Lies, Lies & More Lies

I haven’t posted with any updates for quite some time & that’s mostly because there wasn’t much worth writing about. Now there is. I filed for unemployment insurance & received notification from the state of Kentucky that I qualified & would be receiving benefits as long as there was no appeal filed by Best Buy / Geek Squad. 

“Findings: In accordance with the statute, benefits may be payable when a worker is discharged for reasons other than misconduct connected with the work. The claimant was discharged due to absenteeism from work. The evidence of record establishes that the claimant’s most recent absence was for a compelling reason & that the claimant made reasonable effort under the circumstances to notify the employer. The employer has failed to show that the claimant’s actions were in willful or wanton disregard of its business interests. Therefore, the discharge was for reasons other than work related misconduct.

Rulings: The claimant is allowed benefits based on this determination.”

Guess who file an appeal? You guessed it! Best Buy (Geek Squad)!

“We wish to appeal the determination based on the following. The claimant was discharged for unacceptable attendance. The claimant requested a FMLA leave of absence. The claimant’s leave was to start on 09/02/09 & end on 09/08/09. The claimant’s leave was approved contingent on him providing a completed Physician’s Certificate. The claimant was notified of the requirement for submitting the completed Physician’s Certificate via email on 09/09/09, via letter on 09/22/09, & via voicemail on 09/16/09. The claimant did not return a completed Physician’s Certificate within the 15 days. The employer established attendance guidelines to ensure a favorable & an efficient working environment. The store submitted the claimants attendance history to HR for termination approval & following their investigation the decision was made to terminate the claimant’s employment. - Amanda Rivera”

There are several problems with their statement. They make the claim that I was discharged for “unacceptable attendance” but per their own guidelines as stated in their attendance policy, 10 attendance points are needed to terminate. I’ve already proven that I only had 8. They also make the claim that I “didn’t return a completed Physician’s Certificate within the 15 days”. I suppose that this is a matter of semantics or how one defines “completed”. I actually did submit a Physician’s Certificate within the 15 day period. However, as I’ve previously stated, the nurse practitioner refused to sign for all of the days that I was out sick because I only saw her for one of those days. I believe that their statement is simply an attempt on their part to insinuate that I didn’t follow their guidelines so that they can claim “willful misconduct”. 

This all seemed ridiculous to me & I was looking forward to the debate between myself & the representatives of Best Buy / Geek Squad. The administrative hearing took place yesterday & consisted of Regina Phillips (Best Buy / Geek Squad Human Resources), Ms./Mrs. Young (a Best Buy / Geek Squad representative of some sort), a referee from the state of Kentucky & myself. 

Regina Phillips, the Human Resources representative from Best Buy/ Geek Squad made 3 false statements during the hearing. First, she stated that I was fired because I had accrued 10 attendance points. I have evidence that proves that I only had 8. She provided no evidence of this claim. Second, she stated that I was tardy on 09/15/2009 by over 2 hours which resulted in an additional attendance point. I have evidence that proves that I was only 55 minutes late, resulting in only 1/2 of a point & further evidence that shows that this was later removed because of a mistake in scheduling. Finally, she stated that I failed to send in a completed Physician’s Certification. I have evidence that proves that I sent in a Physician’s Certification, a fax receipt that proves that Best Buy / Geek Squad received it & I have documentation that shows that they requested “additional information”. As I’ve previously stated, if by “completed” they mean that my doctor (nurse practitioner) signed off on all of the dates that I was out, then I suppose that I can agree but if they’re trying to state that I failed to send in the required documentation, then they’re being dishonest &/or disingenuous.

There was a comical moment in the hearing where Ms./Mrs. Young, a Best Buy / Geek Squad representative, stated that I was being dishonest about the sum of my attendance points & that I had failed to provide any evidence proving that I had less than the 10 attendance points that they were claiming I had. I rebutted by stating that the burden of proof was in the hands of the party making the claim (Best Buy / Geek Squad) & that the failure was on their part by failing to prove that I did have 10 attendance points. I think that this statement would’ve made any lawyer or scientist proud & if the Commonwealth of Kentucky is truly impartial, they’ll rule on my behalf.

