FMLA - Signs and Steps To Take

As someone who has been working in leave administration for years, I can tell you that while most employers do their best to stay in compliance, a lot of pieces of the FMLA puzzle get unintentionally missed - which can end up being a huge risk to your business. The last thing you want is a lawsuit!

Before we dive in here, let’s go over a quick rundown of what the FMLA is.

What is FMLA?

The FMLA is the Family and Medical Leave Act, a federal law passed in 1993. It offers employees unpaid, job-protected leave for several different reasons.

Who’s eligible for it?

Your employees must meet the following criteria to be eligible for leave under the FMLA:

• They must be employed with you for at least 12 months.

• They must have worked a minimum of 1,250 hours in the past 12 months.

• They must work at a location where you employ at least 50 employees within a 75-mile radius.

What can you take FMLA leave for?

Employees that meet the eligibility criteria can take leave for the following reasons:

• Up to 12 weeks of leave for:

  • An employee’s own serious health condition (we’ll dive into this in another post!)

  • To care for a family member with a serious health condition. Family members include:

    • Parents (sorry, in-laws don’t count!)

    • Spouses

    • Children

  • The birth, adoption, or foster placement of a child

    • The 12 weeks must be used within the first year of the birth, adoption, or foster placement date

• Up to 26 weeks of leave for:

  • Military caregiver leave

PHEW. Now that we got that out of the way, you’re probably still wondering “that’s great, but what’s my responsibility here??”

That’s a very legitimate question.

I’ve found that most employers tend to wait for an employee to outright ask for FMLA leave. I hate to break it to you, but you have a role here as well. Believe it or not, most employees aren’t even aware of the FMLA’s existence, or have any clue how it works at all. So you, as the employer, need to be the one to step up to the plate and bring it to their attention when you notice an employee may need it. I know, you may be thinking “why bring it up? I need them to work!” But trust me on this; you’ll thank me later, because not bringing it up to your employee opens you up to potential lawsuits down the road. We all know you certainly don’t want that!

So: what are the signs that your employee may need a leave, even if they may be unaware of it on their own?

Have you noticed your employee’s job performance has been…er, sub-par at best?

When having a discussion with your underperforming employee, what do they say? Have you heard things like:

• “I’m sorry, it’s just that I have a lot on my plate right now and I’m finding it hard to focus.”

• “I know, I’ve been calling out of work a lot. But my mother is sick and needs me.”

• “I know I’ve been late to work, but I have soooo many doctor’s appointments I’ve needed to attend.”

All of the above are dead giveaways that you need to bring up a possible FMLA leave to them. It’ll benefit them, and it’ll benefit you. You can direct them to speak to HR about the possible need for a leave, where they can go over everything with your employee. Or, if you’re reading this and want to use us as the neutral and objective third party, we’d be happy to step in and talk to your employee! Just reach out to us and we’ll help!

One thing to keep in mind, and be very careful here: when you talk to your employee, please, please, PLEASE - don’t ask for their medical condition if you suspect they may be dealing with their own illness. That’s a huge no-no, and you don’t want to break any HIPAA laws here.

If you want to meet with us to discuss your particular employee’s situation, feel free to hop on over to our bookings page to set up some time with us!