I had to go on FMLA today. The Family and Medical Leave Act in the U.S. basically guarantees your job will still be there if you have to go on extended medical leave. You don’t get paid, you just don’t get fired.
So now we will be on a single income for the foreseeable future. I wish I lived in a civilized country where I would be covered in this sort of situation, but instead we’ll get deeper in debt because we won’t be able to keep up with the medical bills.
I hate it. I hate it so much. I don’t expect to get paid indefinitely if I was away indefinitely, but the only pay I will get is that the two days of paid time off I had saved up will be spent on this, so when I do come back, I’ll have nothing left for the rest of the year.
I don’t even blame the people I work for. I blame the system that they’re a part of. Why should they pay for my sick time if no one else does? I get that. It just sucks and is yet another bullshit part of living in America.
Yeah my mom had pretty severe complications during labor with my brother. Ended up losing a ton of blood and she ended up staying in the hospital for 5 days to recover. She got fired while in the hospital on the 3rd day lol.
FMLA certainly isn’t the best but it’s better than nothing. Baby steps I guess.
Even with FMLA, I was lucky. Because FMLA is only enforced with companies with 50 or more employees. My company is smaller but is voluntarily complying.