A very troublesome employee has just told you that he wants to apply for FMLA leave because his wife is seriously ill. He has taken leave before because of her illness, and depending upon how you calculate it, may have already taken the maximum amount for the year. You know that if you use a "rolling 12 month period," he will not qualify, and if he is denied leave, he may actually quit, which

Question

would make many people happy. However, your firm's leave policy does not specify how leave taken will be calculated, which means that if he sued and the case went to litigation, the court would apply a "calendar year" calculation for the leave requested, since you've just begun a new calendar year, and under that calculation, he would be entitled to leave. Of the following choices, what should you do?
a. deny the leave, and take your chances; tell him that he's already had the maximum leave under the "rolling 12 month" calculation. He's been far too troublesome for the firm, and his leaving would be a good outcome
b. deny the leave, but tell him that it's because has not been a productive employee, and when he improves, you'll consider more leave
c. grant the leave, and take your chances; maybe he'll straighten out when he comes back
d. grant the leave, and ask how he's doing; tell him that when he comes back, you'd like to sit down with him and see if you can help him resolve the trouble he's been having at work

Answer 1

D