New Employer Requiring Me To Disclose Nature of My DD's Dr. Visit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Wow this response is full of wrong or incomplete information. FMLA covers unpaid leave. If OP has sick leave as part of his employment benefits that kicks in as soon as he starts work, then he is entitled to use that sick leave immediately, he doesn't have to wait the 12 months for FMLA.

You are right. But the prior post was in response to someone who said the leave would be covered under FMLA. That is highly unlikely in a new job because of the mandatory waiting period for FMLA coverage.

It's clear the company's sick leave policy covers appointments for kids because the boss didn't say it had to be for OP. The boss instead asked about the medical needs of his minor child. So the policy covers family members. If a policy permits the use of sick leave for immediate family members, the company must apply this equally to all employees and cannot selectively approve sick leave on this basis. It's either covered or not, and we can presume it is covered or the boss would have said "our sick leave doesn't cover family members."

Yes that was made clear in the prior post. If the leave is available by policy or collective bargaining agreement, it must be allowed if the criteria for its use is met. It is incumbent on the person seeking to use the leave to demonstrate entitlement.

Regardless, the boss cannot ask for details about medical needs or procedures. It's a violation of privacy and will be especially protected because OP is talking about a minor child.

This is not necessarily correct. An employer can collect medical information. If this were FMLA, provision of medical information is mandatory. If there is no state law prohibiting the collection of medical information, it is likely permitted as well. There is simply no blanket bar to this.

The boss can ask for documentation of the doctor's appointment, and some employers do this to ensure employees don't use sick leave inappropriately. However, you don't do this by asking directly for medical info, which is illegal. Instead you let your employee know they should submit a note from the doctor to the appropriate department (payroll or HR, who can verify the note and ensure the time is correctly approved as sick leave) within a certain number of days after the appointment. The boss never needs to see the note himself and should go out of his way to avoid asking for medical details.

Again, it is incorrect that the boss cannot ask for medical information. However, I agree that companies who do make the request should have policies to ensure confidentiality. That is not the subject of the post though. OP wanted to know if this is something employers actually do and the answer is unequivocally yes.

I do think it's bad form for a workplace to ask for a doctor's note for an occasional short absence for an appointment, simply because it can be annoying to get these. My husband's office did this when I was pregnant, and for some reason my OB's office had trouble producing them, and it was a whole drama every time he accompanied me to an appointment, to the point that it actually ate up more of our time and made us later returning to work than we would have been otherwise. As a boss, I've only ever asked for documentation when I need it for another reason, like getting okayed on for temp assignment to cover someone or to process disability paperwork. That's for serious illnesses where someone can't work, not for a doctor's appointment. I've never asked any questions about a standard 2-3 hour absence for an appointment, that's none of my business.

I think there are plenty of employers who do need to collect this type of information. If your workforce has a CBA or has employees who frequently abuse leave and make misrepresentations about it and the abuse causes problems getting the work done, then it makes sense to have strict policies. And, once the policy is put into place, it tends to apply to the entire workforce. So, if you work someplace that employes people with all ranges of jobs, from unskilled labor to attorneys and C Suite staff, you're going to see high level staff stuck with these requirements. There are entire departments that have responsibility for absenteeism management in these types of organizations.

Even for FMLA you don't have to give a diagnosis. The form asks about hospitalization or whether the condition requires at least 2 appointments per year or prescription medications. The employer I've dealt with on FMLA doesn't want to know the condition. They just want the paperwork. Even if they need to get a second doctor involved (at their expense) because they don't believe the one who signed the form, that doctor still wouldn't need to reveal the diagnosis, just that there was one that meets the criteria.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Wow this response is full of wrong or incomplete information. FMLA covers unpaid leave. If OP has sick leave as part of his employment benefits that kicks in as soon as he starts work, then he is entitled to use that sick leave immediately, he doesn't have to wait the 12 months for FMLA.

You are right. But the prior post was in response to someone who said the leave would be covered under FMLA. That is highly unlikely in a new job because of the mandatory waiting period for FMLA coverage.

It's clear the company's sick leave policy covers appointments for kids because the boss didn't say it had to be for OP. The boss instead asked about the medical needs of his minor child. So the policy covers family members. If a policy permits the use of sick leave for immediate family members, the company must apply this equally to all employees and cannot selectively approve sick leave on this basis. It's either covered or not, and we can presume it is covered or the boss would have said "our sick leave doesn't cover family members."

Yes that was made clear in the prior post. If the leave is available by policy or collective bargaining agreement, it must be allowed if the criteria for its use is met. It is incumbent on the person seeking to use the leave to demonstrate entitlement.

Regardless, the boss cannot ask for details about medical needs or procedures. It's a violation of privacy and will be especially protected because OP is talking about a minor child.

This is not necessarily correct. An employer can collect medical information. If this were FMLA, provision of medical information is mandatory. If there is no state law prohibiting the collection of medical information, it is likely permitted as well. There is simply no blanket bar to this.

The boss can ask for documentation of the doctor's appointment, and some employers do this to ensure employees don't use sick leave inappropriately. However, you don't do this by asking directly for medical info, which is illegal. Instead you let your employee know they should submit a note from the doctor to the appropriate department (payroll or HR, who can verify the note and ensure the time is correctly approved as sick leave) within a certain number of days after the appointment. The boss never needs to see the note himself and should go out of his way to avoid asking for medical details.

Again, it is incorrect that the boss cannot ask for medical information. However, I agree that companies who do make the request should have policies to ensure confidentiality. That is not the subject of the post though. OP wanted to know if this is something employers actually do and the answer is unequivocally yes.

I do think it's bad form for a workplace to ask for a doctor's note for an occasional short absence for an appointment, simply because it can be annoying to get these. My husband's office did this when I was pregnant, and for some reason my OB's office had trouble producing them, and it was a whole drama every time he accompanied me to an appointment, to the point that it actually ate up more of our time and made us later returning to work than we would have been otherwise. As a boss, I've only ever asked for documentation when I need it for another reason, like getting okayed on for temp assignment to cover someone or to process disability paperwork. That's for serious illnesses where someone can't work, not for a doctor's appointment. I've never asked any questions about a standard 2-3 hour absence for an appointment, that's none of my business.

I think there are plenty of employers who do need to collect this type of information. If your workforce has a CBA or has employees who frequently abuse leave and make misrepresentations about it and the abuse causes problems getting the work done, then it makes sense to have strict policies. And, once the policy is put into place, it tends to apply to the entire workforce. So, if you work someplace that employes people with all ranges of jobs, from unskilled labor to attorneys and C Suite staff, you're going to see high level staff stuck with these requirements. There are entire departments that have responsibility for absenteeism management in these types of organizations.

Even for FMLA you don't have to give a diagnosis. The form asks about hospitalization or whether the condition requires at least 2 appointments per year or prescription medications. The employer I've dealt with on FMLA doesn't want to know the condition. They just want the paperwork. Even if they need to get a second doctor involved (at their expense) because they don't believe the one who signed the form, that doctor still wouldn't need to reveal the diagnosis, just that there was one that meets the criteria.

To add, one of the times we used FMLA, there wasn't even a diagnosis yet. Just a mystery issue that ultimately required over 10 medical visits and multiple medications.

Also I doubt any CBA would require a note for one appointment, but if they do, that's what the boss should have said and the note about having a visit should go to HR, not the boss. Our CBA requires a doctor's note after 3 consecutive sick days, but in practice, it's only enforced when there's suspected abuse.