evaluations

[rbruns]

What is the name of your state? south carolina

after 8 days in the hospital and 1 week light duty (viral stomach infection), my evaluation was downgraded my illness documented in my evaluation and i was given a choice to leave or be demoted. i took the demotion from accounts payable (ap) manager to ap clerk as well as the pay cut. the environment has been horrible for me. the people that worked for me are now peers. i just discovered my new manager has shared my evaluation as well as other employees with peers. this cannot be legal. please assist

 

[Sinsaint26]

First off, how many people are employed at your company and how long have you worked there?

 

[rbruns]

i have been with the company for 5 years. started as a ap clerk was promoted to manager and was manager for over 2 years. the company is the 2nd largest construction company in the u.s. this office has about 50 employees. accounting has 9

 

[Sinsaint26]

Does your employer offer FMLA? If there are at least fifty employees, by law they must. Your condition would have qualified for FMLA but only if the company has enough employees that they must follow this law. If they do have enough employees and they didn't offer you FMLA then they violated the law. Once on FMLA none of these absences can be held against you in any decision regarding your employment. Okay, I would be counting all the employees very carefully and if there are any other offices within seventy-five miles of your office you need to count those as well. Please write back so I can explain your options if you were not offered FMLA and you should have been.

 

[rbruns]

i had sick time and short term disibility to cover the lost time while i was ill. the company does offer fmla

 

[enjay]

Were there other factors resulting in your demotion?

 

[Sinsaint26]

Regardless of your sick days and disability, your company should have offered FMLA and days under FMLA are not to be counted when determining employment issues. You should first call your state's Department of Labor office and speak to a representative who can advise you of your options. They will ask you if you want to file a complaint and you should say yes. They will send you a complaint form. You do not need to actually file the complaint but I will get to this issue in a minute. You should then go to your employer's HR department and discuss the fact that you were never offered FMLA and due to this fact, the company is now using these absences to demote you. Make it clear that if these absences had been designated FMLA days as they should have been, no adverse employment action could be taken against you for the days you missed. Hopefully they will see the error of their ways, correct the problem and you can throw out the complaint form. If they don't, when the complaint comes in the mail, get it filled out and sent back.

 

[Sinsaint26]

enjay, even if there were other factors it doesn't matter. They used days that should not have counted against her when making the final decision to demote her.

 

[rbruns]

not that i am aware of...all my quarterly evaluations were meet or exceed expectations until i returned to work from being ill. that is why i got promoted to manager and as manager, the evaluations were all good. the deal i made with the controller when i took the demotion was that no one would know it was a demotion and it was played off that i needed less stress. now i find out that the assistant controller, my new boss, told everyone and shared my evaluations with peers. i have not told the controller or president what is going on, the 2 individuals that told me are not willing to sign an affidavit, scared they will lose their jobs. pitting me against my boss with the controller won't work, she will just lie and he does not have a very strong disposition, ie she will walk over him, i am looking for another job. my boss also gives me the most menial of tasks even though i did the ap side of her job, i am not the only one she is doing this to, the same is happening to the office manager but she does not know why she is being treated like an outcast, i did not tell her about the her evaluations being shared...options?

 

[enjay]

Sinsaint...don't you have to actually invoke FMLA? It's been my experience that an absence of any length is not automatically assumed to be FLMA leave.

 

[Sinsaint26]

enjay, No, you do not need to invoke FMLA. I am certain she told her employer that she was not at work because she was in the hospital. That is enough on her part to make them aware that this could be a qualifying FMLA condition. As such, her employer should have at that point made her aware that the condition may qualify under FMLA and given her the certification for her doctor to fill out. One need not specifically state "I need FMLA", in her case just saying "I am in the hospital" would be sufficient notice.

rbruns, an employer telling about a work situation, even if you believe it to be a private matter is not illegal. Treating employees badly is also not illegal. Not allowing you to use FMLA is illegal and that needs to be your focus. Even if you are looking for another job, you may want to clear up the demotion situation. I doubt you want to explain to prospective employers that you got demoted if your current employer chooses to relay that information.

 

[rbruns]

i am surprised, i thought evaluations were somewhat taboo in that it releasing this information has created horrible environment for me. what constitutes hostile environment?

 

[Sinsaint26]

A hostile environment is one based on an employee being singled out for unfair treatment based on age, race, gender, religion, disability, filing a complaint with a government agency or refusing sexual advances. This is a condensed list of things but your situation would not fit into a hostile work environment.