Don’t know where else to ask this. I’m going on FMLA next month because of a surgery. My supervisor was very upset over this. His initial reaction was to make a veiled threat to fire me, which I quickly shut down. Last week I got my approval letter from HR, and forwarded it to my supervisor, who’s been pretty distant since. He’s upset because I’m a lead, and they won’t let him replace my position for three months I’m on FMLA. I don’t intend to return from FMLA, he knows that, but I need the insurance those three months.
Now he’s backed off firing me, but I heard from some of the other leads that he’s thinking about just demoting me out of my lead position my last week before leaving. I’m well aware he can’t legally do that. Even so, if he did it would only affect my vacation pay, as I still collect vacation hours during my FMLA leave, and I would lose about $80 from the resulting pay cut to those vacation hours. Everything else for me would be the same, at least as far as I can tell. My issue is him planning this in the dark. If I go talk to him and offer to step down, the next guy in line can get a $4 pay raise taking my job, and I like that idea for him. However, I don’t want to reward my boss for being an ass, not to mention I haven’t fully confirmed stepping down wouldn’t hurt me beyond that $80. I’m really torn on what to do here.
I wonder if I do nothing this time, and avoid reaching out to HR again, and allow him to make the mistake of demoting me. Maybe I could allow him that opportunity, then sue the company? I probably have to give HR the opportunity to correct it first.
TLDR boss wants to demote me before taking FMLA so he can replace my job. I’m torn on being an ass or not.