[Stoat]

What’s wrong with getting unpaid leave? They aren’t getting paid.

Many online commenters are making this point, but there are also responses similar to this::

If you read the whole piece it says 3rd paragraph from the bottom "The council admits the move will cost extra money." Okay, it also adds "but claims the amount will be limited" but it is still going to be money coming out of taxpayer's funds.

But, this is not just about the money. If you have people taking time off for surgery then who is going to do their work? Their colleagues will probably have to cover for them but I doubt they will be able to do 2 people's work without there being a backlog and if that happens in say the Social Services department then we are going to end up with more kids being abused by adults but slipping through the system because of lack of staff.

Garsinho, Manchester
15/01/2009 at 13:45

 

[dilvish]

Well there will be lost work, but in the end it’s unpaid leave. You really have three choices with any kind of medical procedure:
cover it as some sort of short term disability
make use vacation and sick time
let them take the time as unpaid leave

Since these procedures are optional #1 doesn’t really work, that’s really for needed surgeries. So that leaves #2 or #3, #3 is the cheapest for the organization. You could force them to use vacation, but then you’ve got a problem if people can’t accrue enough vacation for surgery recovery. Most places I’ve worked unpaid leave is an option for just about anything, if you need to be away from work for something and you don’t have the PTO you either go in the hole (boss’ option, usually involves paperwork where the boss indicates they don’t intend to fire you before you earn back the time) or go unpaid. Bereavement, plastic surgery, psychological breakdown, the basic structure of PTO or unpaid generally holds and makes sense.

[gracesdad]

“But, this is not just about the money. If you have people taking time off for surgery then who is going to do their work? Their colleagues will probably have to cover for them but I doubt they will be able to do 2 people’s work without there being a backlog and if that happens in say the Social Services department then we are going to end up with more kids being abused by adults but slipping through the system because of lack of staff.”

My experience working both in private business and for the state is that most people preparing for a planned absence, whether for vacation or elective surgery, end up working much harder before they leave and after they return to make up the lost time. Of course this depends on what type of position you hold, but both my wife and I work our tails off before a vacation.