while you are on leave.
You need to get your own computer.
Don't use them people computer while you on leave.
Them people watching everything.
Welcome to the Trill MBA Show, the career management podcast teaching black women how to become unstoppable at work.
I'm Felicia Ann Rose Enuha, AKA the Trillest MBA, delivering the inspiring truth through strategies and tactics so you feel protected.
confident and ready to conquer your career.
Welcome back to the Show.
Look, today I ain't gonna hold you long, but I have some very important things that I need to talk with you about as far as girl, you gotta take your leave.
Okay?
It's crazy out here.
It's stressful as hell.
And you owe it to yourself to put yourself first.
And I know you probably out there.
going hybrid in the office three days a week at least.
If not, you working for some company that wants you to come in every day.
So now you got to commute and deal with all that stuff.
And then you got to deal with them people at work.
Girl, it's a lot.
And so now that we are through Q1 and well into Q2, I need you to start preparing and planning because a lot of these companies are on their ish.
because of the environment.
And you don't have to be subjected to all of that.
And sometimes people need to miss you.
And if they don't miss you, i.e.
they decide when you get back, they gonna let you go.
Well, you gonna be prepared anyway.
After you listen to this episode where I'm gonna break down step-by-step the things you need to do and think about in order for you to take your medical leave so you can get a
break.
and you can care for yourself and put yourself first.
Let's talk about preparing for your leave.
A couple things I need you to understand.
If you are having performance issues, i.e.
if you've just had a performance mid-year review or you had your performance review earlier this year and it wasn't looking good for the kid, as long as you're not on a PIP,
and a PIP is a performance improvement plan,
or other companies call them some kind of corrective action, I've heard that.
So as long as you're not officially in a system on a plan, hurry up and take your leave, okay?
Now, them people might argue that, we were gonna let you go, but they ain't pulled all their documentation together yet.
So...
I need you to hurry up and take your leave and follow the things that I'm about to tell you in this episode.
I'm hoping though that I'm talking to someone who you've got solid performance scores, know, your boss, y'all look cool.
Okay.
But things are stressful and you do need a break.
So evaluate number one, where are you in your work?
situation.
If you're having a good situation, you just need a break.
This is chef's kiss for you.
Okay.
If you have a sick somebody in your family and you need a break to take care of them, I'm going to give you the tips to do that and still get your money.
The other thing though, if you are not having a good experience right now at your job, like you're furiously looking for another job, you can do nothing right.
things are looking sideways, but they haven't officially put you on a PIP, then you need to expeditiously do the things that I'm about to tell you to do.
So now, after you've evaluated your situation, I want you to go on your company's good intranet or wherever they keep the employee resources where you can see your benefits,
where all the things are.
And I need you to find your company's policy around leave, FMLA, around
short-term disability and the process to do that.
Now, most big companies, and I can only talk through what I know, guys, and what I know are these Fortune 500s, Fortune 1000s.
They usually have a third-party administrator that handles all this.
you'll see there's a phone number that you call and that's who you tell first that you would like to take leave.
But first thing I need you to do is gather information.
Don't.
talk about taking leave.
Don't even say anything about you gonna take leave.
Don't tell your boss ahead of time.
Don't say nothing, okay?
You do not have to tell these people.
That is mistake number one.
We'd be thinking we supposed to, like, that's the right thing to do and we gotta do the right thing.
No, the right thing to do for you is to keep this to yourself, okay?
That's number one.
And gather the information.
So gather all of the information that you need to take leave.
The other thing I need you to do is if you haven't already, I need you to get a primary care physician that will listen to you and they will fill out paperwork for you.
So I want you to make a doctor's appointment and you're gonna get that form.
It's called a PHQ-2 or PHQ-9.
Usually they give a PHQ-9, it's nine questions and it assesses how you've been doing.
Everything stress you out every day.
That's how you gonna answer.
And you won't be lying because everything is stressing you out every day.
But even if you haven't thought about the worst, I need you to act like you thought about the worst when you fill this out, okay?
And then your doctor's gonna ask you how, you you're gonna say, hey doctor, I'm...
really struggling, I can't sleep, my eating's off, I feel jittery, I can't focus.
You off, you bad, you down bad, okay?
You down bad bad.
And listen to me, if you really need a break for somebody else, I still need you to go to the doctor and be like, I'm down bad, me.
And I'm down bad because I'm having to take care of this person.
And I'm really stressed out and it's a lot and work is a lot and the pressure and I just,
I feel like I'm about to break.
I need you to feel it from your core.
And you tell your doctor, I need time off.
If your doctor says any BS like, I mean, you're just trying to get time off.
You should be working or anything.
Fire that person.
You need a new physician.
That's not your doctor.
That's the doctor of the devil.
Don't let the devil use your doctor against you.
Okay?
The only thing your doctor should be saying, oh, you need time off?
I can fill out any paperwork you need or my assistant can fill out any paperwork you need.
If that's not the response, find a new doctor, find a new doctor's office, talk to your friends because your doctors are supposed to be helping you.
Now, the other thing I need you to do, if you are in therapy, I need you to tell your therapist, hey therapist, I may need you to fill out some paperwork for me because I need
a break.
and we've been talking and you see I'm stressed out and you've probably already told me that I probably should take a break, but I've been afraid or scared, so I'm gonna do it
now.