The Company's Stance

It appears that I spoke a little too soon (if 11 days is too soon) in my previous post. The caseworker responded to my request for information on why I was denied for a peer review. It doesn’t make much sense but here it goes...

Hello Michael,

Thank you for your patience in researching your questions. As for the peer review, I believe the Employee Relations Team responded to you stating that it was denied per the guidelines. This is because there is not a peer review practice for a termination for unexcused absences for a leave of absence.

As for your termination due to unexcused absences, you did have previous attendance points and with the unexcused absences for the dates you requested a leave of absence, this was considered excessive absences which lead to your termination.

I hope this information helps.

*****

LOA Caseworker

I replied this morning to let the caseworker know that I’m not going to just let this go. I spelled it out for her 1 more time in the hopes that she’ll & ultimately they’ll see reason.

The attendance policy states that on the 8th point there would be a "written warning". When my employment was terminated I only had 8 points. 9 points would be a "final warning" & 10 points would be "subject to termination". Nowhere in the policy does it state that my employment is subject to termination for attendance prior to receiving 10 points. I can name half a dozen people on my line alone that had 8 or 9 points & are still employed with your company. For the previous 2 years of my employment I had good attendance. For the first 1-1.5 years I had perfect attendance. I haven't been tardy in 3 years of service. I'm in the top 1-2% of people for hours worked for 2009. I've been given a promotion. I've been recognized by several of my supervisors for productivity as well as quality. The team in which I was in charge of was even given awards for our quality & we were #1 in quality again for the last 2-3 weeks of my employment. I've never been warned or written up. I've never heard anything negative about my attendance or performance from any of my supervisors or managers. As a matter of fact, my annual reviews have all been positive (one was actually a 5% which is the maximum that an employee can receive). I'm known to be one of the more knowledgeable employees. Our human resources department sent out an email before I was sick stating that if you were sick to stay at home. In other words, I simply don't see the justification in firing me. I don't meet the criteria for attendance points & I certainly don't meet the criteria in performance. You are telling me that my employment was terminated for "excessive absences" but there's nothing in our attendance policy that backs up your claim (other than the "reservation of rights" section that states that "The company reserves the right to interpret, change, rescind, or depart from this policy in whole or in part." This leads me to believe that the company is indeed changing & departing from this policy & the fact that there are other employees that are in worse situations as far as attendance, performance & have worked fewer hours for the year & still retain their employment leads me to believe that there's something else going on here. It's no secret that I've been outspoken about problems with my manager & even emailed a complaint to my local human resources department (which I have copies of) when he attempted to cover up the discovery of what was potentially child pornography, thus violating the companies guidelines. This leads me to believe that this decision was biased & potentially discriminatory/unlawful. The fact that I was denied for a peer review after my manager told me that I would be allowed to apply for one is also suspect. He even told me that if I did get a peer review that he would almost certainly be on the panel & would be against me. The company has left me with no other option but to seek help elsewhere. Thank you for your time. Good day.

I’m not going to let this go until I have explored all avenues. I’m stubborn like that. I feel that this is a form of injustice & I refuse to turn the other cheek.

Back At It

I’ve been in France for the past 2 weeks or so & have had limited internet access. However, I did receive an email from the leave of absence caseworker, apparently responding to my comments to the representative that had contacted me via telephone (see previous post). As you can see, they didn’t contact me within 48 hours as promised. It took them more than 96 hours (4 days). They’re not only slow in responding but they’re apparently incapable of passing along accurate information as well. I didn’t submit a question as to why my leave of absence was denied. I already know this. As I’ve stated since the beginning, I suspected that I didn’t qualify & that it would be denied before I was even forced to apply for it. What I actually asked for was information on why my peer review request was denied.

Hi Michael,

I did receive your question as to why your leave of absence was denied. We spoke on 9/29/09 and you stated you were unable to get the doctor to complete the physician certification and I explained without the physician certification I could not approve any time away from work and you would be held accountable to the attendance policy for any time missed from work and you stated you understood.

If you have a question regarding the amount of points that lead to your termination, you will need to speak to your Manager for a breakdown.

