From migraines to rheumatoid arthritis, serious health conditions aren’t always predictable. In fact, many with an intermittent disease know that flare-ups can happen at the most inconvenient times.
That’s why Colorado’s Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI) program allows workers to take intermittent leave, meaning they can get pre-approved leave for times when they can’t plan or predict when a serious health condition forces them to step away from the job.
But just because some health conditions may not give advance notice before they strike doesn’t mean that workers and employers can’t take some crucial steps to make intermittent FAMLI leave easier to manage.
Here are five tips for using intermittent leave, so you can take care of yourself and get back to work as smoothly as possible:
- Make sure intermittent leave fits your situation.
Intermittent means “not constant or steady.” We like to compare intermittent to the word “irregular” – meaning that you can’t predict when you’ll need it. Say you have a medical event where your doctor wants you to reduce your work schedule from 40 hours a week to 20 hours a week. That type of leave should be filed as a “reduced work schedule,” not intermittent, because you know in advance when you’ll need to be out. Intermittent leave is for conditions that strike without warning, like debilitating migraines. - Keep talking to your employer.
Say you’ve been approved for an intermittent leave claim, then your health condition strikes, and you need to claim a day of FAMLI leave. Your employer won’t automatically know that! If you wake up one day and find that you are unable to work for a reason covered by FAMLI, you are still required to let your employer know as soon as you can. - Talk to us, too.
While on intermittent leave, you also report your leave hours each week to the FAMLI Division. It may seem odd to report leave hours both to the FAMLI Division and to your employer – but remember that you still have to tell your employer about your absences from work. We have a how-to video that walks you through this process. - Keep your hours straight.
Let’s say your employer and FAMLI inadvertently pay you twice for the same time you were on leave. If this happens, your employer may require you to pay them back for some or all of what they paid you, depending on the nature of the payment and whether or not there’s an agreement to “top off” your FAMLI pay. - Know when you’ll get paid.
No FAMLI payments are sent until a claimant has missed eight hours of work. So if you’re on an intermittent leave, and your first couple of absences are just a couple of hours each, be prepared to wait for your first FAMLI payment until you log a total of eight hours of leave.
We get it. Intermittent FAMLI leave can be a real challenge to manage, just like the serious health condition that caused it. But if workers and employers try their best to communicate when they’ll be out and when they’re coming back, intermittent FAMLI coverage can help mitigate the financial pressures that unpredictable health conditions can cause.
Need more help managing intermittent leave? Our FAMLI experts are standing by to help. Email us at CDLE_FAMLI_info@state.co.us or call us at 1-866-CO-FAMLI any weekday between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. MT.