Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How My Employer Put the “FML” in FMLA

the-toast.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 332 posts

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

#161

Post by Drakim »

sbarre wrote: post #82
Pxtl wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Important to note that these are government leave programs. A big problem in the USA is that it is expected that your employer handle this stuff. Here in Canada, the employment insurance system - a payroll-tax-funded program that handles short-term unemployment benefits - also handles parental leave. They offer 4 months for birth mothers and a an additional 8 months for any parent. The money is tiny - something like…

> "Punishing them for hiring women who want a family" is a curious way to put it. The reason that private companies should be expected to perhaps shoulder SOME of this "burden" (I disagree with your choice of wording there) is that we all live together in a goddamn society and there should be a part of everyone's effort (private individuals, businesses and the government) that goes towards the overall betterment of t…

In my opinion that's what taxes are supposed to be, not just for carrying the "burden" of children but ALL the "burdens" and "advantages" of being together in a society.

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

#162

Post by pcrh »

Osmium wrote: post #86
fennecfoxen wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm entering a short postdoctoral programme at the moment and my salary in the UK is about 1.7 times what I would expect in the states It sounds like you're working in academia, a sector which is under pressure from way too many people who would like to enter it. It's pretty likely you don't want to and won't get to work in the United States in this sector: the market is very saturated. For other positions in the U…

Thanks for the insight. I'm seriously considering leaving academia at the end of my current contract, but visa-wise it seems even more difficult to get a H1-B than an academic visa. But we shall see. Good luck with London if you make it! :)

H1-B visas are easy for academics to get (there isn't a cap on the number issued, unlike industry). While these H1-B visas cannot be transferred between academia and industry, they do allow you to start applying for residency.

The advantage of going to CA, and then leaving academia, would be better access to local employers, who often don't recruit abroad. You still face the visa problem, though.

In addition to the financial considerations mentioned above, most US employers don't make very large contributions to funding pensions (~5% "matching 401K" is considered generous), whereas the total contribution at UK universities is about 16% of salary.

If you do go abroad, don't forget to continue paying minimal national insurance contributions in the UK. This will help if you suddenly need expensive medical care, become unemployed, etc.

https://www.gov.uk/voluntary-national-insurance-contribution...

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

#163

Post by cdoxsey »

minimax wrote: post #39

At this point, the male students would nod and go on about their days, and the female grad students would stick around in an increasingly panicked state to ask about that whole saving annual and sick leave thing, since their contracts don’t include leave. I was 100% like the male students until fairly recently when my girlfriend and I started having serious conversations about having children. The conversation was so…

> In the US the only legal guarantee you get is that you can leave for 12 weeks unpaid and you'll probably still have a job when you get back.

(1) Most companies provide better benefits than what is legally required (2) The US has a robust and very expensive welfare system (3) Unlike something like cancer pregnancy is not an accident. If you can't afford to pay for children, don't have them.

FWIW most tech companies provide very generous benefits, though I'm pretty sure it's only possible because a lot of employees never take advantage of them. (Most programmers aren't having a dozen kids)

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

#164

Post by laichzeit0 »

CanSpice wrote: post #107
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…

Yeah sorry I wasn't clear, I meant stupid policies in general, like fixed working hours, set time for lunch breaks, not using printers for "personal use". Normal people wouldn't abuse thigs like these. Oh crap I need to print out a proof of payment. Shit I can't use the work printer because it's against policy. Fuck I have to waste my lunch break going to the post office. Another guy is printing out pages and pages of lecture notes for his kid. How do we solve this? Create a draconian policy like "NO printing for personal use". That's the typical knee jerk corporate reaction to managing the 10% of people that abuse things instead of having to deal with abusers on a case by case basis.

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

#165

Post by gnopgnip »

tgb wrote: post #18
LanceH wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Aren't they generally required to pay you for accrued leave or is even that not required?

In CA leave is vested, it has to be paid out. Not all states have this policy.

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

#168

Post by ChuckMcM »

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

As you probably have read, the historical reason for a limit on 'sick days' was abuse by people who were unhappy with their employer for one reason or another, that resulted in some employers simply firing people who go sick, and that lead to labor organizing itself in the form of unions and well you got sick leave as a thing [1].

I think it is generally a crutch used instead of good management (like mass surveillance is a crutch against better police work, and nuclear weapons are crutch against better diplomacy) but so far we know the 'no sick leave' state (pre-union organizing etc) and the 'fixed sick leave' state (what we have today). The new thing, 'don't work when you are sick or recovering' regardless of limits, is a bit too unbounded for most folks. And because of that lack of forecastability it makes forecasting productivity or work production very difficult. Anything that makes it harder on management has a fairly tough road ahead of it.

[1] http://www.unionplus.org/about/labor-unions/36-reasons-thank...

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

#169

Post by SeoxyS »

chaostheory wrote: post #117
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

> 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 This is the trade off we pay for lower taxes. (Yes certain states like NY and CA have higher tax rates, but they make up for it with more state benefits.)

Maternity and paid sick leave policies have very little to do with tax rates.

See the CA state budget here: http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/2014-15/Enacted/agencies.html

The big-ticket items are the things affecting tax rates, like 11B on corrections, or almost 50B on K-12 education, and another 50B on health care services.

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

#170

Post by M2Ys4U »

sosborn wrote: post #124
baldfat wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you say "Most" I assume you have worked 100% at places I haven't. HR and managers state in my cases, "If you don't have sick time you will not be paid and you may lose your position." Sick time starts after two or three months.

You should try to find more reasonable employers. Believe it not they do exist in the U.S.

It amazes me that people think this should be at the employers' discretion.
Post reply on HN