Luke and White Sox closer, Liam Hendriks

I love baseball.

I love the sport so much that, in our family, we are taught that America’s favorite pastime was formed in the story of Creation somewhere between the placement of the stars and Adam’s rib.

As a lifelong Chicagoan, I long for

Ed was an autoworker who dealt with apparent bouts of depression for which he sought intermittent FMLA leave. But he also had fistfuls of unexcused absences, so much so that he stood on the precipice of termination — one attendance point away, to be exact.

Like many good employers, Ed’s employer required him to call

I’ve often wondered — in fact, even discussed with clients — whether an employer could safely approve an employee’s FMLA-related absence and discipline the employee because he failed to timely report the absence.

I’ve theorized that an employer could pull off both because the discipline punished the late call-in, not the FMLA leave.

But I’ve

Kelly, an administrative assistant for Penn State Health, racked up quite a few absences over a short period of time. Some of these absences related to GI issues that ordinarily would be covered by the FMLA.

In Kelly’s case, however, she repeatedly failed to timely report these absences, which led to attendance points.

Penn State

It’s a Friday in the middle of summer. So, approximately half of your workforce called off today due to an FMLA-related absence. [Well, not really, but I’m not that far off, amirite?]

Take heart. At least you’re not the City of Chicago.

As reported this week by the City’s Inspector General, three

Poorly implemented FMLA policies and procedures are in the spotlight this week.  And just a few vague words and a slip up are costing two employers hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Their mistakes, however, are golden lessons for the rest of us.

Confusion Over How Much Maternity Leave is Provided

In Sad Employer Story No.

FarleyI recently had an interesting call with a DOL investigator, and I wanted to share it with you.

First, let me set the background. I represent a large national employer with multi-state locations, including several on the east coast. One of these east coast locations employed Johnny [name changed to protect the guilty],