How My Employer Put the “FML” in FMLA • Hacker News Board

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

#101

Post by masklinn » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 4:45 PM UTC

michaelochurch wrote: post #31

gambiting wrote: post #20

It's completely insane that US doesn't have unlimited sick leave like EU does. It's just backwards and ridiculous - if someone is ill, then they are ill, what if they don't have any sick leave left? You fire them? I literally can't stomach this. When I was little I always thought I would emigrate to the States to work - now I would pay not to go.

Outside of the Valley and New York, where there's less competition for talent, there are many companies that deduct sick days from vacation. This allows them to say that they offer 15 days (which, by US standards, is about average) of "PTO" in recruiting when it's actually less. When companies pull that shit, you see people getting a lot sicker, because people come into the office when they should be staying home. Th…

> Outside of the Valley and New York, where there's less competition for talent, there are many companies that deduct sick days from vacation.

That's a brand new level of fucked up behavior, holy hell.

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

#102

Post by jnsaff2 » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 4:46 PM UTC

darkstar999 wrote: post #53

jnsaff2 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Estonia has 78 weeks of paid Maternity OR Paternity leave, parents can choose which one stays home and gets to take care of the baby.

What? That's ridiculous. Does the employer pay or is it government assistance?

State pays, there is an upper limit which to my recollection is somewhere between two and three times the average salary in Estonia.

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

#103

Post by sarah2079 » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 4:52 PM UTC

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

Another thing that makes it even worse is having health insurance that is tied to your employment. So if you get cancer and can't manage to keep your time off to less than 12 weeks plus your accrued sick days then you can be fired and lose not only your income, but your health insurance as well. It is an unbelievably awful system.

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

#104

Post by munificent » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 4:54 PM UTC

jonathanwallace wrote: post #74

maerF0x0 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Compared to countries with free health care, yes.

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

#105

Post by MrZongle2 » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 4:56 PM UTC

minimax wrote: post #14

cafard wrote: post #7

There should a name and shame on this one. What is the university, and what does it think it is doing?

This is a systemic problem here in the US. It would be counterproductive to try and single out one actor when the issue needs to be address comprehensively.

I disagree. Naming the bad actor would hopefully shame them into changing their policy.... which in turn would put other unnamed bad actors on notice and encourage further naming and shaming by individuals working for them.

If you want to move the earth, starting a landslide is a lot easier than strip-mining.

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

#106

Post by sarah2079 » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 4:56 PM UTC

jonathanwallace wrote: post #74

maerF0x0 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I am self employed and buy my own insurance in CA and it is about $1000/month for two adults and one child for a silver plan through covered CA. This is for medical only, so not too far off the estimate.

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

#107

Post by CanSpice » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 4:56 PM UTC

laichzeit0 wrote: post #91

My boss once told me "90% of the ridiculous policies are in place to prevent the 10% that abuse it". It's a sad shame, but there are people that really abuse sick leave and the rest of us have to pay for it. In South Africa all employees are entitled to AT LEAST 4 consecutive months of maternity leave, up to 1 month prior to giving birth, or earlier if a doctor says so. You're also required by law not to return to wo…

I'm not sure how you would go about getting pregnant just to "abuse the system". "I know, I'll get pregnant, go through nine months of hormonal and physical changes that'll mess with my body in crazy ways I didn't know existed, go through a major medical procedure, and then keep another living being alive while going through even more hormonal and physical changes just so I can get some paid time off work."

Your boss is crazy.

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

#108

Post by thrwy10 » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 4:56 PM UTC

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…

Spot on, you couldn't have put it better. Especially X and Y for H4 dependant spouses.

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

#109

Post by serve_yay » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 4:57 PM UTC

It seems crazy to me to have children in this country, you're always a broken limb or car accident away from absolute catastrophe. And by comparison I'm doing a lot better than most of my fellow countrymen, so if anyone should want to reproduce it should be people like me. But we have made the prospect rather unappealing.

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

#110

Post by gknoy » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 4:57 PM UTC

at-fates-hands wrote: post #92

Is this the difference between working in academia and working at a large corporation? Most of the large companies I worked for had 12 weeks paid vacation and then you could do an additional 12 weeks which wasn't paid for the primary care giver. Otherwise, as a non-primary, you still got 2 weeks paid. Also, I remember several female sales people abusing the system pretty well. They'd get within a month or so of their…

As a father, I spent an astounding amount of time in the first month of my kids' lives caring for them, and then also caring for my wife.

If the father is going to spend 12 weeks with the newborn and the new mother, you can bet your ass that they're likely not sitting around playing CoD or watching TV. I basically did everything except for breastfeeding, and it was freaking exhausting.

Non-parents have no idea how lucky they are to be able to have a spouse that has slept more than an hour a night for the past month.