Long story short, I stepped into taking over my small family business this year.

Our business has delivery drivers in the morning shift.

Part of my job is managing them. Overall, we’ve struggled to find quality workers who stick over the years, but we do have 1 driver we’ve had for about 15 years.

The last few years he’s really declined in his work (and life- alocoholic with other problems going on). And now he calls off last minute quite often.

At first it started because his mom was sick with liver issues, which we knew was true.

Now there’s always an excuse with his mom, after she had recovered. The excuses always happen to be on Saturdays (we deliver saturdays). And they’re always worse than the last. They’re so extreme that I feel uncomfortable asking for a doctors note.

It’s happening 2 saturdays every month at this point, and that means I then have to do his route, which takes away from my actual job (sales, marketing, finance, operations).

I don’t want to be the guy to not believe his mom is actually sick, but she’s conveniently sick 2 saturdays every month.

The catch here is that he gets 15 days off a year because he’s been here so long, but he doesn’t ever schedule any days off in advance. It’s always a call off the morning of.

It is damaging our business though because on saturdays, we (myself and another employee) perform some important tasks.

Should I ask for a doctors note? Should I look for a new employee? What are the best options?

Edit: for example today’s call off was “my mom is having a seizure and bleeding from the nose and mouth, going to the hospital”