I hope this answered your question and if you need more information, please let us know.

****

LOA Caseworker

As you can see, this email is an absolute waste of my time. The caseworker is basically just reading to me her notes on a telephone call that we had. I can’t help but feel a little frustrated by this. Why? I was in the fucking conversation. Not only do I not need a review of our conversation because my own notes are far more accurate but it gives me flashbacks from a horrible database management course that I took in college where the teacher would spend an hour of our day reading a powerpoint presentation to us that was verbatim from the book. I always thought that this teacher appeared to be jaded & had simply given up. I get the same feeling when it comes to this caseworker. I gave her a more in-depth review of our conversation & asked her for answers.

Hello. When I spoke with you on the telephone I told you that the nurse practitioner that I saw wasn't going to sign for the dates previous to my visit with her & that I wanted to know from you what would happen knowing this. You stated to me that I would accrue attendance points. I told you that I wasn't concerned about this because even with 1 point per each day that I was absent (per the "2009 Attendance Guidelines") this wouldn't give me enough to justify termination (I would've been at 7 or 8 & not the 10 that are needed). You simply stated "OK" & asked me if I needed anything else. I was never given any indication by you or my local management that my employment could be terminated with less than the 10 points that are required. The company doesn't appear to have justification in firing me for attendance & I haven't been given any other reason so the fact that my peer review was denied & no reason was ever given is a bit suspect. Also, when the representative called me to tell me that I was declined for a peer review, she stated that it was "per the guidelines" but didn't have any further information. She stated, upon my request, that she would have an HR representative with more details call me within 48 hours. This was over a week ago & I have yet to receive a reason. I would appreciate it if you could tell me why I was terminated for having less than the required points & why my peer review request was denied. My manager, *****, stated to me when he fired me that this came from corporate & that he had nothing to do with it. If that's the case, contacting him will be a waste of time. If it isn't true, please let me know so that I can try to contact him (this is assuming that he's still allowed to email an employee that has been terminated). Thanks!

I was amazed at how quickly she responded. If only she had been this prompt all along.

Michael,

I will have to research your questions regarding the peer review and the attendance policy. Please allow me some time to research these issues and I will get back to you.

****

LOA Caseworker

Her last email was sent to me 11 days ago. I don’t know how much time “some time” is but I’m certainly not going to wait much longer because I’m afraid that I won’t receive a response at all & that I’ll end up with even more lost time. After all, how much time is a current employee going to waste speaking to a former employee before she feels that our conversations are wasting her time? I intend to find out.

Denied For A Peer Review

A human resources associate contacted me by telephone today to tell me that my request for a peer review was declined per “the guidelines”. This was all of the information that she had available. I told her that I would like to have someone from the department in charge of these things contact me & let me know why my request was denied. I was told that I would be contacted within 48 hours. That’s very convenient since I’ll be in France for the next 2 weeks where they won’t be able to contact me except by email. Given their track record so far, it’ll be a miracle if they bother to contact me at all. I’ll post more information if I ever get any. Otherwise it looks like I’ll be seeking justice through other avenues.

My Peer Review Request

Describe the problem or action being appealed and explain why you believe the policy or practice was not applied properly or consistently in this situation:

     

According to the “Involuntary Separation Notice” that was given to me by my former manager, my employment was terminated because I was declined for a “Leave of Absence” that I was forced against my will to apply for & suspected that I wouldn’t qualify for based upon my interpretation of the guidelines on the government’s Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) website. The “2009 Attendance Policy”, which is the only attendance policy that has been given to all employees at my location, fails to mention what will happen to an employee that’s absent for more than 3 days & leads those that read it in to believing that the worst that can happen is that they’ll accrue attendance points. This attendance points concept was reinforced by my FMLA caseworker when she stated as much. It appears that the company can fire you regardless of the amount of personal/sick days & attendance points you have accrued. It’s my argument that if I had been aware of this hidden policy, I would’ve instead returned to work sick & potentially contagious so that I would have been able to keep my job & in the process potentially spread my illness. It appears that I’m being punished for a policy that I wasn’t made aware of. I don’t yet know whether or not these actions are illegal but in my opinion they’re certainly unethical.

