Should this woman have been fired (details)?

It appears that the company could legally do this because the Federal Medical Leave Act didn’t apply to the company she worked for.

Is it too bad? Sure. Do I feel bad for her? Sure. However, the company did not act illegally here.

I didn’t get to read the post as it was taking forever to come up and I have the attention span of a gnat. But I can see both sides. Two weeks ago I had to take a half a day off because my airconditioner quit working and it was the only time the repairman could come. Now I’m off because I have the flu. Nothing I can do about either situation. But the company has resonable expectations that a person is as their desk, performing their job so no one else has to pick up the extra work caused by excessive time off.

Yeah, it’s a bad situation, and you can’t do much about it.

If only the Family Medical leave Act had applied, her job might have been saved.

One of the benefits I had as a police officer, was medical/sick leave. It could be used for a situation, just like this.

One of the problems with this benefit is abuse. I do not know the reasons why this woman used all her time away from her job, but surely her employer would have given her time off, for the transplant, IF past abuse, by her, had not been apparent.

She needs to consult an attorney.

Sometimes a company is to small to afford someone that can’t work consistently. A big company can afford it, but a smaller company has a harder time. I wouldn’t be able to afford 1 person gone from my business for weeks at a time, adjusting and then hiring hem back. Not that I font have compassion, but if my customers and I have 1 weak link the entire business suffers and my customers are likely to go elsewhere.

Awww, what a horrible situation. Yeah, I think the company had the right to let her go. Certainly if they have an opening when all of these things are over with they could take her back, or offer to give her a good recommendation. I wonder if she can collect unemployment?

Regardless of legality under the law, the company’s firing was immoral. Assuming she has been a contributing member of the team, they should have cut her some slack, given her time without pay, hired a temp, etc, etc. I’m a small employer and have had a similar situation, although not this bad.

On the other hand, maybe she has not been a contributor and this was a reason to get rid of her. I would go along with that.

We don’t know all the details to the “string of bad things” so it hard to judge

While we might not know all the other facts here even if it’s not an abuse it’s a low blow for her. Common .. 2 deaths in the family, another finds out he has leukemia and then her son gets the final one with his failing kidneys. One rule… be a human being and understand the one near you then judge them.

@pezz Actually, we do. Her mother passed away, then her father was diagnosed with leukemia, and then her uncle passed away, and then her son’s kidneys failed, all within the span of a year. And I think @plethora has it right – legally doesn’t mean it’s the moral thing to do. What’s she supposed to do, go to work but let her son die? I think if they had been there for her now, she would have been there for them in the future, especially if something similar happened to another coworker or a boss. We all tend to have that year where just everything horrible happens, and it’s good to remember that if you weren’t there for someone when those things were happening to them, they might not be there for you when your turn comes around, and wouldn’t you like people to be there for you when you need them?

I think the FMLA needs to be amended to apply in some way to small businesses.

@Aethelflaed YIKES!!! I have a small business and the last thing I want is the federal govt more involved than they already are.

I would think that perhaps the local news might want to bring this to the public’s attention.

One suggestion could be to have a government program that pays for times like these, so it does not come out of the company. Similar to maternity leave in many European countries. But, I am sure no one is going to go for another government program right now. I do hope she could be eligible for unemployment though.

I agree with @plethora the company could have gotten a temp if they liked her work. I’m thinking they had had enough of her, and just let her go.

I don’t think we can make it the employers responsibility to have to deal with an employees difficult circumstances. Sure they can be accommodating as long as it does not effect business greatly. I actually am very put off by how rigid some employers are. I thinker should be open to variable work schedules, working from home, and other ideas to create flexibility in the work place. But, business is business.

We might all look at the employer and think they should have more empathy, but I also look at the employee and think, I hope you have been saving for a rainy day. If she makes very little money it might be hard to save, I have sympathy for that. A person who is very young would not have worked long enough to save up for a break in employment. But, a middle class 40 year old should have a little stash of cash to carry them through a few months of unemployment.

@JLeslie Yeah, I think there are certain problems, like that in this economy it’s rarely a few months of employment, especially if you got fired from your last job. Once you loose a job, it can be hard to get another one.

@Aethelflaed She is not really fired. Assuming she was a good employee the employer would give her a recommendation. Even 10 years ago when the economy was better and jobs were easier to come by people were not saving for a rainy day. If they had been, during the bad economy and high unemployment, they would not be freaking out so much. So, I am back to Americans don’t save enough in general. There is a group of Americans who do save, and then another huge group that not only don’t save, but live in debt.

I’m really torn here because, whilst I sympathise with her if these bad things happened, I would be a complete hypocrit right now if I claimed to be 100% on this woman’s side. You see, there is a girl that I work with who always has an excuse to have time off work, to the point where she hasn’t done a full week since last year. The company has turned a blind eye to this as her excuses have always been very sensitive and, quite frankly, I think they are scared that if they question it she will take them to court. However, it has turned into a “boy who cried wolf” situation and, because who constant absences have a negative affect on the rest of the team (urgent work not being completed, promises to customers not being kept etc) it has caused some resentment.

I’m not saying this is the same situation but my experiences with my colleague have made me a little less trusting of people that are constantly off work. I also agree with @Judi that smaller companies can’t afford to have staff constantly away from work.