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Not a good night


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Pretty upset tonight. 
After 23 1/2 years of useing just a handful of sick days per year. I get an email from the chief that I’m abusing sick time, and that future use of sick time will be closely monitored. 
I’ve had several illnesses this year including kidney stones requiring surgery, bad reaction to second Covid vaccine, then contracting Covid, and some oral surgery. This year I have used 29 sick days. 
 Four of those sick days were to take care of my wife after Chemo infusions. 
I’m so discouraged.

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Do you have the opportunity to meet personally with the chief and discuss the problems you've been plagued with this year?  He may have just looked at a spread sheet total without knowing what's really going on.

 

I hope you get this issue resolved.

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It’s a small department of 21 officers including the chief and captain and 3 detectives.

I emailed a reply since it was Friday night when I got the email after he has left for the day. Yes, he sent me a spread sheet of all the time I used.

I gave explanation for all the used days. Anything over two in a row requires a doctors excuse which I always turn in. He knows about majority of the time used. 

I guess the discouraging thing is the lack of concern and jumping right into the sick time abuse accusation, adding that future sick time will be closely monitored. 

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5 minutes ago, Abilene Slim SASS 81783 said:

It’s possible his inquiry/notice is required by law and not a jab at your integrity. You’ll know after a face to face meeting. Good luck!

Nah, there is no law governing our sick time use. Luckily we have a contract and the FOP. 
Any face to face with this man is useless as he is never wrong. 

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Without making this “all about me” I must say I understand your frustration. After years of service to my current agency they actually held the 5 months off I incurred due to a work related injury against on my annual review. I got injured because safety isn’t first, budget is. 
 

Bureaucrats are what they are and they have no honor and their only loyalty is to how they appear to their evaluators and those that do their evaluations, which includes whether or not they can “control” their staff’s attendance. 

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23 1/2 years?  I think I'd consider going another six months and then retiring.  Maybe a second career with a private outfit....possibly at more money and a shot at a second retirement down the line.

 

But then again, I had a lot of jobs over my lifetime and the longest was eleven years, second longest was six and I retired at 58.

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4 hours ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

23 1/2 years?  I think I'd consider going another six months and then retiring.  Maybe a second career with a private outfit....possibly at more money and a shot at a second retirement down the line.

 

But then again, I had a lot of jobs over my lifetime and the longest was eleven years, second longest was six and I retired at 58.

I hit full retirement at 25 years April 2023 

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God, can they look any dumber?  Has the moron heard of the FMLA?  Whoever is in charge of HR should be ashamed of themselves for letting this letter go out. 
 

Best,

 

Dutch

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33 minutes ago, Dutch Coroner said:

God, can they look any dumber?  Has the moron heard of the FMLA?  Whoever is in charge of HR should be ashamed of themselves for letting this letter go out. 
 

Best,

 

Dutch

FMLA is a great protection...but is for extended illness/recovery...and is a hassle to get the paperwork done.

 

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I pray you see this through for the 25yr.

I am seeing many of our LEO being 'pushed' to 'leave' , for vast reasons.

Many companies are pushing hard to get folks close to retirement to 'go'.

35 years with the company and Shanley is ready to take retirement early...the polotics of the company has been changing the last 10 yrs...and the last 2 have been pretty clear.

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9 minutes ago, Singin' Sue 71615 said:

I pray you see this through for the 25yr.

I am seeing many of our LEO being 'pushed' to 'leave' , for vast reasons.

Many companies are pushing hard to get folks close to retirement to 'go'.

35 years with the company and Shanley is ready to take retirement early...the polotics of the company has been changing the last 10 yrs...and the last 2 have been pretty clear.

 

If only my company would offer early retirement... I'd JUMP on that. Alas, they would rather make crap up and fire long term employees.

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Just now, Dantankerous said:

 

If only my company would offer early retirement... I'd JUMP on that. Alas, they would rather make crap up and fire long term employees.

We would TAKE an early retirement package today...but they are not offerring anything.