Date of incident: 10/29/2009

Proposed remedy: (Be specific about the remedy that you are requesting. In no case can the panel award more than what was requested.)

I request that I be allowed to return to work, that I receive backpay for all of the days that I have been out of work, that I receive vacation pay for those days that I had scheduled before I was fired (this is assuming that I’m not already being paid for this), that the company update their policies (e.g. the attendance policy) to include information regarding FMLA (e.g. “if you’re out sick for more than 3 days the company reserves the right to put in a request for FMLA on your behalf & if said request is denied your employment could be terminated regardless of how much personal/sick time you have or how many attendance points you have accrued) so that this doesn’t happen to anyone else, that the company make the necessary changes to the corporate human resources department so that employees are actually given the opportunity to speak (an email address would be even better for those of us that like to document our conversations for occasions such as the one I find myself in), with their representatives (e.g. FMLA caseworkers) & not avoided/ignored, that the company not send out emails that are misleading to employees if they don’t intend to follow their own guidelines (e.g. asking employees to stay at home when they’re sick, possibly contagious & then firing them when they follow said guidelines), that the company take the necessary steps to reduce the amount of dust & other allergens (blowout stations being enclosed at the bottom of the vents & not just sending the dust soaring through the air & in to everyone’s lungs, cleaning crews that clean each line, & enforcing a rule that prevents people from blowing out dust on the lines, etc.) throughout my location so that we reduce the amount of employees that are getting sick, that the company take the necessary steps to create a policy that ensures that employees that are on the verge of losing their jobs are told of the seriousness of their situation so that they can begin to look for another job (I always find it humorous that a company expects you to give them a 2 weeks notice when you quit, but they don’t return the same courtesy when they fire you) & that my FMLA caseworker be coached/penalized for avoiding/ignoring my messages & misleading me in to thinking that the worst that could happen is that I would accrue attendance points or if said messages were never given to her then the 2 representatives from India be coached for not relaying said messages & that the company take the necessary measures to make sure that said messages are always delivered (in the end, my caseworker had access to my email address so the entire thing appears to be inexcusable). If the company is willing to follow through with each of these requests then I’ll consider the possibility of returning to work. If not, the company will be proving that they’re both dysfunctional & unethical & I won’t allow myself to work for a company that is incapable of recognizing this, correcting their mistakes & preventing them from reoccurring.

     

I hereby authorize the Peer Review Panel or the ***** to review those portions of my personnel file which may be relevant to the investigation of my appeal. I realize that the decision rendered through the appeal process is final and binding on *****. I further understand that the Peer Review Panel or the ***** cannot change policy, work rules, pay, benefits, job ranges, performance appraisal or PDG, or promotion/staffing selections.

Name: Michael Mattingly  Date: 11/2/2009

What Happens Next?

As you know if you read my previous blog entry, I was recently fired from my job. I’ve had several people (friends, family, co-workers & even total strangers) contact me through various channels to show their support. There are some people that may not realize the importance of what’s happening here but the vast majority of people that I’ve been in contact with are all but demanding that I take this as far as I can. I intend to because I’m a man of principle. I’m going to continue on in the same spirit that I exhibited in the workplace. If I see something that’s wrong, I’m going to do something about it & if you get in my way, you’re likely going to look like an idiot before it’s through. I think that many of you realize that if this can happen to me, it can happen to you. No one is safe. It doesn’t matter how hard you work, who you’re friends with or how much ass you kiss. If they want to get rid of you, it’s only a matter of time. Some people would just brush it off & move on. I intend to, but not before I make my best attempt to right a wrong. Many of you have asked me what I intend to do next. I previously stated that I’m “exploring my options” & that’s true.

I called the corporate office today to request a “Peer Review”. If you’re not familiar with this process, it’s simply a panel of your “peers” that meet with you to discuss whether or not you should’ve been fired. I’m currently waiting to see if my request will be approved. My manager has already stated that he’ll likely be on the panel & will be against me. He & his friends better do their research because I’m coming prepared. I’m not going to get on my knees & beg for my job back. I’m a bit overqualified for the position in the first place. Instead, I’m going to teach them a thing or 2 about ethics, integrity & logic. May the best man (me) win. If they’re smart enough to offer me my job back, I’ll consider it, but in the end I have to decide whether or not I want to work for a company that treats their employees in this manner.

