Jane Doe is one of your Company’s worst employees. She works in the accounting
department and is always missing deadlines and her work is often full of errors. Her
substandard work is exceeded only by her
miserable attitude, resulting in constant friction between her and her co-workers and her
supervisor.
Jane is one step away from termination under your no-fault attendance policy. When it seemed that you were finally going to be rid of Jane and her
lousy attitude, you receive a letter from her cousin, a personal injury lawyer whose TV commercials run constantly during episodes of Judge Judy.
The letter from Jane’s cousin says her absences are because of debilitating migraines and he is
going to sue you personally for millions of dollars if she is fired. What do you do?
When you speak to Jane’s supervisor, he says he does remember something about Jane
saying she couldn’t come to work because she had headaches on a few occasions when she called out, but he figured she was just hung over, so he never did anything about it.
Everyone knows she is a big partier. What do you do?
Now that you are convinced that Jane’s
supervisor is an idiot, you decide to eliminate the weak link in the chain and instruct Jane
that she must now call out only to you and that she must speak to you in person – no
voicemail. Grudgingly you also tell her you will clear her attendance record and giver her
FMLA paperwork to fill out.
Jane returns the FMLA certification, which
says she will need to miss work intermittently due to migraines. Soon summer arrives.
Almost immediately thereafter, Jane begins missing Fridays and Mondays almost every week. You also observe that Jane is very, very tan. You wonder if Jane is calling out to extend her weekends at the shore, what do you do?
You decide to confront Jane and she freely admits that she spends the weekend at the shore. She claims the salt air is good for her migraines. What do you do?
You have had it, you decide to catch Jane in the act. You follow her to the shore and stake out her house for the weekend. Sure enough, she calls out sick on Monday and you spot her sunning by the pool. What do you do?
You receive another letter from Jane’s cousin, saying that you are harassing her and violating her civil rights and that he will sue you
personally for millions of dollars. What do you do?
After Jane obtains a restraining order against you for stalking her on the weekends, you
decide to lay low for a while. The following Friday, you come in to work and Jane has left you a message saying she is out with a
migraine. You think to yourself, “I finally have her, I told her no voicemail, she has to talk to me in person!” Can you finally fire Jane?
Jane’s extended weekends at the shore soon deplete her available sick time. Her cousin sends you a letter indicating that you are
discriminating against Jane because you did not solicit employees to donate leave time on her behalf, like you did last year for the
employee in the sales department who was being treated for cancer. He threatens to sue you personally for millions of dollars, what do you do?
After you send out the memo soliciting
employees to donate sick leave on Jane’s behalf, you get no responses. That’s not
entirely true, you do get a few responses of a profane nature, expressing displeasure at
having to carry a heavier workload while Jane works on her tan. Recognizing that you have a serious morale problem, you decide to address the troops – what can you say?
Well, you guessed it, another letter from Jane’s cousin the lawyer threatening to sue you for
millions of dollars. This time, he says there is a hostile work environment and Jane is being harassed. He says that no one donated sick leave on Jane’s behalf and now none of her
co-workers will talk to her or invite her to lunch.
This violates her constitutional rights and he demands you eliminate this hostile
environment at once. What do you do?
Jane comes to you a week later with an FMLA certification indicating she needs to take leave to care for her elderly mother who has
congestive heart failure. The next day, you learn from co-workers that her mother won an all expenses paid weekend in Las Vegas and Jane is taking the FMLA leave to go with her.
Can you deny her leave?
Despite the fact you denied her leave, Jane goes AWOL. One of her co-workers forwards a picture from Facebook showing Jane and her mother posing in front of the slot machines at the Bellagio. You think to yourself, “not even my stupid lawyer can deny me now – she’s so fired!”
Two days after you send Jane’s termination
letter, you get served with a complaint. Jane’s cousin has sued you personally for millions of dollars. Irate, you call you lawyer demanding that we counter-sue Jane and her cousin.
What does your lawyer say?
Ballard v. Chicago Park District (N.D. Illinois Sept. 29, 2012
“There is no statutory or regulating text stating something to the effect that “care”
must involve some level of participation in the ongoing treatment of the family
member’s condition….”
(Ruling in favor of employee’s right to FMLA leave to accompany her mother to Vegas)