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.

  • @[email protected]
    31•9 months ago

    America is the top worse for Healthcare. I say this because I hear we are richest country. To me a country who can’t or won’t take care of the most vulnerable is a shit hole country.

    • @[email protected]
      15•9 months ago

      The 1% could, theoretically, “fix it,” if they so chose. Instead they buy twitter and showcase their insecurities on social media, or evade taxes, or pay insurmountable sums to lobbyists that in turn keep our politicians from doing fuck all.

      Whereas most of us can’t afford to own a house, or a car, or medication. You know.

  • @[email protected]
    26•9 months ago

    I had to go out on fmla several years ago. They only gave you 90 days officially, but since my boss liked me they waited till 120 to fire me. The other fun part is that short term disability only gave out a fraction of my income, AKA, not enough to pay rent & eat and stuff.

    If your insurance has any sort of short term disability insurance, check it out. It’s pennies, but it’s better than no pennies.

        • Flying Squid
          OP
          6•9 months ago

          It’s so stupid. If this was Europe this wouldn’t be happening.

          • @[email protected]
            9•9 months ago

            My Australian friend really puts it into perspective. Their benefits are accolades beyond anything USA will ever have in our lifetime. I hope the union movement really ramps up here lately so we can have some semblance of betterment.

    • @PsychedSy
      3•9 months ago

      My boss shut them down on my overages and it was just in time to get my meds fixed.

  • @[email protected]
    20•9 months ago

    In the interest of turning it around to the plus side … I had to do this pre-fmla and got bupkis. I totally agree with your assertion, except fmla was one tiny step in the right direction many years ago. It’s not that fmla is horrible but that it was only the first step and we need to take the next step, and we need to walk faster

    • @[email protected]
      9•9 months ago

      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.

      • Flying Squid
        OP
        4•9 months ago

        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.

  • @PsychedSy
    6•9 months ago

    I hope you get things sorted. I was diagnosed with RA about five years ago and it’s been hell. I’m just starting to get sort of back to normal.

    • Flying Squid
      OP
      8•9 months ago

      It really sucks. They don’t know what’s wrong with me yet. I’ve been through a ton of testing and missed 96 hours of work already, hence the FMLA.

      • @PsychedSy
        3•9 months ago

        That’s rough. The worst part of this chronic bullshit is uncertainty. I was lucky that we learned what it was before I needed FMLA but it took years to treat. It does get better on the other side. I barely made it and will be dealing with emotional shit for a long time.

  • XbSuper
    6•9 months ago

    Jesus, America doesn’t even have short term medical leave? Dafuq?

    I could take up to 2 years off, and be paid 80% of my income the entire time. At that point, if I needed more, it would switch to medical unemployment, and would last as long as necessary at 60% of my income. It does require a doctor to sign off, but that makes sense since otherwise people would just abuse it.