Dealing with Public Service Health Care Pre-Surgery

Hi Everyone,

I'm at the point where I'm waiting for the call for a surgery date. I've met with the surgeon already and am good to go...almost.

My question is for anyone working in the federal government, what do you have to do prior to your surgery? I'm assuming I'll be off for 2 to 3 weeks (hopefully not longer as it's only a desk job), but do I need to notify HR, contact Sun Life, what is the process on that regard before surgery?

Obviously I'll let my director know I will be having surgery on XX date and will likely be off for 3 weeks, but what else might I have to do?

Thanks everyone, and I'm very much looking forward to this and will probably be much more active on this in the coming weeks.

I'm not in the government, but I let my boss know that I would be taking medical leave. He referred me to HR, and they had me fill out some paperwork for FMLA and set everything up with payroll.

If in doubt, check in with HR!

If your job requires any critical thinking, take as long as you can. I recommend 4 weeks if you can swing it. I took off 8 weeks. I can say it took 6 weeks before I felt like myself again, and I spent the last 2 weeks getting a routine that would work with my schedule.

You will have to fill out FMLA paperwork with HR and if you qualify for short-term disability, there's paperwork there, too. They will want to see a note from your doc stating how long you need off for recovery, too.