Workplace advice

I guess I am not down with the nitty gritty details of the law- but medically necessary is just that. I do know my hubby was required to fill out FMLA paperwork to garner time off to help me with some of the recoveries over the plethora of surgeries I have had, but I have never had to fill out paper work. Just submit the leave request (like normal) along with a letter from the doctor confirming the time off needed medically. I would like to assume that if the original decision was not legal, it doesn't matter that she did not get it in writing... but that would be an assumption. 

I dont understand the question I guess

You had surgery, and were out of work for two weeks and didnt think they would use your PTO for that? I used my PTO time for my surgery (I had on Thursday, back to work on Monday) so I lost 2 days of PTO in my bucket

I dont see where the issue is I guess?

Its not sick time, it was planned time off :\

The only other option would be if you had maybe short term disability, you could make a claim for the time off for recovery. Maybe.

My PTO was NOT supposed to count against my surgery since I was being placed on medical leave. It was planned out long before my surgery ever happened. But, afterwards they decided since I had an "elective surgery", I couldn't use my medical leave time.

Ohh... now I am wondering if I am misunderstanding a bit. I used to work in a hospital and had PTO- that would have been used in this case, as it is not exclusively intended as vacation time but rather sick leave and vacation time combined with it not mattering how you use it in that instance. Compare that to my teaching job- we have no vacation time per contract, only 10 sick days that can bank if not used, and 2 personal days that you can only use for "buisness that cannot be completed outside of school hours"... but the personal days cannot officially be used as a sick day, nor a sick day as a personal day. Hence, as a teacher my medical leave was paid only because I used my sick days- had any of my recoveries taken longer than 20 sick days, then and only then would benefits kick in that would stop using my sick days and be covered under short or long term disability.  In the hospital situation, once I ran out of PTO I was just out- I don't recall having short term disability benefits provide, although I will fully acknowlege I was so young I might not have noticed it was part of the benefit package.

So in a nutshell- they should not question the use of your PTO. If it is a paid leave that is different than using your PTO, I am much less familiar with that situation. I know in my district we have a sick bank that all teachers are required to donate 1 or 2 of their sick days to. Then, if someone goes out more than 20 days but not long enough to kick in the disability they pull from the sick bank- but that seems to be completely at the discretion of my district. For example, one male teacher was granted access for paternity leave. A cancer patient was denied despite having full documentation of the illness/chemo, etc. (not me, a different teacher). The teachers were PISSED, because the male teacher was a faimly friend of the superintendent and the teachers with cancer are crazy discriminated against. At the end though, even with the cancer teacher having a SLEW of teachers volunteer to gift her sick days, they still did not allow it. Asshole move, and I am not sure if it is legal or not as this poor teacher was just going through some seriosu **** and did not have the energy to fight it other than contacting the union to inquire if she could even be denied in that situation. 

It is absolutely and unequivocably sick time. FMLA- sick time may be used for going to doc appointments, surgery, recovery- not just of you but of immediate family members as well. 

Sick time can absolutely be planned- you would know in advance if you have a doctors appointment or surgery. It doesn't make them any less "sick time" per fmla. In other words, sick leave is for more than just waking up with the flu or something- it covers more than those type of scenarios.

Dunno then. Our scenarios are all different with our employers

For me, if I am sick and I do not come in to work at all, I lose a day of PTO. If I come in and cannot make it thru and I leave, I'm fine.

We dont have sick time + PTO, only PTO. My last job had both. That was probably the only good thing about it, though lol.

Even if I could have put my surgery time off under my sick time (if I had any) I dont know that I would have, just from my personal opinion on it. I chose to have surgery. Its time I am choosing to have off work technically. I should be responsible for using my accured time off. Again, thats just my opinion on how I would do it, and not saying its right and everyone else is wrong :P

My surgery wasn't considered elective because it was for a "serious health condition" (morbid obesity). I had to get documentation from my surgeon and I needed all my ducks in a row about a month before surgery. They sent me a letter of approval to use short term disability, but I did have to pay myself one week of PTO per protocol before STD kicked in. 

I really hope you can get it straightened out, and I'm really sorry your workplace is so bigoted. I've dealt with some of those things at work too, and it feels really ugly.

I work in an OR and was working in a plastics room one day. The surgeon made fun of the anesthetized patient (who'd had a RNY, lost weight, and was having a breast reconstruction) and berated bariatric patients and surgeons in general. He said, "I don't know how Dr. I (who ended up being my bariatric surgeon) does it. It's like putting an armani suit on a homeless person." Insinuating that we don't deserve to look good and be healthy, etc, because we're all just fat slobs. He went on to tell us this patient's starting weight (around 280) and said, "You really have to work hard at getting that fat. You pretty much have to eat constantly. Isn't that right, Cheryl? (the tiny scrub tech)" I just sat in the corner doing my charting and cried to myself. So, yeah. People out there have ridiculous ideas and some of them feel the need to express them. It's not right.

Sounds like bullying to me, since it was already "planned out". I'd have a meeting with them about it because that doesn't sound fair to me. I don't think they can legally arbitrarily "decide" not to give you a pre-agreed upon medical leave just because they feel like it. Unless it is part of the language in a "medical leave policy", where elective surgeries would not be covered. That would be their only leg to stand on. Good luck girlie 

Policies do not normally cover elective- only medically necessary. If her insurance treats this the same as a gallbladder surgery or something, medically necessary. The only time my district really questioned me very indirectly was with my reconstruction surgery post double mastectomy- and it is not that they officially questioned, but rather that was when I could tell the administration didn't feel like it "should count" and started harassing me in other ways if that makes any sense.