4 ms·
The FMLA should allow any qualifying employee (has worked there for a year, 50 or more employees at the company) to take job-protected 12 weeks of leave per yea
by aetherson 9y ago
The FMLA should allow any qualifying employee (has worked there for a year, 50 or more employees at the company) to take job-protected 12 weeks of leave per year to care for a terminally ill nuclear-family relative.
- jdavis703 9y agoAnd don't people without "nuclear" family wind up subsidizing this scheme? Not everyone has family, or if they do their family may not be capable or interested in caring for them or vice-versa.
- rosser 9y agoFMLA leave is unpaid leave; anything beyond that is an employer's choice, and/or on the employee to be paying their short-term disability premiums, and claim it. It also covers taking leave to deal with the employee's own illness. How are you "subsidizing" that? EDIT: phrasing.
- jdavis703 9y agoSomeone generally has to put in the extra work caused by an absence.
- rosser 9y agoI am reminded of nothing so much as Christopher Hitchens' quip about Libertarianism: "I have always found it quaint and rather touching that there is a movement in the US that thinks Americans are not yet selfish enough." If someone is taking FMLA, the overwhelming likelihood is that they or someone they love is dying (or the opposite: they have a brand-new kid). You're worried about working a little bit harder. Some perspective might be warranted.
- jdavis703 9y agoAs someone who has been asked to chip in many times to make up for the new kid situation (which at least for men it's a choice to take time off), I do feel "worried" about having to work harder. It's not like you get paid overtime these days. Now I (and others on the team) have had to work overtime for someone who was in the hospital for months through no fault of their own. I felt no grudge about having to put in extra work for free there.
- toomuchtodo 9y agoWork your forty hours and let the company deal with hiring a temp/contractor if they need to.
- oh_sigh 9y agoIf the idea was you could take care of anyone you loved, then I'd agree. Why does it have to be nuclear family members? Not everyone has nuclear family members, or defines their family as the father/mother/brother/sister they grew up with. In my mind, I see this as highly similar to hospitals of the past(and current) not letting members of same-sex couples visit their dying partner, because they aren't direct family or legally married.
- notfromhere 9y agoits incredibly depressing that this is even being argued, or is American society so myopic as to lack societal compassion nowadays?
- Spooky23 9y agoUs Americans are all straw bosses. Lots of these company men types talk a big game until they need accomodation.
- praneshp 9y agoThe subset of Hacker News community I have interacted with is definitely more insular and wannabe-contrarian than the subset of American society I'm familiar with (as an outsider).
- Spooky23 9y agoThe difference that I failed to mention was that they covered the employer covered portion of health insurance for the leave period.