When I last updated you, we were back from Tampa, and shit was hitting the fan...
If you remember, at the end of January, Hubby missed some time at work, so he submitted a Leave of Absence to cover his ass. He swore up and down that Sedgwick never sent him anything other than a confirmation email (like a "we got your request" kind of email). He waited around for almost a month, because last time we did this whole dance, he was told he wasn't allowed to go to work until the Leave was approved... So he'd just been sitting home all day, every day, waiting for an email or a phone call from them.
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| So we waited.... |
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| ... and waited... |
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| ... and waited some more. |
January became February. We celebrated my 18th Year Quit with some cake (and subsequent gastro issues again, interesting). Mid-February, he wondered if just going back in to work would force Sedgwick to do something... at this point, we thought that there was a glitch in the system and Sedgwick forgot to send us paperwork, so they didn't know that they were waiting for us to return paperwork. During this entire period, he never got a reminder email or phone call. No one from his work called to check on his status. It was just radio silence the entire time. He had requested a full week off for Gasparilla, so when that week was over, he decided it was time to go back to work, and Sedgwick be damned. So on Monday, March 3, he was up and moving around and back to work. No problems, everyone was happy to have him back, but at 3:30 - after a full shift at work - HR called him into the back and told him that on February 27th, Sedgwick denied his Leave of Absence for not returning paperwork!
At this point, he had the option to appeal the denial and hope that it was approved, because otherwise, he would be fired. Walmart has a Point System for infractions. Things like No Call, No Show, or leaving too early, or coming in too late; you get points for these things, and if an employee collects 5 or more points, it's an automatic termination. (Points expire 6 months after they're received). As of March, he had three points on his record, and a Denied Leave Request would garner two points.
Who wants to do the math? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
Yes, that's correct. My husband, who has worked here for almost three decades, would be fired for something as stupid as a denied Leave of Absence. As you can imagine, he was pissed off about this whole situation.
I suggested that he might "sweet talk" the Store Manager into removing one or two of those points (SMs have the unilateral ability to remove points for almost any reason), which would put Hubby in a safe spot, in case the appeal is also denied.
The next day, he was up bright and early, on the phone with Sedgwick, and the person he spoke with was, thankfully, very nice. They said that paperwork was emailed to him on January 20th. He went back to that email (you know, that "we got your request" email I mentioned?) and lo and behold, there was a PDF attached to that email! I'm still frosty that in all the times he checked his email, he never saw the little paperclip icon that's right at the top of the email, near the date! He didn't even have to scroll down to the attachment at the bottom!
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| (This was the only email I still had with an attachment!) |
Anyway, He forwarded the email to me to print at work, but the paperwork looked different from the forms we got last year. This one talked about Short-Term Disability instead of Leave of Absence. So, he got on the phone with them again to request a new set of forms, but they just sent the same forms as the old forms. So we just went with it.
I went through and filled in a lot of the basic info (name, address, etc), then used MyChart to send the forms over to Dr. R, who'd seen him for his chest pain in January, with a plea of please do this or he might get fired! I called the office to ask what their turn-around time was on forms, and the receptionist said that it would take a week! Thankfully, Dr. R saw the urgency, and got them back to me the following day. I had Hubby sign his parts, then scanned the entire thing at work the following morning. I both faxed them and emailed them to Sedgwick, getting confirmations for both methods.
So now, we wait...
He did get confirmation from Sedgwick that as long as the store manager allows it, he can continue to work during the appeal process, so he went back on March 6, and except for a single day here and there, he's had no issues. He's not been sleeping as heavily as before, but a little more deeply than normal. No gastro issues that I've been able to discern.
And on a selfish note, him getting back to normal means that I can get back to normal (even though, yes, I know that he was never barring me from doing anything to begin with); I'm back at the gym doing cardio 4-5 times a week, back at parkrun, and just feeling generally better all the way around.
❗❗❗ UPDATE ❗❗❗
It is May 2nd today, and I'm relieved knowing that there are three points that will expire at the end of the day today, so even if the appeal is denied, he won't be fired because of points. We still haven't gotten any documentation or emails from Sedgwick, but at this point, I don't think it matters too much. Starting tomorrow, he'll only have one point on his file, and the denied Leave will only add two points, so he'll be safe at three total points.
However, he's used up pretty much all of his PTO (combined Vacation and Sick Leave hours), so there's no options for taking time off any time soon! No vacations or road trips in our future. It's put your head down and grind it out time.
