Hi everyone,
I hope I am posting this in the right place. I have a question for a friend/coworker. We work as shift supervisors for a medical transcription company and we work from home (telecommute), but we are W2 employees with full benefits. A couple of months ago, my coworker's house burned down. She lost literally everything she owned. All she was left with were the clothes she was wearing and her cell phone. Thankfully, no one was home at the time, so no one was injured or killed, but like I said, she lost everything. Nothing could be salvaged. Since then, she has been living out of a very small trailer on her property and working in an even smaller, unheated shed, both of which were loaned to her by a friend. One day a couple of weeks ago, it got down to 20 degrees where she lives and she had no heat in her shed (office). She asked our manager if she could take the day off to arrange to have a propane tank set up to heat her work space. They would not give her the day off. She even went above our manager's head and went directly to the director of the company and she wouldn't even return her email or phone call, so she got stuck working in her freezing cold shed and had to go into her car to get warmed up because it was so incredibly cold. Her insurance company finally paid for her to get a brand new mobile home and she has had several workers at her house for the entire past week or so working on removing what is left of her old house so that the new mobile home could be delivered to her property. Even though she has several workers there, there are several things that she is responsible for doing and her new mobile home can't be delivered until she gets them done. She has had to keep postponing the delivery of her new mobile home because she can't get any time off of work to get anything done. This past week, she called HR to request a brief leave of absence so that she can get everything in order and get her new home delivered so she can get out of this tiny trailer that she's been living out of and the shed that she has been working in and into an actual home with a real office setup. She left a voice mail for HR, but HR never called her back. Instead, the director of the company called her back and said that she would not be allowed to take any time off at all, not one single day.
Here's my first question: Isn't it a violation of her confidentiality for human resources to give this type of information to other people in the company that have nothing to do with HR without the employee's permission?
Secondly, doesn't HR legally have to handle any requests for a leave of absence, not pass it off to the director of the company?
I am absolutely floored at the way the are treating her. She has been an EXTREMELY loyal employee for 6 years and has done everything for this company. She even works a lot for free off the clock outside of her normal schedule and has never been paid a single dime of overtime (a whole other issue). This woman NEVER asks for time off and the one time she does, they treat her like this. Even after her entire house burned down, she was back to work within a week. That was her first concern, getting back to work ASAP. She is afraid to report them to the labor board or anyone else for fear of getting fired. I know that she legally can't be fired for reporting this and it's making me so mad to see her treated this way. Does anyone know what rights she may have regarding getting time off so that she can have her new home delivered and get settled in? This poor woman has been living in this tiny little trailer and working out of a tiny, unheated shed for 2 months. I'm not sure if FMLA would apply in this situation since it isn't medical-related, but there has to be something that gives her the right for some time off given the situation. She's not even asking for that much time off, probably just a week or two. If anyone has any advice that I could pass onto her, I'd greatly appreciate it! Thankfully, I just got myself a new job and am getting away from this horrid company, and I know my friend is now on the job search as well after the way they've been treating her!
I hope I am posting this in the right place. I have a question for a friend/coworker. We work as shift supervisors for a medical transcription company and we work from home (telecommute), but we are W2 employees with full benefits. A couple of months ago, my coworker's house burned down. She lost literally everything she owned. All she was left with were the clothes she was wearing and her cell phone. Thankfully, no one was home at the time, so no one was injured or killed, but like I said, she lost everything. Nothing could be salvaged. Since then, she has been living out of a very small trailer on her property and working in an even smaller, unheated shed, both of which were loaned to her by a friend. One day a couple of weeks ago, it got down to 20 degrees where she lives and she had no heat in her shed (office). She asked our manager if she could take the day off to arrange to have a propane tank set up to heat her work space. They would not give her the day off. She even went above our manager's head and went directly to the director of the company and she wouldn't even return her email or phone call, so she got stuck working in her freezing cold shed and had to go into her car to get warmed up because it was so incredibly cold. Her insurance company finally paid for her to get a brand new mobile home and she has had several workers at her house for the entire past week or so working on removing what is left of her old house so that the new mobile home could be delivered to her property. Even though she has several workers there, there are several things that she is responsible for doing and her new mobile home can't be delivered until she gets them done. She has had to keep postponing the delivery of her new mobile home because she can't get any time off of work to get anything done. This past week, she called HR to request a brief leave of absence so that she can get everything in order and get her new home delivered so she can get out of this tiny trailer that she's been living out of and the shed that she has been working in and into an actual home with a real office setup. She left a voice mail for HR, but HR never called her back. Instead, the director of the company called her back and said that she would not be allowed to take any time off at all, not one single day.
Here's my first question: Isn't it a violation of her confidentiality for human resources to give this type of information to other people in the company that have nothing to do with HR without the employee's permission?
Secondly, doesn't HR legally have to handle any requests for a leave of absence, not pass it off to the director of the company?
I am absolutely floored at the way the are treating her. She has been an EXTREMELY loyal employee for 6 years and has done everything for this company. She even works a lot for free off the clock outside of her normal schedule and has never been paid a single dime of overtime (a whole other issue). This woman NEVER asks for time off and the one time she does, they treat her like this. Even after her entire house burned down, she was back to work within a week. That was her first concern, getting back to work ASAP. She is afraid to report them to the labor board or anyone else for fear of getting fired. I know that she legally can't be fired for reporting this and it's making me so mad to see her treated this way. Does anyone know what rights she may have regarding getting time off so that she can have her new home delivered and get settled in? This poor woman has been living in this tiny little trailer and working out of a tiny, unheated shed for 2 months. I'm not sure if FMLA would apply in this situation since it isn't medical-related, but there has to be something that gives her the right for some time off given the situation. She's not even asking for that much time off, probably just a week or two. If anyone has any advice that I could pass onto her, I'd greatly appreciate it! Thankfully, I just got myself a new job and am getting away from this horrid company, and I know my friend is now on the job search as well after the way they've been treating her!
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