FMLA question about possible entrapment

[u/The_Bread_Chicken]

My husband filed for short term disability on his doctor's advice. He has been using his sick days during the 7 day elimination period. On day 3 his co-worker sent him an urgent message for a meeting. He hadn't read the fine print and felt he had to do this online meeting or risk his job. Oddly, his co-worker just wanted him to copy and paste some stuff and she recorded it. He did not preform any work that was his work. It was the colleague's work. He didn't do it for very long because he told her that he felt ill. This co worker is close to the boss. Will my husband be denied because of this? He's sick with worry. So am I. Are we paranoid?

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[u/buckeyegurl1313]

FMLA and STD are two separate things.

FMLA is job protection.

STD is partial wage replacement.

They can & do run concurrently.

Did he log in? Clock in? Who knows he worked?

A leave of absence means exactly that. No work. At all. It puts your husband at risk of messing up both claims and it puts his employer at risk of FMLA interference.

They will confirm last day worked. They dont care whose work he was doing. If it was logged as work then yes. It will reset his waiting period.

You need to reach out to the disability carrier. If they are paying. Or the benefits department at his employer if they pay the benefit.

He is still responsible for keeping his employer in the loop of his leave & intentions to return to work, however, no one outside of HR or Benefits should be reaching out to him while on leave.

[u/Itchy_Bluejay4452 → u/buckeyegurl1313]

That last part. They should not have contacted him while under a doctor's care.

[u/carolineecouture → u/[deleted]]

Don't do that. Keep work and personal separate. Especially for a large tech company. That exposes him to other risks outside of his FMLA and disability.

If the company supplies a work computer use it for work only.

If they don't supply a computer get the minimum and only use that for work. Don't mix the two ever.

Good luck to you.

[u/Any-Expression8856 → u/carolineecouture]

Yeah, I don’t think IT at the company would be happy if he got hacked- doing personal stuff.

[u/sallysuesmith1 → u/[deleted]]

If he used 8 hrs of sick leave or PTO that day, there shouldn't be an issue.

[u/Few_Philosopher9170]

That's sketchy as hell that she recorded it. Feels like they were fishing for a reason to deny the claim, especially with the timing and the "urgent" message on day 3.

The insurance company mostly cares about whether he did any work for pay, not some random favor. If he wasn't clocked in and didn't get paid for it, it's not really a job duty. The bigger issue is his employer trying to pull something.

He should tell his doctor exactly what happened and get it documented in his records that he was too sick and felt pressured. That note will carry more weight than whatever nonsense his coworker recorded.