HELP...Stress and Termination in Texas

sgarcia

We had an employee who came to work on Saturday and left to go the emergency room because she was stressed. She came to work on MOnday and told her boss that she was not going to do the 2 most important parts of her job because it stressed her. She was not leaving unless we fired her. First question...does her er visit fall under workmens comp? Can we fire her??....she knew these two functions were part of the job when we hired her.

Don D

I would not assume this visit to be workers' comp nor would I make the leap of considering that her 'self defined stress' will allow her to cherry-pick her job duties. My job stresses me too and I'm sure yours does as well. If your company is subject to FMLA and if she qualifies and gets medical certification indicating a need to be absent or accommodated because of a medical condition, FMLA or ADA may fit. Unless and until all that develops if it were me, I would tell her she must perform her assigned duties. If she insists that she has a medical condition that will interfere with the performance of her job, I would suspend her without pay for a defined period of time with the instructions to complete the FMLA paperwork and return it to you. If that does not happen, I would terminate her. If you excuse her from duties that stress her, get ready for the line to form.