 

We will retire by 62 regardless....

With the stiffleing air in the world today, it could be sooner.

 

 

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1 minute ago, Singin' Sue 71615 said:

We would TAKE an early retirement package today...but they are not offerring anything.

 

We will retire by 62 regardless....

With the stiffleing air in the world today, it could be sooner.

 

 

 

I am hoping to be out by 60. Staying longer actually pays less pension. That and I have no desire to waste any more time at that place.

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I have worked for 2 Government agencies, and hated to politics in both. I have had "bosses" (in name only, mostly incompetent) say they were going to "watch me" because of something I did they didn't agree with. I let them watch me, who cares, I was doing nothing wrong and was proved out every time. Makes them feel like they are important.

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If you don't have an Association or if it's useless, see a lawyer specializing in labor law and wrongful dismissal.

 

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12 hours ago, John Barleycorn, SASS #76982 said:

After 23 1/2 years of useing just a handful of sick days per year. I get an email from the chief that I’m abusing sick time, and that future use of sick time will be closely monitored. 
 

They are telling you that you are nearing pension age, and are too expensive.
They are laying the ground work to terminate you and wipe out your pension.

IBM did that to a slew of us as we approached the 25 year mark.
I was given the choice of taking a pittance for severance, and leaving... or getting fired and leaving.

We were replaced by new hires at a fraction of our salaries.

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Alabama is a right to work state...meaning they can terminate you for any reason, any time.  I worked for a municipality for 24 years, 11 months.  A new council did away with my position without a moment's notice.  The way they did it, I lost a little over 400 days of sick leave that could have been credited towards my retirement.  

 

Politics suck.  

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1 hour ago, Dantankerous said:

 

I am hoping to be out by 60. Staying longer actually pays less pension. That and I have no desire to waste any more time at that place.

Shanley has a very limited pension...came into the game just before companies cancelled pensions and went 401k.

Looking at trying to hold out to 59 1/2 !!!

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13 minutes ago, LawMan Mark, SASS #57095L said:

Alabama is a right to work state...meaning they can terminate you for any reason, any time.  I worked for a municipality for 24 years, 11 months.  A new council did away with my position without a moment's notice.  The way they did it, I lost a little over 400 days of sick leave that could have been credited towards my retirement.  

 

Politics suck.  

That is one reason I do go for Unions...

Shanley is 'vested' after so many years...so they can not touch what is earned.

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35 minutes ago, Singin' Sue 71615 said:

That is one reason I do go for Unions...

Shanley is 'vested' after so many years...so they can not touch what is earned.

Yep, I was fully vested at 12 years and can take a reduced pension starting at 20 years. With a year and a half to go to hit my 25 year mark and full pension I’ll hang til then. He’s retiring in 2024 so I might hang on and see what change of leadership brings. The terrific health insurance we have is the only reason I would stay. Beth’s Chemo infusions are fully paid. 

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In 27 years of law enforcement, which involved 7 years at one agency and 20 at another, I found one common denominator.  Upper management was only concerned with a few things.   One of them being public perception and another being the bottom line.  I saw so much money being spent on recruitment and so little being spent on retention, especially retention of valuable seasoned employees.  In my estimation, you are a exceptional employee. Do not let this knock you down.  Family is family, sick is sick and the benefit that is in place to help family is yours to use as necessary. Stay true to your family and yourself, God Bless and prayers to all of your family.  A department head with wisdom is not the norm.  I hope I am not offending anyone with a LE background but it is what I have seen all too many times.  

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15 hours ago, John Barleycorn, SASS #76982 said:

Pretty upset tonight. 
After 23 1/2 years of useing just a handful of sick days per year. I get an email from the chief that I’m abusing sick time, and that future use of sick time will be closely monitored. 
I’ve had several illnesses this year including kidney stones requiring surgery, bad reaction to second Covid vaccine, then contracting Covid, and some oral surgery. This year I have used 29 sick days. 
 Four of those sick days were to take care of my wife after Chemo infusions. 
I’m so discouraged.