I also applied for “unemployment insurance” today. I hope that I don’t need to use this system but with the unemployment rate as high as it is I’m not going to take any chances. I obviously won’t make as much as I did when I was working, but between that & my wife’s paycheck, we should be able to get by just fine. Hopefully my former employer won’t fight me on this like they have with so many people before me, because they’ll lose. I guarantee it.

I’ve been planning to go back to school for quite some time. I was intending to utilize my former employer’s tuition reimbursement plan but it’s looking like that may not happen now. However, I’ve been reading all of the tuition assistance documentation on the FAFSA website & if all goes well, I’ll be a full-time student again next August. I’m looking at both the University of Louisville & Sullivan University. I have an Associates Degree in Applied Science (Computer Programming) but hope to get my Bachelor's Degree in the same field.

My wife & I are also toying around with the idea of starting our own business. She’s wanted to open her own restaurant for quite some time (she’s become quite the cook) & I’ve had various other ideas of my own (computers, photography, programming or web-design). This may end up being the perfect opportunity for us to do something like this.

Sick & Fired

I was fired from my job on Thursday. They were nice enough to let me finish out my day before escorting me in to a small interrogation room to give me the news. What did I do to find myself in this unfortunate situation you ask? I got sick. To be more specific, I made the mistake of getting the cold/flu. About a week or two before I got sick, our Human Resources department sent out the following email to everyone.

“Gang,

There is a great deal of talk already about the upcoming flu season. An added concern this year is the H1N1 Virus (Swine Flu). This is a concern for everyone and either in the workplace or at school. We have some pointers for folks as we near this time. Please share this information with your teams and let's do everything we can to keep our Citizens healthy!

Current Guidance:

o People

* Stay home if sick

* The current guidance is to stay home for 24 hours after your

fever is gone (without fever reducing medicine)

o Maintain good flu hygiene

* Cover your cough

* Frequent hand washing or use of hand sanitizer

* Frequent cleaning of surfaces

o Community

* Be aware of changing CDC guidance

* School closing

* At-risk groups

* 'Stay At Home' guidelines

* Follow local health department recommendations if applicable

o Business

* Maintain the calm

* Ensure cleaning and sanitation supplies are on-hand

* Hand sanitizer

* Sanitizing surface wipes

* Encourage sick employees to stay home

* May require doctor note to return

* Report cases via the Emergency Hotline

As time goes on, if there are any updates or further guidance I will get it out to everyone.”

I became sick not long after this email was sent. I did exactly what the email stated to do. I stayed home from work & I waited 24 hours after my fever was gone. I was sick from Wednesday, September 2nd 2009 to Tuesday, September 8th 2009 (Monday, September 7th 2009 was a holiday (Labor Day) & my company was closed for business). It was actually a bit longer than that if you want to count the following week where I was coughing up fluid from my lungs. If you’ve ever had the flu, you’ll know that this amount of time isn’t at all abnormal. As a matter of fact, the Center For Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) says the following about the flu on their website.

“How long is a person with flu virus contagious? The period when an infected person is contagious depends on the age and health of the person. Studies show that most healthy adults may be able to infect others from 1 day prior to becoming sick and for 5-7 days after they first develop symptoms. Some young children and people with weakened immune systems may be contagious for longer than a week.”

In theory, according to the CDC, I may have been contagious from Tuesday, September 1st 2009 to Wednesday, September 9th 2009. This means that it’s possible that I was spreading the flu to other people the day before I began calling in sick (which isn’t avoidable because I’m not psychic) & even on the day that I came back to work. If a business was actually interested in minimizing the risk of spreading illness, don’t you think that they would encourage their employees to stay at home during the period in which they could be contagious? The email sent out by the Human Resources department seemed to indicate this & the CDC actually recommends it under their “What To Do If You Get Sick: 2009 H1N1 & Seasonal Flu” guidelines.

