A lawsuit was filed against Reddit alleging that the company fired an employee with anxiety for taking medical leave. The employee, Jamie Lee, had worked at Reddit as an accountant for over 4 years with positive reviews. In July 2022, Lee requested 3 days off for her health but was denied. She was later placed on medical leave after fainting, but was fired upon returning and accused of poor performance. However, the lawsuit claims others made similar mistakes. It also alleges Reddit’s new leadership under the CFO has created a “toxic, political, and not inclusive” culture, which two other employees also left over. This highlights challenges employees faced with the changing culture at Reddit.
The only thing a supervisor should be saying to “I need to take time off to address personal health concerns,” is “Take as much time as you need, your health is most important.”
The only thing a supervisor should be saying to “I fainted, and my doctor has put me on medical leave,” is “Take as much time as you need, your health is most important.”
My first ever direct report asked me if he could leave a couple hours early because his kid went to the hospital.
I told him I expected that if this happened again he just call me on the way to the hospital.
Or uh not call you… imagine letting him focus on driving and getting to his kid rather than talking on the phone with you. If you want to be a good manager then you should make it clear that communicating retrospectively is perfectly fine.
The problem is that for most companies, employee health is very far down the list in importance.
I worked at a company where my colleagues included two young brothers. One of them had a serious illness and was in hospital. One day the other brother, at work, got notification that his brother in hospital might not have much time left. He asked management if he could take the afternoon off to go and see his brother. They said no, they needed him to work late. This guy was an overly conscientious employee and he didn’t go to the hospital that day. His brother died during the night and he didn’t get to say goodbye to him. Those are the priorities of many companies.
Don’t ask for your employer to meet your time off needs. Tell them that your time off needs are going to be met.
I am not at all saying that it was the employee’s fault in your example. It wasn’t. The sad thing is that people have been conditioned that they need to ask for time off when emergencies arise.
Then you get fired, and in this economy, probably end up homeless.
Make it a country where it’s illegal to fire someone on medical leave, where firing them after they come back entitles them to unmotivated dismissal compensation, where they get unemployment pay even if they get fired.
Might sound like a fairy tale to people in the US, but countries like that do exist.
Go Union and that cannot happen.
Yeah, it’s real systemic, there’s a lot of restrictive things all wrapped around everything that keep labor under the thumb of owners and their minions. If enough people stand up for their humanity, there will be a tipping point. Revolution doesn’t come without risk.
Seize the means of production.
I don’t see any riots. Seems to me that nobody cares—not even the people being made homeless.
Be the change you want to see in the world. You have nothing to lose but your chains.
I can only repeat it time and time again, until it is really present for every American. This is not normal. In most countries in the world you have the right to paid sick leave and you have the right to leave work for a family emergency. You cannot be fired for taking either and just the idea that it should be different gets people on the street.
Do not take this kind of bullshit. Especially now that boomers are retiring on mass, the employers need every hand they can get.
My supervisor wants me to take time off of work, more then I take time off of work. lol.
Although, granted, I have worked in an environment like this… aka, the united states army.
Where, getting your vacation approved, takes no less than a full miracle.
Its ok, I ETS-d with literally close to a year of vacation. On the plus side, you can indefinitely accumulate leave. So, I sold a few months, got an extra up-front paycheck, and then, got paid for a good chunk of a year after leaving.
At my company the low level supervisors have no say in what happens to you for taking off. Attendance is tracked by the timeclock system and HR sends notice for corrective actions based off how many points you have. You can still get medical leaves and whatever else but none of it goes through the supervisor. So they literally can’t say “Take as much time as you need, your health is more important.” because they’ll eventually get told to fire you.
@Nougat @trashhalo @technology this is literally why short-term disability insurance exists.
Good luck getting that to pay out for anxiety. Those insurance companies fight you tooth and nail.