Sick Leave, Again

Hi Everyone,
I am home on sick leave, again.  I had sinus surgery on the 18th of February, and recuperated rather nicely, UNTIL...my ear started to hurt.  I attempted to return to work, and I was in agony at work, because I could not take the painkillers at work.  Tuesday, I had a meltdown and left work at lunch time.  I could not take it anymore.  My ENT surgeon advised me to stay home till the ear pain clears up.  

My concern has been two-fold.  One, I am taking painkillers that are narcotics, and addictive.  I have less than two months of sobriety in AA.  I stay in touch with my sponsor, and I am attempting to attend as many AA meetings as I can, given my inability to drive when I take the painkillers.  

My other concern is my fear of backlash at work for my attendance.  I had several absences in the Fall, due to a combination of sinus infections and body aches that I am seeing a rheumatologist for.  I did give the principal a note from my doctor concerning my health issues, prior to my surgery.  I also have a note from the surgeon for this week's absences.

I am going to head back to bed right now.  I am pooped.

Trish

Trish -
My thoughts are w/ you - is your company big enough to have FMLA? If so -you need to go ahead and file the paperwork so that you are protected.
Sorry you are not feeling well.
A

Thanks for the encouragement.  I work for the School District of Philadelphia, in PA.  I applied for FMLA at the beginning of the year, but was turned down because I had so many absences last year.  I just have to trust God for the outcome of this one.

Hopefully, the earpain will subside enough to go back to work on Monday. 

Hi, I stopped by this forum for the first time and saw your post.

FMLA gives you 12 weeks of unpaid leave, assuming your employer is big enough to be covered by it--I imagine a school district is, but I can't remember whether school districts are exempted (some types of government employers are).

Employers can require you to use all your paid leave before giving you FMLA leave, but they can't deny you FMLA leave if you meet the criteria--a documented medical reason is sufficient, and they cannot second-guess your doctor. Make sure that you apply for intermittent FMLA leave, if that fits your cir****tances. Things like depression, migraines--that can come and go--can qualify you for intermittent FMLA leave. Most employers hate dealing with intermittent leave, but tough nouggies, they have to if they fall under FMLA.

You aren't eligible for FMLA coverage unless you've been an employee for some amount of time, IIRC a year. So maybe with your absences you had not completed enough time on the job--but I'm not sure employers are allowed to calculate your time on the job that way. Get that clarified from HR. If you missed more than 12 weeks of work due to medical absences, you would have exhausted your FMLA leave, so possibly that is what this denial is. You need to look at the docs that HR gave you. If they didn't give you any--they must.

I have taught in Philadelphia for 17 years, and had FMLA at one time, just not recently.  Philadelphia's schools have over 16,000 employees, so I am sure it is plenty big enough.  The reason given for turning me down was my number of days absent last year, which had to do with the fact that I was out sick for six weeks with hernia surgery, and then had a number of smaller absences, plus my brother died which had me absent for over a week. 

I am turning in doctors' notes with each absence to my principal and just have to trust God for this one. 

What tears me up is that I do not abuse my sick days, and only take them if I am legitimately sick, but have had coworkers take sick days to go to the shore or on cruises with no consequences.

Trish

I am not an expert on FMLA - but that sounds fishy to me - I think that long term illness - regardless of the number of days absent have protections.
My suggest is to do a revierw of the FMLA act and see what you can find out.
Again - my thoughts are w/ ya.
A

For those of you who are questioning this I know it may sound fishy but there are several qualifications for FMLA. I know because I am dealing with it currently. You have to have been employed for a certain length of time (for me this is a year) and you have to have had at least a certain number of paid work hours in the past year (for me it is 1250). I am so sorry you are not eligible for FMLA. What you can do is re-apply later when you may have enough hours to qualify. Good luck. I will keep my fingers crossed for you to get healthy soon.

It makes sense from a practical standpoint.  When I got the rejection letter, it was prior to my first sinus infection.  That began in October, and I never really went off the antibiotics from then.  Now, I am dealing with the swelling from the surgery.  

I have had doctor's notes for all of my absences, but my principal is a tough cookie and he can be vengeful.  I have to pray this does not blow up in my face. this year.

Trish