FMLA abuse

jynxariescat said:

Wow, yes you're the ***. You have no idea what her condition is or why she has FMLA, no matter if she's told you what it's for, you truly don't know. Some people lie to coworkers because they don't want them to know what's truly going on with them and that's their right. You are not her physician or part of the FMLA team. FMLA can also be taken for mental health reasons, or even care of a sick loved one, and other things. FMLA explicitly allows employees to travel, leave town, and engage in normal life activities as long as those life activities does not contradict the medical certification that lead to FMLA approval, which YOU are never entitled to know. 
 

Besides, if you report your suspicions, how does that help you? Do you get anything out of it? Does that give you a raise? A promotion? A bonus? If your suspicions are correct, then your company is going to say thanks for saving us money! And possibly terminate her. Then you're down a coworker, labeled a brown noser, and that's as far as any appreciation for you goes. If your suspicions are incorrect, then you're labeled a brown noser still, a busy body, and who wants to be friendly with someone like that? I'd honestly suggest you mind your own business. It does not affect you.

It does affect me and my co-workers. 

Davey Do said:

"You can get no one into more trouble than they can get themselves into."
-Edgar Cayce

Wise words.

The OP should just give this person enough rope to hang themselves. If they are truly abusing FMLA, it will come back to bite them. If not, the OP will have successfully survived someone else's life circumstances while minding their own business.

DolceVita said:

This should be on our break room wall. 

Hmm... I work at a small nonprofit, so I currently have free access to Canva Pro Account. I could possibly whip up something sufficiently artsy with this inspiring phrase. 

The ability to survive our coworkers' life circumstances while minding our own business is criminally undervalued. 

No one knows the weight of another's burden; remember that.  As many here have previously stated,  not all reasons for FMLA are visible to others and it really irks me that you feel compelled to interject yourself into something that is clearly none of your business.  Specifically FMLA. There is an employee within your organization who is in charge of processing FMLA claims as well as others-  who either approve or deny a request for an employee to take medical leave.  Clean around your own back door before you start cleaning around others. That is not a way to form great relationships and or out of work. Great way to get slapped with a lawsuit; however.  Perhaps you have too much downtime in your current position;  if you're able to  devote so much time to obsessing about the validity of another employee's FMLA claim. So that would mean even with her absence, the work of you and other staff is obviously getting done (since you have time to concern yourself with this & write a post in this forum.  

Dawnkeibals said:

It does affect me and my co-workers. 

You know what will affect you and your co workers? The kind of ugliness that comes with this monitoring and reporting of each other for perceived violations of policy.

If you have ever worked somewhere where "incident reports" were used as weapons by managers and staff against each other you will understand this isn't a trend you want to start. It spreads. Quickly. It makes for a very ugly work climate. 

Part of the reason I am interested in this thread is because I've had two PRN jobs in the past that involved covering someone's else when they were off on FMLA or other leave. The first brought me on as a PRN nurse in 2014 when a full-time employee was out on maternity leave. At the second one, I had already been hired as a PRN staff member in April 2021 when a full-time employee needed to take FMLA that fall, leading me to pick up basically full-time hours. Neither of these jobs represented nurse management at its best (the first job gave rise to the "Amish" story from one of my earlier posts, as well as a comment I made previously about a coworker with an imaginary twin sister, which required her to frequently leave without clocking out to help the twin sister navigate various misadventures, and the second workplace inspired the threads "Considering Quitting My Job-Had Enough (Kind of a Vent Post" and "Quitting My Job; Returning My ID Badge- Should I be Petty?" And they also made international news after a large amount of Fentanyl was stolen). 

So, if these jobs can hire a PRN staff member to pick up the extra hours from someone being out on FMLA, I would think any manager, competent or not, should be able to do this. This would lessen the burden on you and coworkers and make it less likely for people to speculate on this coworker's FMLA.

I've read and appreciate everyone's responses and perspectives. I want to clarify that my concern isn't about someone using FMLA — I understand that it exists for a reason and that people have the right to use it.

However my problem is she is posting on social media about Jazz festivals and Disney adventures (out of state) obviously planned on advance, while calling out day before or day of, for Intermittent FMLA. This is wrong. I disagree with anyone that will try to defend this behavior. 

I decided not to report anything and agree that eventually it will catch up to her. I am not the only person who sees her social media.