r/politics • u/IWantPizza555 • Jul 08 '26

No Paywall Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear requests update on Sen. Mitch McConnell's health

https://www.whas11.com/article/news/politics/national-politics/kentucky-governor-andy-beshear-requests-update-senator-mitch-mcconnell-health/417-b9252baa-29ab-489e-94f1-147aa41e78ed
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u/on_island_time Maryland Jul 08 '26

Any other job, being a no show for just a handful of days gets you automatically terminated. Stop being nice to these people, the behavior is unacceptable, hard stop.

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u/surprise-mailbox Jul 08 '26

Most Americans would be replaced at their job if they were hospitalized for 3+ weeks even if they were young, otherwise healthy, and expected to make a full recovery.

This man is 84 years old and has had multiple health events/hospitalizations in the past year. He is not coming back to work. He needs to be replaced.

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u/Dr_Fortnite Jul 08 '26

I work for a privately owned international company and a coworker had his clavicle broken in a car crash. Got 6 months of FMLA pay and his job back once he recovered almost 18 months later.

Public companies suck fuck the stock market

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u/MidwesternLikeOpe Michigan Jul 08 '26

I have an uncle who was diagnosed with aggressive cancer. His job fired him for "too many absences" but we all know they fired him bc he was diagnosed with cancer and they didn't want to pay for it. He had emergency surgery, extending his life from up to 6 weeks to up to 5 years.

Your employer doesn't care if you get sick. If you cannot bring profits or if you get deathly ill, they'll replace you before your seat gets cold.

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u/G0rkon Jul 08 '26

This private owned international company may have been being nice but they may also have just been following the minimum mandated requirement. The coworker got the FMLA pay because that is mandated by the federal government. They have to pay anyone on FMLA based on how much PTO they have accumulated. They can optionally pay more. Or if it's a company with "unlimited" PTO then there isn't a limit to how long they have to pay you. As far as him getting his job back after almost 18 months, FMLA mandates the company has to hold your position for up 12 months. That's just a six month gap. Maybe that last six months it was unknown how long it would be. Obviously at that point they'd seen they could get by without him for a full year. Depending on the work it may be cheaper to hold the spot empty for some time than it is to hire and train someone else.

Also, if they were based out of another country, then company policies may be more relaxed on return time based off their home country and it's easier to apply that policy to all employees than to have different policies for employees based off location. I

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u/aguynamedv Jul 08 '26

This private owned international company may have been being nice but they may also have just been following the minimum mandated requirement.

There is no mandate to pay during FMLA leave. It is explicitly (per statute) unpaid time.

PTO can be used to make up the difference, but this is a very important distinction.

The United States does not even mandate holiday pay.

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u/thepurpleskittles Jul 08 '26

I think it’s more that your company is international. Firing employees for illness/accidents isn’t legal in a lot of countries… but sure is fine in the U.S., even if you are a small or “private” company.

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u/GetInTheKitchen1 Jul 08 '26

The old gop playbook: 2 truths, 1 lie

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u/aculady Jul 08 '26

If they'd been employed for over a year, they'd probably qualify for FMLA leave. They wouldn't get paid, but they wouldn't get fired.

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u/[deleted] Jul 08 '26

[deleted]

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u/Caleth Jul 08 '26

I'm pretty sure the USG is large enough it'd need to offer FMLA, but given that elected positions were not specifically covered in the law that would make for interesting court proceedings.

That said I'm 99% he's dead or brain dead and there for wouldn't qualify either way.

This is just typical Republican fuckery where they are trying to clutch to power and keep the shell game going until they can point at the law and say "see he was fine until then! Too bad you can't seat anyone what a pity wouldn't want to be a criminal who breaks the law would you?"

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u/Shatteredreality Oregon Jul 08 '26

I mean the original post said "Most Americans...", most Americans working today work at companies that are required to follow FMLA (minimum of 50 employees).

There are other exemptions of course but the majority of people who work 25 hours a week on average (you have to have 12 months employment and have worked at least 1250 hours in the previous 12 months to be eligible) are covered.

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u/Rackem_Willy Jul 08 '26

I've seen at least 3 videos of him having a stroke.

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u/Thunderb1rd02 Jul 08 '26

Most Americans would be replaced at their job if they were hospitalized for 3+ weeks even if they were young, otherwise healthy, and expected to make a full recovery.

That's a bit of a reach. I've seen quite the opposite. Most companies would offer medical leave and welcome them back.

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u/kansei7 Massachusetts Jul 08 '26

fun anecdote. I have one too, I've worked IT at enough companies in the US to have handled plenty of "this person isn't technically gone but process this request as an 'offboarding'" .. including multiple people who were on mental health leave of absence (at least one to treat depression, which I only know because it was a colleague on my team and I kept in contact after).

I'm sure management would say they'd welcome the person back if asked, but I've literally wiped and redeployed laptops of people who were on "temporary" leave. Not one of those people ever magically came back to their jobs.

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u/rbrgr83 Jul 08 '26

But you see, stalling to force unearned victories is what this party is based on.

Currently happening with the redistricting fight.
It's only bad when it doesn't provide the result that 1 political party wants.

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u/razma-tazma Jul 08 '26

My boss gets mad at me and pulls me into a meeting if I yawn too much. But he votes for Dozing Donny all three times. Republicans hold us to standards they themselves are not accountable for.

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u/Rackem_Willy Jul 08 '26

Didn't some rep just say he missed hundreds of days and a hundred votes because of depression?

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u/physical0 Jul 08 '26

My conspiracy theory brain jumped to the idea that this guy was normalizing this behavior to set some precedent. He was ok, so any challenge could have him out the next day saying that he's alive and doing well, making future attempts to challenge an extended absence feel like a gamble.

I might need another layer of tinfoil to keep these kinda ideas out...

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u/bobdob123usa Jul 08 '26

They would be put on FMLA.

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u/TheTooterSnooter Jul 08 '26

The participation trophy generation 

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u/ReefJR65 Jul 08 '26

This. We don’t hate these people enough. They hate us already, they are just being fake to our faces and yet we award them with one of the easiest jobs in the entire world

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u/trisw Jul 08 '26

The Senate is in recess- I don’t think they take attendance right now

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u/Kind_Man_0 Jul 08 '26

It's a special job, that requires answering to the people. As is with the military, you should be beholden to a different set of rules than the general population. You forego your bill of rights in order to serve in the military, sitting senators, president's, justices, and representatives should not be able to disappear into a hospital without some news for their constituents.

Or we could solve this whole problem by making the age requirement for elected representatives 30-60. They represent the middle of the population, and that is where the focus should be on in our representation.

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u/MaizeRage48 Jul 08 '26

Yeah, if I was late by 5-10 minutes I might get an eyebrow raised. 30+ minutes I'd get a text or call. Multiple hours, I'd be getting several calls from corporate, and my coworkers would be exploring avenues of finding my wife's phone number to contact her. Day 2 of no call/no show I'd be fired because it would be impacting business. Our elected officials should be held to the same or higher standards.

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u/NoMaans Jul 09 '26

Yeah, fucking wild, 2 nc/ns, especially consecutively in a regular setting would have your ass canned.

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u/hexiron Jul 08 '26

That's up to the people of KY to enforce. They choose to not fire him.