Voluntry Quit or FMLA
Kent
42 Posts
Had an ee that had been out for a couple of days due to a domestic dispute which resulted in a hospital stay after his spouse cut him. He came in on Friday and stated "I guess you can just terminate me becuase I have to go to rehab." He offered no other details turned in his keys, cell phone,gathered his personal belongings and left. He called back today and inquired if he still had a job or had he been terminated.
Can we accept the resignation of Friday or do we have an obligation to advise him of his leave opportunities?
Can we accept the resignation of Friday or do we have an obligation to advise him of his leave opportunities?
Comments
If you care about this employee then I would follow through with some advice on the leaves available to him.
I say all this not knowing what "rehab" means here, or anything else about this employee.
My HR mentor used to say "always accept a resignation when offered." It gives you a greater degree of control over the situation.
Obviously the cautious approach would be to try to advise the ee of his options. I don't know if a statement to that effect was made.
The ee was incommunicative, uncooperative, removed his belongings, and walked off his job.
I think you could make a case for honoring the request for termination regardless of the "rehab" comment.
I'll argue (and there is no question the right jury will buy it) that the ee believed he had no recourse and left. It was the employers responsibility to notify him of his options. That's why I think they should have dug deeper to determine if FMLA was an option.
He threw the grenade in the room and ran. Now they have it in their hands and don't know what to do with it.
Well, I guess you can just terminate me, I'm gay;
or
The employee, upon returning from the hospital, said, I guess you can just terminate me, I'm losing my eyesight;
or
I guess you can just terminate me now, I just turned 50...
I think, under those circumstances, you'd probably say, "whoa, whoa, we don't terminate people for...."
Although I admit that "rehab" is vague, I would probably proceed with caution. I can just hear the plaintiff's lawyer's closing arguments in my head...
Evan
Fray - Space Family Robinson. I would love to have one of those robots!
Anne in Ohio
I always feel a little shaky if all we have is a verbal resignation. Among other things, our Policy Manual requires a written resignation. But now that the EE seems to want to return to his job, he could easily claim that he never resigned....and then it's your word vs. his word. I think it's even more unclear if you never formally (or even explicitly verbally) accepted his "resignation". Further complicating the "resignation" situation is his most recent inquiry "whether he still had a job or had he been terminated?"-- that would indicate pretty clearly that he did not intend to resign....and was maybe just going on his own assumption that you would be terminating him because of his need to be absent for rehab appointments?
But there's also the FMLA thing going here: as others have pointed out, the situation with his injury and his reference to "rehab" are enough, I think, that you'd be required to advise him of his FMLA rights, and allow him his entitlement of unpaid leave to complete his rehab and then return to work.
So, unless he's a poor-performing EE whom you'd be wanting to get rid of anyway, I'd say let him return to his job, and if he needs to take time out for rehab, allow him to do so under FMLA. If you decide not to allow him to return, I'd be extremely careful how you handle it.
The best thing about this post is that you recognized a need to get someone else's opinion in this action and that is a real plus for you and this FORUM.
PORK