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The Employer Handbook BlogThe Moment FMLA Protection Kicks In Might Be Earlier Than You Think
It didn’t take a formal leave request. It didn’t take a doctor’s note. One email asking for FMLA forms was enough to trigger retaliation protection.
Articles Posted in Family and Medical Leave
Before You Fire Someone for FMLA Paperwork Problems, Make Sure Your System Worked
A 19-year employee couldn’t reach his FMLA administrator. The phone system hung up on callers at 5 p.m. An HR rep told him not to worry. Then he was fired for dishonest FMLA reporting.
How Much Control Does It Take to Become a Joint Employer? DOL Proposes an Answer.
Three administrations, multiple rules, and still no settled federal standard on joint employment. The DOL’s new proposed rule is the latest attempt to end that uncertainty.
He Was Put on a PIP the Day He Returned From FMLA Leave. His Employer Still Won.
An employee returned from his third round of FMLA leave and found a performance improvement plan waiting for him. That looks terrible. But a jury will never hear about it.
Diagnosis: Not FMLA retaliation, just skipping work for a job interview
Some employment cases hinge on timing, comparators, or complicated workplace dynamics. This one was simpler. A resident skipped work for a job interview and then sent what his supervisors viewed as a contemptuous email when asked about it. Continue reading
How Not to Handle Suspected FMLA Abuse
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: it’s the Monday after the Super Bowl, an employee with approved intermittent FMLA leave asks for a personal day, gets denied, switches to FMLA, and later finds himself terminated for “abuse.”
That is not a hypothetical. It is essentially what happened in a recent decision out of the Southern District of West Virginia, where a federal court refused to throw out an employee’s FMLA retaliation claim and sent the case to a jury. Continue reading
Governor Murphy Just Expanded the NJ Family Leave Act – Here’s What Employers Need To Know
Governor Murphy just expanded the New Jersey Family Leave Act. It reads cleanly in the statute. It reads a little differently once you try to apply it to real people and real leave requests.
These amendments are not cosmetic. They expand coverage, accelerate employee eligibility, and formally connect NJFLA to New Jersey’s paid-leave system. For employers, this is a structural change in how leave has to be managed. Continue reading
FMLA Travel Time and Snow Days: What the DOL Just Clarified
Two different HR questions triggered two formal FMLA opinion letters this week – and both answers will feel uncomfortably familiar to the employers they affect.
On January 5, 2026, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division issued six new opinion letters in total, addressing a mix of FMLA and FLSA issues. One addresses a routine leave-administration issue faced by virtually all employers; the other zeroes in on a recurring leave-accounting problem unique to school employers. This post covers the two FMLA letters and kicks off a three-part series unpacking what employers should take from the full batch. Neither answer here is surprising. Both are easy to get wrong. Continue reading
FMLA or Not, Performance Still Matters: This Case Shows Why
When criticism stays focused on performance, and not on leave, employers are on stronger footing. This decision shows how that plays out. Continue reading