I had surgery on the 19th of May, and have been out of work since then. I have short and long term disability, and have been healing well. I’m planning for my surgery, my HR department sent me a package with everything in needed to know about my leave. They told me I would get 3 months FMLA, then an additional 3 months, for a total of 6 months of leave. This is what I’ve seen them do for other people at work too. One guy had a stroke, they knew he couldn’t come back, and they made my boss wait 6 months to replace him. My shift was short a guy for 6 months because of it.
Today I got a phone call. It was my HR department. My next appointment is on the 14th, and I’m likely to be released to return to work, with some restrictions. They decided to call me today, on my birthday, to tell me they are terminating my employment. They essentially fired me, over the phone. They said I can come back still in the future, basically that I’m eligible for rehire. She tried to make it sound like it was positive, it’s just a medical separation. Ugh!
So now I guess I’m gonna lose my health insurance even sooner than I anticipated. The lady said they’ll send me a packet for maintaining benefits, I’m guessing cobra. Happy birthday to me, right?
TLDR – I got fired in the middle of medical leave, over the phone, on my birthday.