Getting time off work for this PRIVATE procedure

Grim,

An employer cannot legally take any action against an employee for not sharing their private medical details.

Most people want to keep their WLS private. Which is very understandable given the ignorance of many toward WLS.

HIPPA does apply to all medical insurance companies and medical facilities. And the laws have gotten stricter.

If someone chose to keep their WLS private I would deeply respect that. If anything I would have compassion for them.....I would certainly not ever even consider that a mark against their reputation.

To put it mildly...I think it is beyond ridiculous to even infer that there is any loss of integrity for someone to try to keep their private medical history private.

Personally, one of the main true reasons I will choose to keep my medical history private ...is that I fear that some ignoramus will open their mouth and I will beat them to death. :-)

Correct. I never said that an employer is legally allowed to take action against an employee for keeping medical information private. What I said was that employers can, and do, take action against employees that knowingly lie to them, for whatever reason. Keeping something private and lying about it are not the same thing.

And yes, I also said that HIPAA applies to those in the medical field. For most of us who work for employers in non medical fields, those employers are not bound by HIPAA. Karen in HR might be a very nice woman. But if she is processing your WLS insurance paperwork, she is not bound by HIPAA. There have been lawsuits, and they all say the same thing.

I'm not saying that will happen to you. I'm just saying it HAS happened.

No where did I say that someone could not, or should not, keep their medical information private. I actually said you CAN.

But I am absolutely saying that misleading people about weight loss surgery is lying. And when they find out, or even just guess, the liar's integrity will certainly suffer.

Look, saying you had a hernia fixed when you had weight loss surgery is a lie. It doesnt matter that you had WLS and a hernia fixed. You didn't lose 100 pounds because of the hernia.

Telling people you lost, and kept off 100 pounds with diet and exercise, after having WLS, is just a big old lie. Certainly the diet and exercise was necessary, but the WLS was the key. A lie of omission is still a lie. We all teach our children that. And people will figure it out, or just guess, and that's what will bite you on the ass.

Someone can own a yacht, a mansion, and a Rolls Royce with a hot tub in it. When people ask him how he did it, he tells them he worked really hard and saved his money. And he could be the hardest working, most penny pinching greeter in the history of Wal-Mart, there isn't any way in this world he could afford those things. It was the 500 million dollar lottery he won that really did it. Telling other Wal-Mart greeters hard work and saving, while they are struggling and in debt, is just going to make them feel helpless and inferior. It's a lie, plain and simple.

You have one valid point in that people (depending upon how much you have to lose) will notice your weight-loss. However, your comments about people who choose/chose to keep their WLS private as possible ....and labeling them as low-integrity liars.....is more of a reflection of who you are. My hope is that others *****ad your opinion take it with a grain of salt.

I hope that other people will pay more attention to what Grim actually wrote, instead of misinterpreting it as you seem to be choosing to.

There is, as he has stated, a big difference between "keeping WLS private" and lying about it.

".....A lie of omission is still a lie...."

"...I am absolutely saying that misleading people about weight loss surgery is lying. And when they find out, or even just guess, the liar's integrity will certainly suffer."....

It's always fun to take individual clauses out of context!

I have several valid points. That you choose to disregard the others is just fine with me. Really.

To sum up my position: keep anything you want private, private. Tell people:

1. "Sorry, that's private, personal information." And say no more.
2. Say nothing at all.
3. Say "I had weight loss surgery." And either discuss it in whatever detail you want, or say you will not discuss it further.

Any of those is fine.

I'm not against telling a lie. About 50 percent of the time someone asks "Do these pants make my butt look big?" I lie to them. But there are lies, and there are lies. By all means, choose your own lies. I do.

Well said, Grim.

I've had a few surgeries over the years, while working for companies in the U.S. and Europe. All I told my employer was that I was having surgery, not what kind. I have never had anyone ask what kind of surgery. There are a lot of types of surgery besides WLS that could be embarassing to talk about (e.g. issues with the reproductive organs, hemorrhoids). Or it could be exploratory surgery where they're not sure what's wrong, and the patient isn't ready to discuss it. In my experience, people tend not to tell their employer what type of surgery they're having.

Your surgeon or the hospital can give you a note confirming that you need time off for medical leave. They won't go into specifics about the type of procedure you had.

So, assuming you are in the US, you don't have to say what kind of surgery. You just need to say, I'm having surgery and my surgeon says I need to be out Tues-Fri and WFH the following week. I will be able to return full time to the office on date X. You may need to bring a doctor's note to that effect. Your boss cannot ask what the surgery is (unless you happen to work in the HR department where the FMLA forms would go and then your boss would know, but is precluded from saying anything to anyone, including you, about the type of surgery.)

I told my office I was having an abdominal procedure, would be out Tuesday and Wednesday, off Thursday and would WFH Friday. I did. I returned to my desk on Monday. (I'm only in the office Mon. and Wed. - I WFH the other days.)

When people saw I was losing weight or commented on my diet, I said I was on a medically supervised nutrition plan and left it at that. If they looked for more I told them about the high protein no carb lifestyle I live and as soon as I mentioned no bread, sugar, pasta or alcohol, they went running.