Sorry she lost her job, can't pay 2 people for only one job. Somebody filled in for her and got paid too. Welfare is at the next window.

FMLA is a good thing.

There's No 'My Kid Has Cancer' In Team (new window)

Hmmm... was everybody sleeping in Econ class? Did we miss the part about "businesses don't exist to provide people with jobs"?

I'm sure that pesky little Family Medical Leave Act might have a differing point of view.

Doesn't the FMLA protect against something like this??

Family Medical Leave Act allows an employee to take up to 12 weeks per year off for family emergencies / medical problems. You take it after you've used all paid leave up, and you're not paid for it...but it does guarantee that you have your same / similar job back with no loss of pay or status.

Tough call on this one. She has a toddler. That requires maternal things. Kid has cancer. Even more maternal attention required. Her job is to answer the phones from people that call in because a cat is in a tree, someone was just shot, or a farking house is on fire.

Someone must be there to man the phones. If she isn't present, then someone else needs to do the job. I feel sorry for her, but not pity. Housefires, floods and domestic abuse isn't going to wait for her to come back to work. She's part time. Is the state required to give her unemployment benefits in this case or can she claim hardship to keep her job? I dunno.

rocinante721: There's No 'My Kid Has Cancer' In Team (new window)

I used to laugh at the Onion, but now I just get depressed at all the Onion articles that come true.

mdalli: Hmmm... was everybody sleeping in Econ class? Did we miss the part about "businesses don't exist to provide people with jobs"?

Spoken like someone who has never had a sick child. I think you slept through Ethics class.

/And I bet you'd make just a fantastic boss.

"When it came to doing a little extra they can put on a stop,"

Dang man dassa dang dinga do a dat girl.

"Thank you for calling 911. We're not here right now but please leave your name, number and estimated time of death and we will contact you as soon as possible."

*beep*

Article wasn't clear if she took FMLA or not. I know lots of people who have 'lost their jobs when family leave ran out', but they usually get rehired once they are able to return to work. It's cheaper to re-hire someone for an open position than to train a new person off the street. They usually don't get their old job back, but at least they can get a job at a place that they are familiar with. Although, if they weren't a valued employee to begin with, the employer isn't obligated to give them anything.

I hope she can find time to sue.

Particularly as she works for the county. Shouldn't they have a union? This is the kind of thing a union can help protect against.

Why didn't the dirty cops she was dispatching kick-down a little bit of that drug and prostitution money they were making every week to help her out?

its not so much an "oh my god, they dont have the right to do that" it's more of a...can a company really do this to someone that works for them? what kind of person is in charge that would fire her for this in the first place...

Labor unions are bad why ??
Give the worker some rights is bad why ???

As someone who spent a full hour trying to explain the ADA with my boss, I'm getting a kick out of these replies.

/eh, close enough to FMLA
//she still doesn't get it

The Onanist
Snocones

Depends on if the company has FMLA, and sometimes you have to be there twice as long as you expect to be out for. It doesn't look like she took that option either, from the article it sounds like she was taking a lot of sick days.
If they can't count on you being there, they need someone who can. I hate to sound like a troll but in my situation if I was calling in 2 days a week for several weeks I would expect to be unemployed.

My son might have to go in for heart surgery in Jan, you can bet your arse that I will be looking into FMLA and options surrounding it.

Ok...re-read article...it does say she has used up all her leave..and I'm not really sure about FMLA rules covering part time workers...but as a parent I gotta say it's a crappy situation.

mikaloyd: Maybe she should have tried to get the dad to do some of this. Or if he split prior to this she should have tried to keep either the father or the job around.

It doesn't say she isn't married. In fact, she's got a wedding ring on in the photo.

It also doesn't say she's going to be devastated financially by any of this in any way or that her livelihood depended on that job, so you can stop jumping all over her like she's looking for handouts.

It looks to me like her coworkers are just pissed off because they think exceptions should have been made. They have every right to be. It IS still a free country, isn't it?

I just hope to God the little girl was covered on her father's insurance. Try getting covered with a pre-existing condition like THAT.

Fark this lazy biatch, using her kids illness as an excuse to dodge work. She got what she deserved.

... to my boss. Not with my boss. While she stared at me blankly, then reiterating "well, we can't possibly make amends, if someone agreed to the terms when they got hired. Our schedule is just too important."

Ironically, I work for a social justice non-profit, and no, the schedule is not that damn rigid.

/sigh.

"My son might have to go in for heart surgery in Jan, you can bet your arse that I will be looking into FMLA and options surrounding it."

You might also want to get a bankruptcy attorney lined up.

The way I see it, she should've just given her notice to leave until her daughter gets better and/or dies(I'm sorry, but that's about as tactful as I can be) and then when the kid was out of the woods, then maybe she can see about getting her job back, and not make a big deal about it. I'm not a parent(so don't jump down my throat on this, I'm just sayin'), and the article didn't say if she was a single parent or married, but if she were married, I'm pretty sure that she and her husband could've made do with just him working till then and just making her child priority and her job secondary(please forgive me, I'm typing this while half asleep, too).