“What should I do if I get sick? If you get sick with flu-like symptoms this flu season, you should stay home and avoid contact with other people except to get medical care. Most people with 2009 H1N1 have had mild illness and have not needed medical care or antiviral drugs and the same is true of seasonal flu.”

“How long should I stay home if I’m sick? The CDC recommends that you stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever is gone except to get medical care or for other things you have to do and no one else can do for you. (Your fever should be gone without the use of a fever-reducing medicine, such as Tylenol®.) You should stay home from work, school, travel, shopping, social events, and public gatherings.”

I could’ve went to work sick, miserable & potentially contagious, but I instead decided to do what I thought was the “right” thing to do. I decided to stay at home to take care of myself so that I could come back healthy the week after, to avoid the potential spreading of my illness to other employees & to spare my company a week of low productivity (it’s a productivity-based company). I thought that the email that was sent out by my Human Resources department was a sign of “concern” & that the CDC guidelines were something that employers actually considered. It appears that I was mistaken.

On Tuesday, September 8th 2009 I emailed my manager to let him know that I was still sick but that I would try my hardest to come in the next day. I was still sick & while I thought that I may have had a fever, I was beginning to feel guilty about being at home because I actually had it in my mind that I was needed. Several hours later I received a response.

“Since you have missed more than 3 consecutive days due to illness, I must sign you up for FMLA and you will need to provide doctors documentation to cover these days.”

I had never heard of this policy before so I checked my company’s “Attendance Policy” which I had a copy of. There was nothing in this policy that mentioned the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) or anything happening after missing 3 days except for accruing “attendance points” or “job abandonment” (the latter only being the case if one didn’t call in). The policy is as follows (only relevant portions have been included due to the length of the document).

“Good attendance is essential for the success of ***. The *** Attendance Policy is in effect to ensure that employees have a clear understanding of attendance expectations and the consequences for sub-par attendance.

APPLIES TO
All *** non-exempt (hourly) associates.

THE *** ATTENDANCE SYSTEM

***’s Attendance System is based on a Rolling 12-month Calendar. Points are administered in the following circumstances:

0 P O I N T S

• Use of appropriate benefit time which covers your entire scheduled shift
• Absences which are related to a Leave of Absence

1 P O I N T

• Unscheduled absence

CORRECTIVE ACTION AFTER THE FIRST 90 DAYS

Points are accumulated on a rolling twelve month calendar. Points will drop off after one year from the incident date. For example, a point that is earned on September 30, 2008 will drop off on September 30, 2009. Action will be taken after the 90 day period at the following points:

1 - 7 points Informal Warning

8 points Written Warning

9 points Final Warning

10 points Subject to Termination

GENERAL PROVISIONS

• Employees who are absent three (3) consecutive work days without notifications will be assumed to have voluntarily quit, due to job abandonment.
• Employees are responsible to know the status of their points at all times.

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Unscheduled Absence: Missing two hours or more of a scheduled shift without receiving advanced approval.

RESERVATION OF RIGHTS

The implementation of this policy and its terms do not modify the at will nature of the employment relationship at **/***. The company reserves the right to interpret, change, rescind, or depart from this policy in whole or in part.

STATEMENT OF ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I hereby acknowledge I have read and understand the *** Attendance Policy. I agree that I am responsible for familiarizing myself with the policy and the information therein.

As you can see, there’s nothing within this document that mentions FMLA (other than the portion that mentions absences covered under a “Leave of Absence” giving you 0 points). I recognize the fact that this doesn’t necessarily mean anything, legally-speaking, but it certainly raises ethical concerns. What would prevent a company from adding a section to this policy stating that “if you’re absent for more than 3 consecutive days, they reserve the right to apply for FMLA on your behalf”? They certainly didn’t waste any time reserving their “right to interpret, change, rescind, or depart from this policy in whole or in part”. If “the attendance policy is in effect to ensure that employees have a clear understanding of attendance expectations & the consequences for sub-par attendance” why then would something so important be left out? Is it because they don’t want people to know this fact? I think that this would be a reasonable assumption if assumptions can indeed be reasonable.

