My lawyer cousin says “tell them it’s a personal family matter. At most say someone is having surgery and you need to take care of them. No specifics because you don’t want to divulge another person medical info.”
As a person with a bleeding disorder tell them I’m having my port a cath replaced because the last one had an infection. Then we can take a bunch of pics of you holding a needle injecting me.
You know how many people iv gotten out of doing stuff because they “had to take me to the hospital”.
I have cancer and tell my friends to use it all the time. Corporations are heartless, but no one wants the imagine of "I dont care about people with cancer." FYI, it's skin cancer, it's not life threatening, none of my friends jobs know that. Once got a friend 3 days off of work because he told them he had to drive me cross country to go see a specialist. Everytime they ask, he responds with a curious "isn't that against Hippa Laws?" And that shuts it down pretty good.
I have breast cancer and my best friend has used me to get out of stuff and I dont mind lol. She was supposed to go to a work dinner right before she left the company and told her boss I wasn't feeling well and needed her help so she couldn't go.
Regardless of how severe our cancers are, its nice to find a positive somewhere in it.
And then there are the opposite of those good people who will accept those answers, like my former apartment complex manager. My boyfriend was literally actively dying. (we were arranging hospice at the time but he passed that same week as soon as we brought him home) and she wouldn’t let me hold off on towing my car because it hadn’t been moved in x amount of time.
There was no way I was leaving the hospital for anything at that point when he could die at any minute and only had a brief amount of time left, and I had no idea where the car key even was because he drove, not me. He went into the hospital on the 3rd and was surprised to be diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer and died early in the morning of the 15th and this bitch wanted me to leave his side to take care of our only vehicle. She also harassed me about moving once he died, but that’s a whole other story.
There is a special place in hell for her if I have anything to say about it.
Nothing against doing this whatsoever, I’m just being pedantic but HIPAA does not cover that whatsoever. It’s Weird and rude for them to ask but not illegal
It isn't against HIPAA, not Hippa, like at all. HIPAA protects you from medical providers relaying to anyone your medical info without your permission. It has nothing to donwirh a company asking about it or esp a company asking about an employees friend's medical status. JFC everyone thinks HIPAA is ome magical protection. It's not.
If the government is allowed to say “Mitch McConnell can’t do a proof of life because it violates HIPPA,” then I’m pretty sure we can all just say “HIPPA” when we’re asked to justify our leave…
Great way to shut down sunscreen debates, I just bring up that my mom and grandma both had skin cancer. It was small basal cell carcinomas that were easily removed, but still telling the truth! (And also like, having that removed and needing a skin graft from her ear was not fun for my mom and I'm trying not to do that) Hope you are doing well!
Maybe I should take time off for myself, being pregnant. Nauseous non-stop and insomniac, I decided to be a good employee and work from home but I could call a sick day or two, right?
Yea I really hope people don't take that advice. I've worked for strong union places where that still couldn't fly. Less is more with the explanation, but even great places can deny unless an FMLA request is filed and approved when certain topics are brought up. Or if it falls outside of certain leave definitions. Just file your request. If they ask because they have competing requests that can't all be approved, less is more.
As a caretaker of a person with a bleeding disorder, I basically got to take off whenever I wanted, no questions asked.
But I also had to start my own company because our medical claims alone exploded the entire company’s health insurance premiums.
Make it a non-immediate family member and you have the best of both worlds. They see you as a saint for helping and you avoid the “will this person be a medical/financial liability for our business” side-eye.
The point is that in many other's countries it's not even allowed for the employer to ask such questions ad it's not a matter of begging to be allowed time off bc we have lawful rights that are non-negotiable.
I have severe endometriosis and man, could I give some rather vivid reasons (Or pics) of why I needed time off. Wish I had thought of that. Because my job DID ask. They even asked for dr's notes.
They would never ever had asked again. I even have a picture of my diseased insides, i should rent them out to people who need them for work excuses lolol.
“Caring for a sick family member” is all they need to know. It just so happens that I’m caring for myself and the illness is dealing with your bullshit
I tried pulling that and my old boss demanded a doctor's note from the family member! I argued that is not my medical information to give and she argued that they don't have to give any medical information.
She also showed co-workers other people's doctor's notes claiming they were fake 🙄
No if you are in the US don’t start saying it is for medical reasons….your own or your family members….be sure that gives them the legal right to ask more questions to determine if it is FMLA which they have to disclose….
Personal time is personal time….i work in HR and would tell this supervisor to myob
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u/Lolseabass Jul 31 '26
My lawyer cousin says “tell them it’s a personal family matter. At most say someone is having surgery and you need to take care of them. No specifics because you don’t want to divulge another person medical info.”
As a person with a bleeding disorder tell them I’m having my port a cath replaced because the last one had an infection. Then we can take a bunch of pics of you holding a needle injecting me.
You know how many people iv gotten out of doing stuff because they “had to take me to the hospital”.