The approach the supervisor took is called the "carrot-and-stick" approach to management. She had the "stick," but what about the "carrot?"

There are two types of absenteeism and both require different treatments. First, there is work-abuse issue absenteeism and secondly there is work-life issue absenteeism. In general, work-abuse issues include people who have poor work ethics and work-life issues include people who should be considered for some type of work hour flexibility.

Part of the reason for the increase of absenteeism is because our lives have become more complicated. In the work force today, we have a growing population of working mothers, single parents, parents who are taking care of their parents and so forth.

You can reap many benefits by focusing on the needs of working parents. A survey by Flexible Resources of more than 500 women seeking flexible work arrangements found that 64 percent of them either quit or were planning to quit because of lack of work hour flexibility.

What was alarming was that 59 percent of these women never asked their employers to modify their work schedules because they assumed they would be denied or lose stature.

Younger women are more assertive in seeking flexible work arrangements than older women; 72 percent of women between the age of 25 and 35 were willing to request flexible work hours compared with only 30 percent of the respondents who were women ages 36 to 45.

Of those who requested a flexible work arrangement and were told "no," they were given the following reasons:

* We can't give it to you and not the others, 52 percent;
* You will not be available to others, 48 percent;
* We have never done it before, 24 percent;
* You won't be as productive as when you worked full time, 8 percent;
* Your job is not conducive to flexible hours, 5 percent;
* There is too much work to do, 5 percent; and
* It wouldn't fit into a team atmosphere, 5 percent.

Work-abuse absenteeism requires a totally different treatment strategy. There are some innovative approaches that have improved attendance. For example, one company reduced absenteeism by 74 percent by using approaches such as "Attendance Lotto" and "Attendance Poker."

Nucor Steel has a pay-by-performance system that has kept absenteeism at record lows and productivity levels at exceptional highs.

A physician friend of mine used to say, "Treating a patient with a prescription without first understanding the illness is called malpractice." So treating absenteeism with a carrot-and-stick approach maybe the worst approach to take. Begin first by asking "why?" Find the root cause and then treat accordingly.

Gregory P. Smith leads the management consulting firm called Chart Your Course in Conyers, Ga. He can be reached via e-mail at (greg@chartcourse.com).