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June 2012 Moms
Brandyjean30
member
UPDATE: Job more stress than it's worth
Brandyjean30
member
First I just want to say thank you so much to everyone who responded. I did end up calling my HR. After I had calmed down I decided I wasn't going to throw my boss under the bus and "tattle tale" about him being a d!ck unless I had to to get my voice heard. Thankfully it didn't come to that entirely, but I did find out he lied to me about the amount of maternity leave I was going to get and I made sure HR knew.
To recap he said I could only have 6 weeks after we had already verbally agreed that I would get 12 weeks. We had even scheduled May 19th as my last day and August 20th as my return date. Well when I called my HR I found out I get the 6 to 8 weeks that my doctor clears me to have, and in the middle of that I become eligible for my FMLA and that would give me another 12 weeks. So technically I could have between 18 and 20 weeks off if I wanted to. Knowing how flakey my manager can be I found out exactly what forms needed to be filed and by what date.
When I got of the phone he came over to my desk and asked exactly why I felt the need to call HR (its a small office, theres really no place to have a personal conversation). I told him that I wanted to talk to someone directly about my leave because he didn't seem like he knew for sure what was going on. I then handed him a copy of my notes from the phone call and told him exactly what I was told during the conversation and let him know that while I was entitled to 18 weeks I would still stick to the plan and return on August 20th. He then responds by saying "Good. If you took the full 18 I would find someone to replace you". So needless to say I'm documenting ever comment out of his mouth and will be calling HR today on my lunch or somewhere private to let them know whats being said. I'm sorry but the little comments felt petty to complain about...but threatening with my job for taking the leave that I'm ENTITLED to isn't going to fly. Wish me luck ladies.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: UPDATE: Job more stress than it's worth
I have definitely started to consider this one. DH mentioned me going to work for him and his dad in the office (they own a fire sprinkler instillation company). If the construction industry wasn't so hit or miss right now I would.
Normally I think this is the case, but because I'm not eligible for FMLA until June 20th I get whatever leave my doctor gives me and then the FMLA starts giving me 12 weeks from 6/20 added to the 4 to 6 weeks I have before I was eligible. At least thats how HR explained it to me. I don't think I get any paid leave though.
You just made me LOL. My coworkers and I have joked about recording his shenanigans for HR to see because he can be so outrageous. What kills me is that he has MS so anytime he says something inappropriate and gets called out on it he says his MS made him do it. I really am beginning to wonder if he isn't butt hurt that I get 3 months off to have a baby and he doesn't get anything special for his MS.
I agree with this. I'm not exactly sure how it works since you're going out before you're eligible for FMLA. But, usually disability is part of the 12 weeks.
I was given bad information by an HR person with DD. If I were you I would try to get everything in writing from HR, so you don't have a problem with your boss when you're coming back.
Hmm I will have to check into this or see if they can fax me something in writing. I'm not so much worried about the extended leave because I don't plan to use it. So I guess I'll just get something in writing saying that with my doctors permission I will get May 20th through August 20th off. Thanks for the advice. I guess I just expected HR to know their stuff.
Now I'm definitely lost and thinking maybe my HR person misled me a little. She said they have to give me whatever my doctor writes me for (FMLA active or not), and then as soon as my FMLA is active I get 12 weeks from that date and my job is secure. So in my situation my doctor writes a note saying I'm allowed to leave May 20th and then my FMLA is active June 20th so my leave is secured the whole time weather through FMLA or my doctors note. I'll definitely get something in writing because this is all sounding a little screwy now. Like I had mentioned in my original post I don't know ANYTHING about all this HR stuff and I want to be sure I'm not screwing myself up. Thank you for this post!
It is possible they might give you more. I'm also pretty confused about everything as well, but when I talked to my HR person, my company was willing to give me about 4 months total between doctors notes, acts, their leave, etc. I'm just taking the 12 weeks for political reasons (and it's paid, so I don't want to take unpaid time off), but technically I could have taken more. So your company might be generous with how they dole out the time off.
I basically told my HR person I want 12 weeks from the day Baby is born (working up until labor)-what do I fill out? She gave me the paperwork and I'm trusting that it's all correct.
