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The Employer Handbook Blog
Articles Posted in Family and Medical Leave
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
When an employee says “I need to get home,” you may already be in FMLA territory
Sometimes a routine overtime dispute turns into an FMLA problem because no one stops to ask the right questions. A new Eleventh Circuit decision shows how easily that can happen.
Continue reading
Back to Basics: The FMLA Doesn’t Protect Poor Performance
When an employee on FMLA leave also happens to be a problem employee, HR can feel trapped. A recent federal appellate decision is a reminder that the FMLA is not a shield against legitimate discipline. If the company can show it would have taken the same action regardless of leave, it is on solid legal ground. Continue reading
How to Calculate FMLA Leave for Employees on Unusual Schedules (Like 12-Hour Shifts with Mandatory Overtime)
When your employees do not work a standard 9-to-5 schedule, calculating their Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) entitlement can get tricky. A new opinion letter from the U.S. Department of Labor clarifies how to handle it, especially when mandatory overtime and optional extra shifts are part of the mix. Continue reading
How Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud Cost an Employee Her FMLA Case
Sometimes, what an employee says about their own abilities can be the employer’s best defense. Continue reading
The six words that helped turn a layoff into a lawsuit
Sometimes it is not the reduction in force itself that creates risk, but the combination of what is said and how the data is applied. In this case, six words from a supervisor, “a potential strain on the department,” together with disputed productivity metrics and the treatment of a pregnant employee returning from FMLA leave, convinced the Sixth Circuit that a jury should decide. Continue reading