While most claimants and insureds say their employers “are on their side” during periods of absence for disability, in reality that may not be the case outside of what they are told in person.
The primary goal of all employers is to ensure a well qualified staff who is at work every day and who is able to perform jobs in keeping with the goals and objectives of the company. Perceived personal relationships with managers and employers DOES NOT supersede that goal. Although it is less threatening for insureds to believe employers are helpful and supportive, in most cases, employees about to go out on disability rarely know all of the back biting going on behind the scenes.
In my experiences with disabled workers, it’s apparent that employers often “set the stage” to rid themselves of employees who cannot do the job, or, who are having difficulty performing as required. Once it becomes known that a certain employee is having difficulty due to a disability, employers begin to “pad the personnel file” with probations, job failures, and frequent absences. Employers assign projects they know the employee will not be able to do, in order to bolster the severity of failure. All the while, managers may still be “supportive” sounding to the employee knowing full well they will be terminated in the future.
“Oh no, my employer would never do that!”, many insureds tell me, but truthfully, there are probably a lot of people reading this article that are nodding because of experiences with employers as I’ve described them. It is also true that we all work at the discretion of employers and can be fired for any reason, real or made up, if the employer’s needs are to have workers who are not disabled.
Employers sometimes also “set up” their employees so that they can be terminated and denied eligibility to group LTD benefits. It would be hard for me to describe specific examples since there are so many, but one that comes to mind are employers who offer disabled employees new positions within the company with less hours under the “minimum hours worked requirement” so that if they had to go out on disability, they would not be eligible for STD/LTD. Employees who initially thought this was a good thing, eventually find out how wrong they were to trust their employers.
The purpose of any company’s Human Resource Department is to protect the company from liability, not to protect employees. The idea that HR will stand behind employees is a fallacy. Unum, for example, told employees to submit complaints to EEOC and Human Rights Commissions through its own HR Department and then kept the complaints on someone’s desk beyond the filing period. If Unum’s employees were actually aware of how deceptive the company is in dealing with disability claims, they would probably leave for better opportunities.
What seems to make matters worse is how little employees understand about FMLA (Family Medical Leave Act), paid vacation and sick days etc. It’s easy for employers to take advantage when employees aren’t aware of the leave process.
FMLA is a federal law applied to all companies with 50 or more employees. It protects the employee’s job and benefits for a period of 12 weeks. FMLA is UNPAID leave that runs consecutively with STD, which is usually for 26 weeks. At the end of the 12 week period, employers will send out letters asking if the employee is able to return to work. If not, employers can terminate the employee with the blessing of the federal government. Claimants often misunderstand that FMLA is UNPAID leave, and is only an administrative formality that has nothing to do with group benefits.
Most employers file for FMLA on behalf of the employee, but the paperwork is messy and lengthy. Forms for FMLA are in addition to those for STD/LTD and many claimants become frustrated with the busy work of filling out forms, not to mention treating physicians. Employers may also require employees “to use up” unpaid sick and vacation time before receiving STD that has the effect of pushing out the begin date for benefits – also confusing for employees and claimants.
My message here is that employers are very seldom “in your corner” when it becomes known you will be applying for LTD and won’t be returning to work. Employers may not be truthful about what they really want to happen and can often discriminate against employees diagnosed with breast cancer, cardiac issues, and pain. For example, a recent victim of breast cancer described her employer’s systematic “padding of her file”, moving her to a new position, and multiple probations in an effort to get her to leave the company. Another Unum male employee was discriminated against after he had a heart attack. Employers are not always the supportive “friends” you think they are.
Finally, employees are not required to inform employers what their disability is. And clearly, no one should EVER RESIGN when leaving work due to a disability. Please read my other article about Resignations if you need more information about this.
Employees should NOT trust employers to act in their best interests. I know this is hard when managers and supervisors close to you are smiling and telling you how sorry they are, and will help anyway they can. Maybe your employer’s intentions are good, but it doesn’t last long. If you find yourself a victim of discrimination, or employer “file padding” file a complaint to the regional Human Rights Commission and EEOC.
Remember, the primary goal of any employer is to maintain a reliable workforce that can perform jobs as expected. No personal relationship with managers will supersede this one objective. Be smart, and don’t be fooled.
