When a small business owner called into Dave Ramsey‘s “EntreLeadership” podcast recently, she didn't talk about marketing, sales, or profits—she asked for help dealing with something more personal: what to do when too many employees are out for weeks at a time due to illness or family emergencies.
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Ramsey: ‘Grace Can Only Go As Far As the Math Allows’
With nine employees and around $700,000 in annual revenue, the specialty retail and race timing business owner told Ramsey she’s struggling with multiple extended employee absences.
“It’d be one thing if it were one person, but it’s multiple,” the owner said. “And I’m just a small retail store.”
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Ramsey, who has run businesses of all sizes, told her, “At your size, you can only absorb so much of it in the name of grace. And then you can’t continue to absorb it all because you won’t have the money to pay the people that are there because the work’s not getting done.”
He sympathized with her desire to be kind and flexible, but said the numbers don't lie. “My grace can only go as far as the math allows it.”
Ramsey explained that in his own company, they sometimes pay employees out on extended medical leave, but that luxury comes with scale. “When I was your size, I couldn’t do that. I didn’t have the money to do that.”
The small business owner clarified that her team members aren't lazy. “None of them I would look at and go, ‘Oh, you’re slacking.'”
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Still, Ramsey didn't pull punches. “Corporate America will fire their butt with no feelings,” he said. “At least you got feelings.”
“Welcome to leadership. Sometimes it’s hard… because small business people like you and me, we care about folks, we don’t just cut their throat,” Ramsey noted.
He recommended setting a clear policy: allow three weeks of PTO, and then no more than one month unpaid. Beyond that, the position likely needs to be filled.
“You’re just never here, so we probably ought to call it out loud and say that,” he said. “I feel bad for you, but I also can’t go on not getting this work done.”
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Ramsey said leaders can make exceptions when they feel truly called to support someone long-term, but added, “That’s a rare exception.”
His closing reminder: “The good of the whole outweighs the good of the one. When you can’t afford to do it, you can’t afford to do it. That's not evil, it’s just the stage of business you’re at. I’d like to tell you it gets easier. It gets more complicated, is all it gets from here.”
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