and she’s exactly what you’d think. I overheard a Zoom between her, let’s call her Kathy, and her colleagues, discussing the leave of absence requests of two women.
One of the women, Jane, lost her son three months ago, hit a deep depression and went into a financial tumult. She is currently facing eviction from her home. She has been on a leave of absence from Coke since April, and was seeking an extension until August 1. Her manager, Kyle, had sent her letters asking for her to file for FMLA or STD. Since Jane has been in-between residences because of the whole eviction thing, she didn’t respond. Kyle had then called her to check up on her status and tell her to file the paperwork, because they didn’t actually approve Jane’s initial leave of absence after she lost her son, so she’s been on unapproved leave. Jane has not filled out the paperwork to get on FMLA or STD – likely because she LOST HER SON, IS SEVERELY DEPRESSED, AND IS GETTING EVICTED.
Upon hearing Jane’s situation, Kathy said that she was “100% no” on approving her leave of absence extension, saying that Jane should’ve filed the paperwork and repeating over and over that Kathy was paying her benefits and Jane wasn’t working. You know, because the giant mega-corporation can’t afford to give this lady a month’s worth of insurance. Sure. She asked why Jane hadn’t given them specific paperwork (a grown-up version of an absence note from your parents you’d give your high school to be excused) from a clinician, to which her colleagues responded that Jane could not afford a doctor. What did Kathy end up deciding on for Jane? Sending her a mandatory return-to-work date, and insisting (despite her colleagues’ protests) that if she doesn’t return to work, they fire her as soon as possible. Holy shit.
Now, what about the second woman and her request? Let’s call her Mandy. Mandy has a deteriorating quality of life because of an unnamed medical condition (from what I could piece together – how expensive the treatment has been, how little she is able to do, etc – I believe it might be cancer) and is physically unable to work most days. She IS on STD and FMLA, and has not been to work in a few months because of her condition. She received nagging, as they planned to do for Jane, to return to work. So, she filed paperwork to try and have an accommodation put in place for her return to work… the accommodation being not working (genius, IMO). This was the request in question – this accommodation to return to work and simply not work.
How did Kathy react? Well, the request absolutely infuriated her, and she simply said “no, I’m not accommodating.” When her colleagues pressed a little to get her to maybe put it in writing why she wouldn’t accommodate, she, like a child, yelled, “AM I LEGALLY REQUIRED TO PUT IT IN WRITING? I DON’T HAVE TO ACCOMMODATE. I AM NOT REQUIRED TO ACCOMMODATE.” Why did she protest writing it down so much? Well, “I have zero empathy for nonworking human beings and see them solely as money down the drain,” probably isn’t an acceptable reason to write down, which would’ve made it difficult, I’m sure. Instead of offering an alternative solution, such as putting her on LTD or working something out, she requested that Mandy’s manager call Mandy and figure out exactly what her condition was, so she could figure out whether to fire her or not. For fuck’s sake.
Anyway, yeah. Neither woman got their request approved. Fuck Coke, and fuck the capitalist culture that rewards this apathetic, money-driven behavior.