul your phone policy, document the behavior. A team member openly playing games on the job, and citing boredom, is a performance issue, not just a policy violation.
Use this as an opportunity to revisit their job description, reset expectations, and log the incident formally. With HR for Health, you can document this conversation, track whether improvement happens, and reflect it in their next performance review.
And yes, if you choose to implement a stricter cell phone policy, you should create a written policy and can distribute it for acknowledgement within our platform.
No Lunch, No Problem. Right?
Reader Question: One of my hygienists wants to skip lunch to finish notes. If they volunteer, can I allow it?
Sharyn Weiss: If you have a motivated employee who prefers working over personal time, you clearly have a conscientious employee! These days, when it’s difficult to get applicants to simply show up for job interviews, it may seem like you’ve won the employee lottery. I could understand the impulse to give your hygienist a grateful, giant thumbs up.
You can guess there’s a “Yeah, but” coming.
If employees consistently need to use personal time in order to catch up, then this signals that you have an inefficient or overloaded system somewhere. So before patting your employee on the back, ask some investigative questions. Not to pass judgment, but to truly learn. Ask:
Hygienist, I truly appreciate this generous offer, but you deserve to have time to rest and eat.
Could you tell me what’s getting in the way of getting your notes done between patients?
What do you think you or our office should do differently so you would have time for lunch?
One reason you should be wary about this offer is that it can create a problem that will emerge down the road, or it may mask a current issue. For example:
- Your hungry hygienist may ask to leave early or come late since she now works through lunch. That means work hours are now negotiable, both for them and everyone else.
- If your other hygienists can fit their admin work into the day, what is different about this hygienist’s approach? Is there a performance issue you need to look at?
- Will “working lunches” lead to overtime wages? What are the payroll implications?
- Can an employee be as competent with the 4:00 p.m. patient when they haven’t eaten since breakfast? As healthcare providers, is this consistent with your philosophy?
One way to avoid all of this is to block a 20-30 min period for administrative time. Usually linked to lunch, this is the dedicated time when everyone concentrates on paperwork, prepares for the next day’s huddle, and engages in quick meetings. Admin time is wonderful, but it does mean adjusting and potentially losing patient hours, so dentists can be reluctant to try this.
Ultimately, you’ll need to determine if working through lunch indicates a systems or staffing issue or if it’s a temporary response to an unusual day.
But do remember that the saying “there’s no free lunch” can apply to you!
Sarah McCormick: It might feel harmless to let someone power through lunch, especially when they’re slammed and trying to help the practice. But meal breaks aren’t optional productivity perks. They’re legal requirements in many states.
From an HR standpoint, this is where “they volunteered” doesn’t protect you. States like California require a compliant, uninterrupted 30-minute meal period at specific times of the day, and in most cases, it can’t be waived. If an employee works through lunch, even by choice, you’re still on the hook.
And it doesn’t stop there.
Missed meal periods can trigger premium pay penalties, often paid directly to the employee for every noncompliant shift. Add in potential missed rest break violations, and those penalties stack up quickly, especially with higher hourly roles like hygienists.
There’s also the overtime issue. If they stay clocked in and work through lunch, those extra minutes can push them into daily or weekly overtime without you realizing it.
Bottom line: employees must be fully relieved of all duties during their meal period. No charting. No answering phones. No “quick” tasks.
Good intentions don’t cancel compliance risk, and skipped lunches are one of the fastest ways small habits turn into expensive problems.
Can I Salvage Morale from the Wreckage of Turnover?
Reader Question: “A lot of employees are leaving, some by choice, some not. How do I keep morale up when everyone’s talking and tensions are rising?”
Sharyn Weiss: Imagine you and five others are in a small boat, when, suddenly, you notice water is pooling in the bottom. Soon, the water spreads to reach everyone’s feet. But no one wants to openly acknowledge the danger because it might lead to panic. Instead, you secretly use your foot to nudge towels to cover the hole, hoping this will disguise the problem and prevent further leaking.
Let’s apply this metaphor to your situation. The practice is “leaking” employees.
The dramatic turnover is understandably generating fear and tension. Your impulse is to ask employees not to dwell on this situation because it’s affecting morale. But this is like putting a towel over a growing leak. You DO have a morale problem, and if you don’t acknowledge it, the team will simply choose to have difficult conversations when you’re not in the room. This will make you part of the morale problem instead of a support person they can trust.
Describe the reality of what’s happening with compassion:
We are in a challenging period, team. Many of us, including me, feel upset, anxious and frustrated. We need to support one another as we adapt to losing colleagues. But we also need to continue to serve our patients. They also deserve our care. When times are tough, we need heroes the most. So, I am asking for your help in suggesting ways we can support one another through this tough time without compromising patient care.
Whether you say this to the team or to individuals, ask each person what you specifically can do to help them get through this. Position yourself as an accessible, caring center of support.
Sarah McCormick: When turnover is high, silence breeds fear. The more you try to avoid the conversation, the more control you lose over the narrative, and the faster morale declines.
Start with transparency, just like Sharyn recommends. But don’t stop at what’s happening, talk about why, what comes next, and how the team will be supported.
That’s where your HR systems can work in your favor. Use pulse surveys or one-on-one check-ins to proactively identify morale dips early. Document employee feedback, track themes, and then act on what you’re seeing. With HR for Health, you can also make sure the performance review process supports team stability, not surprises.
And if certain departures were due to performance issues, you can gently reinforce that message: the goal is a strong, unified team. That sometimes means hard decisions, but always in service of a healthier workplace.
Get Clear Answers to Your Trickiest HR Gray Areas
What do you think? Is that how you would have handled those situations in your practice? Between HR for Health’s experience-backed compliance recs and Sharyn Weiss’s dental leadership expertise, the Trigger Warning newsletter gives you the tools you need to make better practice management decisions. And drama. There’s always plenty of HR drama when people problems crop up.
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