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How My Employer Put the “FML” in FMLA

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Re: How My Employer Put the “FML” in FMLA

#71

Post by LanceH »

earlz wrote: post #26
LanceH wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or bank any leave at all. My current employer wipes vacation days on Jan 1.

This. Also, flexible sick days(ie, "unlimited").. it works out nice for when you get the flu or whatever and don't have to worry about how many sick days you burn, but a major event like this doesn't really apply and you'll end up needing to burn vacation days or take unpaid leave to recover, not to mention wanting any bonding time

My last two places were like this. I can't say I was happy about changing, but I can say I priced it into the equation.

Re: How My Employer Put the “FML” in FMLA

#72

Post by dragonwriter »

shawabawa3 wrote: post #24

I find the whole notion of "sick days" and accruing them bizarre. What happens if you're sick but don't have enough sick days saved? Are you fired? Stop getting payed? For comparison, this is how sick leave works in the uk: https://www.gov.uk/taking-sick-leave And I don't want to even get in to how fucked up it is to have to save up years of vacation days to take some time off when you have a baby

> What happens if you're sick but don't have enough sick days saved? Are you fired? Stop getting payed?

You stop getting paid by your regular employer. Depending on the exact nature and effect of your illness and work situation, you may be eligible for a limited duration of legally-guaranteed job-protected unpaid leave (either federal FMLA or state-level protected leaves which may be more generous), during some of which you may receive disability compensation payments which are less than your regular salary.

When you exhaust the guaranteed job-protected leave, you can be fired.

Re: How My Employer Put the “FML” in FMLA

#73

Post by markkanof »

atonse wrote: post #4

Few things make my blood boil more than people that robotically say things like "It's the policy" with the kind of compassion and empathy that a robot would show, and then go about their business without a care in the world.

Agreed. However, in this situation, it would be in tight competition with the HR person saying "You're changing your story!". Absolutely disgusting. Is this a discussion with an employer or an interrogation of a criminal.

Re: How My Employer Put the “FML” in FMLA

#74

Post by jonathanwallace »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #48
PeterisP wrote: post #8

Pretty much every country in the world, both 'first-world' and poor countries, has it better than USA in this regard. Let this serve as a warning for young (age-with-a-potential-to-have-a-family) people who might be tempted to relocate to California - you have to ask for a significant premium in salary, since even in good companies (the OP lists multiple items where her job is considered 'above average') you're simpl…

Learned this the hard way. My rough math is this for SF: 1.5xCurrent Salary -- Because everything is expensive here + $10k / marginal tax rate -- for relocation and flights home + 500/month forEach dependent spouse -- Medical Dental Vision + 250/month for each child dependent -- Medical Dental Vision + X -- to replace spouses's Salary because they cant work + Y / marginal tax rate -- spending money to keep spouse san…

Is insurance much more expensive in California?

Re: How My Employer Put the “FML” in FMLA

#75

Post by omurphyevans »

ep103 wrote: post #38
atonse wrote: post #4

Few things make my blood boil more than people that robotically say things like "It's the policy" with the kind of compassion and empathy that a robot would show, and then go about their business without a care in the world.

This is what edmund burke meant when he said "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing," and Arendt meant when she coined the term "The banality of evil." But I always thought it was put best by some blogger I read years ago. They said that in the fantasy or religious worlds, evil is something that just exists so corporeally that it might as well be a noun. An evil rock is evil b…

Just a tiny nitpick - Arendt was a woman - Hannah Arendt to be more precise.

Re: How My Employer Put the “FML” in FMLA

#76

Post by boothead »

michaelochurch wrote: post #25

The takeaway from all of this: employers in the U.S. do not care about mothers of young children at all, unless we’re consumers of their products. It might be more accurate to say that they view us as horrible useless burdens who need to be ushered back to full-time work as swiftly as possible. They will do anything in their power to keep employees from exercising their federally guaranteed rights to twelve weeks of…

You couldn't make this shit up! Except someone already has:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/

It would be a funny film if its central premise wasn't so terrifying!

Re: How My Employer Put the “FML” in FMLA

#77

Post by michaelochurch »

scrollaway wrote: post #42
michaelochurch wrote: post #25

The takeaway from all of this: employers in the U.S. do not care about mothers of young children at all, unless we’re consumers of their products. It might be more accurate to say that they view us as horrible useless burdens who need to be ushered back to full-time work as swiftly as possible. They will do anything in their power to keep employees from exercising their federally guaranteed rights to twelve weeks of…

https://xkcd.com/603/ You guys need education, not eugenics.

I'm not saying that anyone should be prohibited from reproducing. I'm saying that we should encourage (or, at least, avoid discouraging) thoughtful and intelligent people, through economic means, to have children if they want to do so, and not to wait until they're in their mid-40s and have their careers worked out, but might be infertile. I know intelligent people who don't want to have any kids, and I know smart people who want to have 4 or 5 kids. The latter set should be able to do so without having to either (a) make $1 million per year or (b) have a cousin who works at a top college and who can "fix" admissions to schools.

Also, this isn't about some classist fear. I'm arguing that we should help intelligent people in the working and middle classes. (The rich don't need any help.) The problem is that, even when you control for social class, fertility and IQ seem to be negatively correlated.

Even if you take genes out of the picture, it's still the case that thoughtless, stupid people make bad parents. Even if there's no adverse differential in genetics, there's still the risk of one in culture.

Re: How My Employer Put the “FML” in FMLA

#78

Post by gadders »

onion2k wrote: post #52

Mothers in the UK get a full year of maternity leave at 90% pay for the first 6 weeks and then about $200/week after. You can elect to return to work earlier (although you have to take at least 2 weeks). You can start the maternity leave up to 11 weeks before the due date. And the UK isn't even particularly progressive about this sort of thing. Norwegians get 13 months at 80% pay followed by up to a year unpaid. In S…

It can go up in the UK depending on your employer. IIRC my wife got 6 months on full pay and then 6 months on the statutory (government) maternity pay.

Re: How My Employer Put the “FML” in FMLA

#79

Post by mariuso »

benihana wrote: post #41
ceejayoz wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BnDi8KlIIAA750F.png US provides zero weeks paid maternity leave. Pakistan provides 12. Venezuela manages 18. Canada does 50. Per Wikipedia, the US joins Papua New Guinea, Suriname, and Liberia as the only countries to not provide paid parental leave of any kind.

Who pays for it? The State or the employer?

In Norway you get 49 weeks with 100% pay covered by the state (up to $80k), or 59 weeks with 80%. For those who earn more than $80k, most employers pay the rest.

Re: How My Employer Put the “FML” in FMLA

#80

Post by AtmaScout »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #48
PeterisP wrote: post #8

Pretty much every country in the world, both 'first-world' and poor countries, has it better than USA in this regard. Let this serve as a warning for young (age-with-a-potential-to-have-a-family) people who might be tempted to relocate to California - you have to ask for a significant premium in salary, since even in good companies (the OP lists multiple items where her job is considered 'above average') you're simpl…

Learned this the hard way. My rough math is this for SF: 1.5xCurrent Salary -- Because everything is expensive here + $10k / marginal tax rate -- for relocation and flights home + 500/month forEach dependent spouse -- Medical Dental Vision + 250/month for each child dependent -- Medical Dental Vision + X -- to replace spouses's Salary because they cant work + Y / marginal tax rate -- spending money to keep spouse san…

That is a nice breakdown. Thanks for posting it.
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