Treatment & Sick Leave - Ethics Question

I don't think it is unethical. You are following the policy as it is written.

Thats a pretty amazing policy!  I understand your delema, it seems somehow like you are scamming the system to return to work just to reset your sick leave, but I don't think thats the case.  If you feel like you can be productive and actually help, then its a bonus that your time gets reset.  You never know.  You may end up feeling up to working during part of your rads.  I have heard of moms with young kids working through tough chemo treatments! 

Whatever you decide, I hope that you have a happy holiday!

ZT,  what you are doing sounds very ethical to me.   You are returning to work for a week when you are fully able to work....that's what one is supposed to do.  Good luck with rads

Honestly it may be the policy but I might not be comfortable using the full amount of leave after the "reset."



I worked through rads. For most of it, I did take a couple of hours off each day--so left earlier than I would have. Because the SEs are cummulative, I did take more time off at the end. You might want to consider scheduling something like this and then you will not be burning on your leave or feeling uncomfortable.

I don't think it is unethical.  I went out on STD when I had my BMX last January.  I stayed out until I was done with chemo.  Then I went back for 3 weeks and then went out again for my exchange surgery for reconstruction.  I have worked hard all my life and have only been out on STD for issues with pregnancy and for a car accident.  I wanted the focus to be on me getting better than on a stressful job.  Take care of yourself!  I was lucky to have good STD insurance through my employer.

Good luck!

You may not need to miss work during radiation treatments. My treatment time was after work and I did not miss any work during the 33 treatments. I did get tired and uncomfortable toward the end of the seven weeks, but I managed by not placing many extra demands on myself and going to bed a little earlier than usual. Wishing you the best!

I have a similar policy and was troubled by similar concerns but managed to reconcile them.

Nobody had put me ON sick leave after my lumpectomy (part of my workload was reassigned; the rest they just deemed deferrable. Yup, made me feel really valued.) Those arrangements were made by my director. I had completed the paperwork to allow employer's physician to speak with my surgeon, but HR dropped this ball when the person quit. So thinking everything was handled and no news was good news, I carried on doing all of the non-reassigned work, in fact working at or above the contractually "full time" hours on a modified work program throughout, i.e., in NO week was I under the contractual weekly hours, although I worked in bed quite a bit to start. For 2 or 3 weeks, I returned entirely live and in person to the office, but those duties continued to be reassigned for continuity purposes (think school term). Nobody asked me for any doctor's note, because of course nobody knew I was "off".

Then I got my path report and demanded a mastectomy and the surgeon booked the date. Told director, who arranged to extend the replacement duty thing. Likewise was back working immediately initially from bed and putting in full time hours.

As I was recovering from that, one day, I got an email from HR saying "please fill in the forms for LTD" and I said "what?? I have worked full time hours as I was told to "do whatever I can, don't worry about it", and by the way, I was BACK and available to work for two weeks before leaving for mastectomy." I guess my department had just got around to asking when they could be credited for the cost of my replacement, or something, and because of their employee quitting and not telling anyone about my file, HR said "what sick employee??" Union got involved and much acrimony ensued. Long story short, I insisted that they consider me only fractionally sick during all the time I was off, and they agreed but they would not retroactively fix their error in considering me "off" between surgeries or back when I was back, or indeed at any point prior to the date of the doctor's letter permitting me to work which included several weeks while we argued about this whole thing and tried to wake the slumbering surgeon to get the return to work okayed.

My big concern was that I knew that I would have another mastectomy and reconstruction and I was worried about them chewing through my sick days with administrative incompetence. However they assured me the clock would reset for my next incident, even if it was BC related. As I was not at that point out of pocket at all, and this was making me sicker than any of the treatment, I let it go. In fact, the grief they gave me was one major factor in making me lose my concern with minimizing my medical footprint on operations. I could not be more compassionate with them than they were with me. That was my ethical line in the sand.

So I am with those who say the company could have made the policy different and they didn't. t might have been intentionally negotiated to be the way that it is.

I felt that BC was one "sickness" and all the related treatments would be connected and that was largely what was getting me most exercised about the whole mismanagement of my file. However, HR explicitly said it is not per diagnosis or disease. It is per disabling condition. It is the mastectomy which disables me from work, not the breast cancer. A second mastectomy is a second, separate disabling condition. Likewise, radiation disables you separately from surgery. Don't trouble yourself about it -- it's what they intend. Give thanks to those who negotiated your contract too. I do appreciate those who did mine. It's a compassionate plan (just made hamhanded in the implementation.)

Like others, I have the feeling you will not need sick leave at the beginning of radiation.  I took one day off toward the end due to fatigue.  Best wishes!