I attempted to see my primary care physician the day before I went back to work (the same day that my manager told me that I needed to provide “doctor’s documentation”) but his office was unable to get me in. I instead went to an immediate care center. A doctor wasn’t available so I was instead seen by a Nurse Practitioner. I explained to her that I had been out sick for 7 days, including that day, with what I thought was the cold/flu & that my manager requested that I bring “doctor’s documentation”. The nurse practitioner looked me over for a few minutes & asked me what I had been doing to relieve my symptoms. I told her that I had been on a steady diet of water, chicken noodle soup & Nyquil/Dayquil. She told me that this was good & she wrote me a doctor’s note stating that I was “able to return to work on 9/9/09 (the following day).

I returned to work the following day & when I attempted to give the “doctor’s documentation” to my manager, he told me that this isn’t what they wanted. He said that he had signed me up for FMLA & that I would be receiving an email with instructions & forms that both myself & my doctor would need to complete & submit. I had a feeling at that moment that something strange was going on & that this was more serious than I had suspected. I became frustrated that I was going to have to pay to see my doctor a 2nd time. I felt like I was being punished for being sick. It was even more frustrating knowing that the only other place that I had been for past several weeks besides work was home so that it was quite likely that I had contracted this illness at work. I received the email later that morning. It was from my leave of absence caseworker. She notified me that she would be emailing me a “leave of absence packet”. I responded to her email.

“I would just like to state for the record that I didn't request a leave of absence. My manager, ******* ***** has requested a leave of absence for me, despite the fact that I don't think that me having a cold or the flu constitutes a "serious health condition". Our HR department (specifically ****** ********) sent an email out a week or 2 before I was sick stating that the business should "encourage sick employees to stay home". I had personal &/or sick time to cover my absence & while I could've physically made it to work, I thought that I was doing the right thing by staying at home so that I wouldn't bring down my team's productivity &/or quality as well as avoiding the possibility of potentially spreading my illness if I did turn out to be contagious. I'm familiar with the attendance policy guidelines that have been presented to me & I don't see anything within this documentation that states that anything that's going on here as being a possibility. I have emailed my HR department (specifically ****** ********) for a copy of the policy that states that all of this is necessary, but I have yet to receive a response. If I'm stating to you that I was simply sick with a cold or the flu & that my illness isn't serious & that according to the FMLA guidelines as listed on their website, this wouldn't be covered, I don't understand why I'm being forced to go through this process when my request will almost certainly be denied. There's something rather strange going on here & I would appreciate it if I was given an in-depth explanation as to what. Thanks!”

I never received a response. I printed out the FMLA documents. Most, if not all of the information that I was supposed to fill out, had already been completed by my caseworker. I took the documents to the immediate care center & left them with the lady at the front desk. She told me that it may take a day or two to have them completed. I attempted to contact my caseworker via the phone number that was provided in the documentation. I was forwarded to a representative that I assumed because of the accent was in India. I explained to her that I had some concerns & that I wanted to speak with my caseworker. She said that she would leave notes in the system & that the caseworker would call me back “shortly” on my cellphone. She didn’t call me that night. I called back the next day from work. I spoke to another representative that I assume was in India. I asked her why the caseworker hadn’t called me back. She stated that she hadn’t called me because I had never requested for her to do so. I explained to her that I had called the night before & made this request. She said that the notes stated that I had called but that there was no request listed. I gave this representative my cellphone & work phone numbers. I asked her to have the caseworker contact me at work if it was before 5:30PM & at home if it was any time after & this was my schedule every day except for Saturdays & Sundays. A few days later, my wife picked the documents up & the day after that I faxed them to the given number provided by my caseworker. The caseworker finally called me, but it was only to leave a voicemail asking me to call her, on my cellphone, which I’m not allowed to have at work, despite my earlier request for her to call me on my work phone during that time.