Running Blog
I'm not sure where you are getting your information, but I have been a HR Generalist for 11 years as well as have a degree in HR and FMLA allows for 12 weeks of unpaid time off "for the birth and care of a newborn child of the employee" (taken from the DOL's website). This includes time to "bond" with the baby, not just the period of disability. The period of disability would technically fall under a "serious health condition", but the care of the newborn would fall under the "birth and care of a newborn child of the employee". In Washington State, we actually do have an additional law that allows time off for the period of disability that is IN ADDITION to FMLA, so in my case I actually can take up to 20 weeks or more and be guaranteed my job back...but since OP is not in Washington, that would not apply...so I digress.
OP, I think you were given correct information by your HR department. The requirement to be eligible for FMLA is that you have worked for the company for 12 months and that you have worked 1250 hours in the past 12 months. Because you will have been employed with the company for 12 months on June 20th, your FMLA entitlement would begin as of June 20th. But, because now I'm curious I'm contacting the Society for Human Resources Management to confirm. I will post when I get the answer.
The answer I got is "Yes, employees out on other types of leave will "roll" into eligibility for FMLA and FMLA will then begin." Here is the link with the information : https://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=9e1f1114d20345665f43d41b4c8e00bd&rgn=div5&view=text&node=29:3.1.1.3.54&idno=29#29:3.1.1.3.54.1.489.10
But, I've gone ahead and pulled out the paragraph that applies:
"(d) The determination of whether an employee has worked for the employer for at least 1,250 hours in the past 12 months and has been employed by the employer for a total of at least 12 months must be made as of the date the FMLA leave is to start. An employee may be on ?non-FMLA leave? at the time he or she meets the eligibility requirements, and in that event, any portion of the leave taken for an FMLA-qualifying reason after the employee meets the eligibility requirement would be ?FMLA leave.? ( See ?825.300(b) for rules governing the content of the eligibility notice given to employees.)"
So yes, you are entitled to 12 weeks of FMLA as of June 12th, in addition to the time off you have before then as long as you are still an employee of the company and the company is covered under FMLA.
ETA: Sorry, you'd be eligible as of June 20th, not the 12th.
This is actually not true. Most disability plans used to give 8 weeks for c-section, but not any more. 6 weeks for all birth types is becoming fairly standard now. Your doctor can try to get you more time, but your company's disability plan has to approve it.
MS doesn't make people say stupid things. Stupidity makes people say stupid things. Your boss is a moron
I'm just a bump lurker (due in August), but kudos to you for calling HR!!!!
I had a similar situation yesterday.... My workplace is VERY understaffed right now, and therefore I do a lot of physical tasks that normally wouldn't be my responsibility if we hadn't terminated/transferred all of our lower-level staff. Because I'm taking on this extra work, I also rarely get a lunch and sometimes work up to 11 hrs/day without no breaks. It sucks and it's starting to get physically more difficult.
My OB told me this needed to stop - I either needed a support staff that is adequate to do all of the 'grunt work' and allow me to do the job I was hired to do, or I need to work no more than 9 hrs/day with a 1-hr break mid-day. I went to my supervisor, and he gave me a sob story about why we can't get any help, vague promises of future assistance, and then PULLED my colleague from our office for the next few weeks (stating "now you'll have more support staff to yourself")... thus creating more work for me. He also told me that I shouldn't submit the hours restriction doctor's note, because it could be declared unreasonable which would force me to start using FMLA NOW.
That all seemed like threats and punishment to me, so I called HR. The HR rep was clearly pissed at my boss, and sent me a form to have my doctor fill out... she told me to have her include ALL the restrictions on there (both the physical activities I'm unable to do and the restrictions on work hours) because all of those recommendations were clearly just common sense. She said apparently my supervisor isn't going to respect them, so we need to have them documented for my legal protection. I love my HR rep
Funny how our supervisors can be such jerks, but HR still tries to help us out. Makes you wonder how they can even both work for the same company??
I COULD KISS YOU RIGHT NOW!
thank you for sharing this and for going out of your way to find it for me!
Yesterday was another weird day with him and I started talking to my assistant manager about my frustrations and found out she has been actually documenting everything he's done to me (and everyone else) preparing to go to HR. She said I was more than welcome to call myself because she was going to as well.
I think everything is going to work out and who knows maybe when I come back from mat leave he wont be the General Manager anymore
lol here's hoping.
Thanks again to all of you wonderful ladies for your support!
It's really nice to know that we have someone on our side. I was really starting to feel distraught (sp) and between my assistant manager and HR I'm feeling like this non sense doesn't have to go unheard. I really hope that everything works out for you!!!!!