I got the same from Ma Bell many years ago. 17 years without a single sick day. Then had to have pituitary surgery and was out for less than 2 weeks when the Doctor wanted 6 months. Came to work sick in the following years before retirement. They asked why I wanted to retire early.!:ph34r:

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I'm sorry that you're dealing with a jerk.  In my 45 years as a teacher and administrator I dealt with many similar people in positions of power.  In a number of cases, I had the good fortune to watch Karma finally catch up with them.

 

Hang in there!  With a little perseverance you can outlast this dirt bag. 

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If your wife is going to need you to take additional time off during her chemo treatments, I would highly recommend getting the FMLA paperwork filed.  It protects you and employers are really hesitant to mess with employees on FMLA.  Hang in there another 1 1/2 years and it will be worth it, I promise.  I spent 35 years, 3 weeks and 2 days in Law Enforcement.   I swallowed so much crap my last couple of years, I gained 10 lbs.  I retired at the age of 55.   My revenge comes every month in the form of a direct deposit.  

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13 minutes ago, Badlands Bob #61228 said:

If your wife is going to need you to take additional time off during her chemo treatments, I would highly recommend getting the FMLA paperwork filed.  It protects you and employers are really hesitant to mess with employees on FMLA.  Hang in there another 1 1/2 years and it will be worth it, I promise.  I spent 35 years, 3 weeks and 2 days in Law Enforcement.   I swallowed so much crap my last couple of years, I gained 10 lbs.  I retired at the age of 55.   My revenge comes every month in the form of a direct deposit.  

We will be looking into FMLA. The infusions are every three months and she’s only down a few days after. So I’ve just used sick days and nothing was said. But now that I’ve had a few illnesses of my own the days to help Beth are now an abuse because I’m not “sick”

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14 hours ago, John Barleycorn, SASS #76982 said:

I hit full retirement at 25 years April 2023 

 

9 hours ago, John Barleycorn, SASS #76982 said:

Yep, I was fully vested at 12 years and can take a reduced pension starting at 20 years. With a year and a half to go to hit my 25 year mark and full pension I’ll hang til then. He’s retiring in 2024 so I might hang on and see what change of leadership brings. The terrific health insurance we have is the only reason I would stay. Beth’s Chemo infusions are fully paid. 

Hang in there, you guys are on my prayer list now. I was fortunate, my last 13 years were under one of the best Supervisors I ever worked for. Be safe.

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As a supervisor in LE, sick leave usage was one of my pet peeves also so I can see this from both sides.   I have had officers build a day and take a day.  That made it difficult to let people off because I still needed people to cover the shift.   The FMLA makes your sick leave usage a non-issue.  They can't use it against you for promotion or penalize you at evaluation time if you have FMLA approved.  I worked in a larger department with over 1,000 employees so we had an HR department to handle FMLA.  

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1 hour ago, John Barleycorn, SASS #76982 said:

We will be looking into FMLA. The infusions are every three months and she’s only down a few days after. So I’ve just used sick days and nothing was said. But now that I’ve had a few illnesses of my own the days to help Beth are now an abuse because I’m not “sick”

If your department head had any honor he would have asked if FMLA would help you. Since he didn’t use it to protect yourself…as it was intended. 
 

Check this out:

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/theerant/police-officers-rights-under-the-family-and-medica-t22391.html

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I find the type of behavior by his superiors, described by John Bareycorn and others here, absolutely appalling and disgusting.

I count myself fortunate to have worked for the City of Ottawa, who went out of their way to protect and assist all staff members, short or long term; Civic, Police, Fire and Paramedic, who fell ill and required time off and/or additional help.

It showed up in the dedication of the staff and the loyalty displayed in their actions.

 

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Sick days are yours to use same as vacation days.  My dept was fire, but we had thousands of us in a major city and admin rarely contacted firefighters &/or paramedics.

 

Take care, John.

 

Wolfy

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