Would you be willing to put any and all of your employees in front of an important customer and allow them to have a conversation? If your answer is ‘no way,’ that’s an unfortunate statement about some of your people. It would be good to think about that.

Being absent affects achievement in workplaces at all levels, just as it did for Claudia Williams in her high school math class.

Stephanie Kennedy is the vice president of human resources at Wagman Inc.