I later received a letter in the mail as well as an email stating that my request for a leave of absence had been denied because of the dates listed by my nurse practitioner not matching the dates that I was off. Well, of course they didn’t. The nurse practitioner didn’t see me until the 7th day of my sickness. I wouldn’t expect a professional to state that I needed 4 days off of work when by the time I got to her I was barely sick. According to the FMLA guidelines an employee can actually go to a doctor up until the 7th day of their sickness. However, it’s ultimately up to the doctor to decide whether or not they’ll sign off for those days prior to that visit. The nurse practitioner that I saw didn’t want to do that. I even took the documents back to the immediate care center to see if they would be willing but the lady at the front desk refused to even ask the nurse practitioner to change the dates to include the days prior to my visit (this is about $15-25 each time that you do this I might add, not counting the co-payment for my previous visit). I don’t blame these healthcare professionals. There are probably a lot of people out there that abuse the FMLA system. Unfortunately for me, I had made the decision not to go to the doctor during the first few days of my sickness. My wife had to take our only functional vehicle to work, I didn’t want to put anyone else out or give them my illness & we were saving for a trip overseas so that I could meet my wife’s family & we didn’t really want to waste money on something that I had recovered from several times in the past with over-the-counter medicine & rest. However, in my defense, I’ve never worked for an employer before that requested/required anything more than a doctor’s note if I was sick (despite the amount of time). Also, according to the CDC, you don’t need medical assistance unless you’re “very sick”.

“Most people with 2009 H1N1 have had mild illness and have not needed medical care or antiviral drugs and the same is true of seasonal flu.”

“Do I need to go the emergency room if I am only a little sick? No. The emergency room should be used for people who are very sick. You should not go to the emergency room if you are only mildly ill. If you have the emergency warning signs of flu sickness, you should go to the emergency room. If you get sick with flu symptoms and are at high risk of flu complications or you are concerned about your illness, call your health care provider for advice. If you go to the emergency room and you are not sick with the flu, you may catch it from people who do have it”

I finally received a telephone call from my caseworker 19 days after I requested that she called me. This was after the initial deadline for the FMLA documents. She only called me because my wife & I tricked her in to it. We predicted that she would eventually call my cellphone again while I was at work, so I had my wife take my cellphone to work every day, so if she did call, my wife would force her to call me at work. Our plan worked. It’s easier to avoid/ignore people when they’re not actually speaking with you. I wanted to ask the caseworker why she was avoiding/ignoring me but I didn’t think that line of questioning would get me anywhere, so I instead told her that I had suspected from my first day back at work, through my own research, that I wouldn’t qualify for FMLA & that this entire process had been a waste of time (for both parties) & money (on my part). I then told her that my nurse practitioner wasn’t going to comply with my request to change the dates to include those prior to my visit. I asked her what would happen if I was denied for a leave of absence. She told me that I would accrue attendance points. I told her that I wasn’t concerned about this because I didn’t have many & that these absences weren’t enough to give me the amount of points that I needed to be terminated (I only had 4 & even if they gave me 1 for each day that I was out, I would end up with 8, which is 2 short of the amount that they need to terminate me), according to the attendance policy. She said “OK”, asked me if I had any further questions & that was that. Or so I thought.

According to one of my next pay stubs, my sick/personal time was used to cover those 4 days (this left me with 3) & I was paid for them. I never received an email, which is normally sent, when you acquire attendance points, much like the one below that’s actually the last one that I received.

Violation History:
1 Point(s) Absent on 6/8/2009
1 Point(s) Absent on 6/9/2009
1 Point(s) Absent on 6/10/2009
1 Point(s) Absent on 7/24/2009

Several weeks went by & while this whole ordeal had been frustrating & was still in the back of my mind (mostly because my peers were asking me for updates) I had assumed that it was over with. As you now know, because I already told you that I was fired, it wasn’t. I won’t pretend that I wasn’t a little paranoid that something like this might occur, mostly because of shady things within the company that have gone on in the past, but I was trying to be as optimistic as possible, especially since my caseworker had never indicated that I my employment would be terminated. I haven’t decided what I’m going to do at this point but let’s just say that I’m exploring my options. No matter what comes of this, I must say that I’ve learned a few life-lessons from this. Thanks for taking the time to read this. Feel free to post comments if you have them.