All that said, I hope the kid pulls thru, and I wish the whole family well. And I hope the lady gets her job back afterwards, if she was a good dispatcher to begin with.

fernanernie: The Onanist
Snocones

Depends on if the company has FMLA, and sometimes you have to be there twice as long as you expect to be out for. It doesn't look like she took that option either, from the article it sounds like she was taking a lot of sick days.
If they can't count on you being there, they need someone who can. I hate to sound like a troll but in my situation if I was calling in 2 days a week for several weeks I would expect to be unemployed.

My son might have to go in for heart surgery in Jan, you can bet your arse that I will be looking into FMLA and options surrounding it.

Can FMLA vary by state? I'll have to take a look at the FMLA poster in my work kitchen while I'm heating up my Lean Cuisine.

I know this would be a tough call for any employer to make. I doubt any HR person would be happy to fire someone in that situation.

I was gonna come up with a ranty troll for this but a) the Onion pretty much nailed it, and b) child with cancer.

I has a coworker who just lost his wife after a 2+ year battle with cancer and not only did the FMLA not need to come into play but I don't think there was ever any question that he would continue to be payed salary no matter how much time he took off. Then again I work for an employer that doesn't completely suck and is not lacking in compassion. I think I would start a walkout until she was reinstated if I was a coworker, even if it would be illegal due to being in one of those weird job categories where the government says you don't have the same rights as others just because of your job title.

Snocones: fernanernie: The Onanist
Snocones

Depends on if the company has FMLA, and sometimes you have to be there twice as long as you expect to be out for. It doesn't look like she took that option either, from the article it sounds like she was taking a lot of sick days.
If they can't count on you being there, they need someone who can. I hate to sound like a troll but in my situation if I was calling in 2 days a week for several weeks I would expect to be unemployed.

My son might have to go in for heart surgery in Jan, you can bet your arse that I will be looking into FMLA and options surrounding it.

Can FMLA vary by state? I'll have to take a look at the FMLA poster in my work kitchen while I'm heating up my Lean Cuisine.

I know this would be a tough call for any employer to make. I doubt any HR person would be happy to fire someone in that situation.

I don't know if it varies, or if states have their own things on top of it, but I know California has its own Paid Family Leave Program but it specifically states you aren't guaranteed job protection and return rights. I haven't looked at the FLMA yet.

And if a coworker's kid has just the flu and wants the same leeway? Or just lupus...sure cancer is as bad as it gets, but someone with a kid with a lesser illness would surely argue they deserve time of to. Eventually, a cold will be enough.

SilentStrider: Nothing living, nothing to eat.
Thank the Lord, daddy's working 8-5.
Paying the doctor, baby's got cancer.

Has all we've learned been wrong?

Snocones I'm thinking that since the F in the FMLA stands for Federal, it doesn't vary by state.

I could be wrong...

/the whole thing stinks of douchebagerry
//911 dispatchers work for the government, right?
///they're union positions here - no way this would happen in CA

Batewoman: mikaloyd: Maybe she should have tried to get the dad to do some of this. Or if he split prior to this she should have tried to keep either the father or the job around.

It doesn't say she isn't married. In fact, she's got a wedding ring on in the photo.

It also doesn't say she's going to be devastated financially by any of this in any way or that her livelihood depended on that job, so you can stop jumping all over her like she's looking for handouts.

It looks to me like her coworkers are just pissed off because they think exceptions should have been made. They have every right to be. It IS still a free country, isn't it?

I just hope to God the little girl was covered on her father's insurance. Try getting covered with a pre-existing condition like THAT.

pre-existing condition doesn't come into it. If the father's company allows for dependant care coverage (the vast, vast majority of employers who offer insurance do) then he can add her due to a change of status event (namely the wifes unemployment) without having preexisting conditions clauses come into affect so long as she was covered continuously under some policy. It's the same thing with COBRA coverage, so long as you pick it up and keep it until you are eligible with your new employer then the new employers insurance can't pull any preexisting condition BS. I know because my wife was pregnant when I switched jobs last time with a difficult pregnancy and I picked up COBRA specifically to avoid any BS with the new employers insurance.

DRTFA, FMLA was surely followed, otherwise she is in a good legal position. Life does suck at times. I am on my dad's yacht right now and the ice maker is broken.

FMLA is a federal law. It doesn't apply to every company, but it applies to most companies. It doesn't apply to every employee, but as long as you've been there for a certain length of time it covers you. States can enact laws that provide MORE protection than FMLA, but states may not enact family leave laws that provide fewer protections than FMLA.

mdalli
Hmmm... was everybody sleeping in Econ class? Did we miss the part about "businesses don't exist to provide people with jobs"?

Would your prefer to live in an economy or a society?

It would be interesting to see how it plays out. FMLA would be step one, but likely she used that up. The second aspect is under the ADA, Disability by Association. She isn't disabled, but are they firing her so they don't have to deal with the costs/problems of someone else being disabled (and cancer would count).

A part of me would also love to read the communications between her and the business. How much she was willing to be flexible, tone of communication on both sides, and so on.

FMLA has some strict rules.. for example, you have to have so many employees to have to follow FMLA. My work has to follow FMLA, my wife's does not because they don't have the staff at her work that FMLA requires... seems to me it's 25 or 50. There are other rules to, like you have to have worked at your job for so long, etc. etc. etc.

foxbrook78:
Would your prefer to live in an economy or a society?

An economy, totally. You know who else wanted to live in a society?