When and how much do I need to tell my employer about my intended weight loss surgery?

Thanks for your response, Julie. I'll have time to figure out the exact wording, but I won't be doing any more explaining than is absolutely necessary.

Alison

If your company offers short term disability, you will have to provide the company who provides it some information.  They have to know what type of surgery to determine if it qualifies for you to get paid for your time off.

My short term disability covered me for my Band surgery, but not for my reconstructive surgeries, so I used vacation time for those.

As others have said, you only need to tell your employer that you will be out for surgery.

If you have been employed for less than a year, I don't think that they are REQUIRED to hold your job for you.  I thing that FMLA job protection kicks in after 1 year of employment.

Thank you for your suggestion to look into short-term disability. I hadn't considered that option.

Alison

Alison, in my case I had to be out at least 6 consecutive work days to qualify for STD.

Then, I worked with the third party provider....they contacted my surgeon and determined that my surgery qualified for coverage.

All they told my employer was that I was having a covered medical procedure (no details).

While on leave, I was not ALLOWED to work (I was being paid to be sick).  I was not allowed to check emails or attend calls .... Kinda nice!

i had to get the doctor to release me back to work .... He told the STD company that I was released, they called my employer and I started back to work.

I was going to use vacation time, but started to worry how I would handle that if there were complications.

So I called HR and told them I was planning to have surgery while on vacation.

My HR rep did not want to know any details ... And she strongly suggested the STD.  She said, "remember all those years you have gotten great reviews, but crappy raises????  We have great benefits and you should take advantage of them"

I'll second the recommendation to tie into STD. It was easy. Also, no information shared with my employer about the nature of my surgery; it was only on documentation for the STD claim. I was out physically for 6 weeks, but returned working remotely 2 weeks early. I was glad for it - it gave me the chance to get my eating figures out without nosy coworkers asking why I was eating purées.

good luck!

Thanks for your reply. I've downloaded and saved my employer's ST disability information and there's a lot to read! 

I don't believe your under any obligation to provide more than a doctors note if you are claiming sick leave.

I don't work at a big office, and I told everyone. They are my biggest encouragement. They are all so happy to see the old shaped me changing, and are being as supportive as they can. For me it's been great! 

I get it though that others don't feel this way.

Thank you for your reply. I'm only telling a few people at this point as nothing has been submitted yet for approval (I'm still jumping through the many hoops).

Alison

My letter for work said "Surgery" .. nothing else.  It was up to me whether or not I wanted to disclose more.

Thank you, Valerie. BTW, I printed your recipes (thanks for those, too). I'm months away from surgery, but trying to learn as much as I can in the meantime.

Alison