I have noticed a very big problem in my industry - real estate. This goes for not only real estate agents but for mortgage brokers, processors, and some title companies. Many of these positions are commission based or per deal based income. There is an unexpected challenge that comes with working in this industry and having children. When you cannot work, there is no one to take over and get the job done because they do not want to work for your commission.
Here is the example that happens most often and just happened to me yesterday. We have been trying to reach Mr. Mortgage Broker for a week now. No return phone calls, no return emails. Our seller is near hysterical as her closing was supposed to be this week yet this person went AWOL and has not been into the office and is not getting back to us. The only person who has had very limited contact with him is the buyer's agent yet she cannot get him on the phone long enough to actually resolve anything and he is not calling her back (she has to call until he picks up the phone). I call the office and they tell me that there is no one else working on the file, all questions to the progress must be directed at him. Yet we can't find him. Finally, yesterday, I reach him. He says that he has been out of the office because his child was sick. He was trying to work from home as much as he could (obviously with a sick child). Now, I have a kid so I understand this senario well and I know what it is like. However, it seems to me that something really should be done within office dynamics to remedy things like this. We are severely pushed back in the seller's closing, nothing has been done on this loan for a week and it also happened to be the crucial week where conditions should have been gathered and sent, yet nothing has happened. This man is an independant contractor working on commission processing his own loan and no one else in the office has been working on this or helping out (I can only guess because they would just be helping for someone else's commission or the fact that its hard to jump into a deal in the middle of it and know what's going on).
This is obviously not the first time things like this happen, infact, there have been things delayed slightly because of my son being sick. I do, however, think that this guy was using this as a bit of an excuse to not do any work because the least he could have done was returned a call or email to let someone know what his situation was and not waited until a week later when he was returning to the office.
Either way, this is an issue here in this industry and I'm sure other similar industries. It's an issue with whether they miss work due to children or their own sickness or vacation or anything really. Without having someone to cover for you, it is impossible. Here at my office, we work in a team setting and there are people to cover so I am not completely lost if I have to miss work. My last job, however, even though there was "technically" someone to cover, they could not because of their own workload.
