Imagine receiving an FMLA medical certification from your employee, Dan, that has his handwriting all over it except for the physician’s signature. Your fraud radar is screaming, so you want to confirm directly with his doctor whether this document is legit.
But before you can call his doctor to authenticate the document, imagine further that
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.
Russ, a bus driver, takes medical leave from work on 24 different occasions without following the employer’s call-in procedure, and then preemptively provides medical certification from a local chiropractor who is known to churn out FMLA medical certifications like a grandparent who generously dishes out candy to
Every once in a while, my worlds collide in the most unexpected ways.
As a management-side employment attorney, I spend my days in the weeds of the FMLA and ADA. Certifications. Intermittent leave. The interactive process. Reasonable accommodations. You know, the stuff that gets our collective hearts racing.
Every HR pro knows this little workplace miracle.
Just as your office or plant is winding down for Memorial Day—or some other prime-time long weekend—boom: your employee’s chronic condition suddenly flares up like a Roman candle.
What timing.
A total and complete coincidence, right?
Enter Andrew, who worked as a conductor for CSX
There are many holidays I cherish — Christmas, Fourth of July, even St. Paddy’s Day.
But my favorite day of the year? There is no competition.
The arrival of the American Bar Association’s summary of every FMLA case decided this past year.
Yep, you read that correctly. Every little scrumptious FMLA decision.
About mid-February or
Your employee, Thelma, has requested FMLA leave to take her mom, Louise, to regular doctor appointments. Though the appointment itself will take one hour, Thelma wants to schedule it in the middle of the workday and for a total of five hours. The travel, she says, takes “quite a bit of time . . .
Another year in the books—hope 2025 was a big win for your team!
For some, and hopefully all of you, you are ready to pay out year-end bonuses as the final pennies are counted for the year. In the meantime, however, you’ve debated with your bean counters whether you can prorate or deny of a
Today is my birthday! Yay for me!
To celebrate, I am inviting you to a five-day FMLA & ADA Party!
This ain’t no joke. Join me for five days (13-hours!) at an interactive master class that will have you singing FMLA and ADA from the mountaintops!
Think case studies, real-world examples, 2025
Join me for my annual FMLA/ADA webinar, which comes to you, as always, free of charge.
This year’s webinar focuses on how employers can proactively guard against misuse of FMLA and ADA leave.
And there will be singing, plenty of singing.
When: Thursday, December 11, 2025 (12:00 – 1:15 p.m. central time)
Online registration:
John always sat in the same spot in the same pew, positioned about 50 feet from the side entrance of the church.
Deep in prayer, a rosary wrapped around his left hand, John would lift his head and turn toward me as I entered that side door every Friday morning.
With a slight nod of