What Would You Do?

Rockie

We have a sad situation in our organization. We have an employee who just started less than 2 months ago. She does not qualify for any type of leave. She just found out her 11 month old child has neuroblastoma (cancer) and has to undergo chemo, etc. She really needs a job, but she cannot under any circumstances work 40 hours a week and may not be able to work at all for an extended period of time.

Since she has no leave benefits that she qualifies for, I would suggest that she simply terminate and then reapply for what we have available when she has her situation stabalized. The supervisor is unable to hold her position open indefinitely.

I can't think of another possible solution to this very bad situation.

Whatever

One the few things I dislike about this job is when my heart conflicts with my brain. In this case, I would terminate and tell her she can reapply. However, I wouldn't be a very happy person. Be glad for your heart. Without it, you could not do one of the good things of this job--helping and empathizing with others. As I have been told on other threads, this is what you're paid to do. And, if some of the things you have to do weren't personally painful, you would not be a good person.

HS

Can you switch her to part time hours first, before resorting to firing her? If you can make that accomodation to her schedule, and she agrees to it but doesn't adhere to it, then you can terminate.

My heart is ruling on this one...and sometimes in HR we need to have a heart to do tough things, but also to look at situations a little differently. I see a woman who is going to be struggling with a terrible tragedy and to add losing her job on top of that...Just imagine what kind of employee she will turn out to be if she can come back full time, she'll never forget that you went to bat for her in trying times.

rad

This is a tough one...I like the suggestion of possibly making her part-time though. But you know, if she's not eligible for benefits yet, or as a part-timer, she may be better off not working so she can apply for state health insurance or free care for her child. Good luck...

gillian2

If you can switch her to part time, help her through the thinking process of deciding what is the best approach. If you have an EAP get input from that source. Find out, maybe through the EAP, what benefits she could have if she were not employed and help her through a pro-con analysis of the two approaches - part time and reapply at a later date.