So now your therapist is ready to help you and if you don't have a therapist, you've been needed one.
I've been telling you girl to go get a therapist.
You can't deal with that stuff, this stuff, that stuff, that stuff, over there, over here, over there.
It's too much.
You gotta process all that, get all that out.
You over there internalizing and holding on it, no.
You're killing yourself.
Stress is a killer.
So go to therapy, okay?
You need it, trust me.
So, now you got your primary care physician on deck, you got your therapist on deck, and you know the process for your company.
You know where to call, whether it's Sedgwick or New York Life or whoever else big company that is, there's like three or four of these big administrators of these programs for
these big companies, right?
And so you call the number, you've already talked to your doctor about this, you've picked your dates.
that you wanna take leave, when you call them, a lot of times companies will say, you have to be out sick for a certain number of days.
So you are gonna take sick days starting on a certain day.
And it should be within 72 hours of you making this call saying that you're going to go on leave.
You're gonna tell Sedgwick or whoever, hey, my doctor said I need to go on leave.
I'm gonna go out on this day and that day should be two or three days after you talk to these people because what they're gonna do is they're gonna contact your HR department and
your benefits department and then HR is going to alert your manager that you're going out on leave.
So this is why you need to do this swiftly.
And I actually, I wouldn't even wait two or three days.
Like I would call on a Friday and then I would.
email my boss that Monday and say, hey, I'm sick.
I'm going to be out.
And then they will get the information from the HR that you, you're going to be out for the next, how many ever weeks.
Now, because you are prepared, when you send that email on Monday saying, hey, I'm going to be out, I'm sick, you want to give them basically like a document saying, here's all
the things.
Here's where all the things are.
Here's who all is gonna handle everything while I'm gone.
So this is where you prepare.
So this way you will foster some goodwill that you left them, but also you don't give them the opportunity to do some backhanded stuff.
You gotta catch them by surprise, okay?
And so that way you go and leave and you've given them all the things.
And then they can't contact you while you're out.
You can't do any work while you're out.
And then you'll spend the next couple of days with your doctor, possibly your therapist, but you really just need your primary care physician, filling out paperwork and filling in
stuff so that you can get your short-term disability insurance.
Now, I know some people are concerned because they're like, what is this short-term disability insurance?
Is it as much as my pay?
Can I afford this pay cut?
When I get back from the break, I'm gonna break this down for you so you understand what you're getting into based on your company's policy.
So when we get back to break, we'll talk about how you get paid while you on leave.
When we get back.
Let me ask you something.
How many times have you watched less competent folks get promoted while you just stay stuck?
I've seen this so many times.
The whole reason why this Show exists is I was like, what am I doing wrong?
I would always blame myself.
And if you're like me, you're probably sitting there doing that too.
And the thing is, it's not your work and it's not you.
It's actually your career strategy.
You don't have one.
That is the fundamental problem.
Your hard work alone doesn't get you promoted.
Strategy gets you promoted.
So I have the FastTrack system.
It's for high performing professionals like you who are ready to create their career strategy using the pie framework.
This is very tactical to the point, okay?
So you'll walk away with a personal power plan that shows you exactly where you're strong, where you're invisible, and how to shift your career strategy without compromising who you
are.
So now, if you click the link in the Show notes, you can go to the page where you can get this FastTrack system.
You already have what it takes.
You just need a strategy that works for you.
And that's what this system does.
click the link in the Show notes and grab it while it's on sale, cause honey, the price is going to go up, okay?
So again, go to the Show notes, click the link and get your plan together, before they hand your next promotion to a Chad or a Bob.
Now, let's get back to the Show.
Okay, now we are back from the break.
Before the break, we were talking about what to do before leave.
Now, as promised, I'm gonna talk about the money so you understand the money.
FMLA is the Family Medical Leave Act, and hopefully it stays an act.
But while we have it for now, let's use it, okay?
So, what this is is...
by our laws in this country, it's federal.
You can have up to 12 weeks of unpaid job protective leave for serious health conditions, including mental health.
Now, caveat, you had to have worked a consecutive 12 months at your company before you can take the leave.
And this is why it gets dicey if you are planning pregnancy, because when you get pregnant, your actual maternity leave is FMLA and your short-term disability.
And so that's how you get paid when you're on maternity leave.
Instead of maternity leave, think of this as mental health leave.
Or if you were to have a surgery, you would do the same leave.
This is no different from that.
This is the same process and system.
The only thing that changes is that you're gonna take a leave for a mental health issue.
Oh Felicia, I don't really have no mental health issue.
Yes you do girl, for this reason.
Okay?
You do.
Cause you need a break?
dance on your last nerves and that frees your mental health.
Okay, now, FMLA protects your job.
Your short-term disability is an insurance.
So what you'll find is every plan is different.
I worked at a company one time where the leave the first eight weeks was fully paid.
That was the company's policy.
Now, I ain't seen that since.
but I've seen anywhere from 80 % of your base salary to 60 % of your base salary.
Now, I know you're saying, oh my God, 60%, let me break this down for you though.
Because this is an insurance policy, they take your base salary before taxes.
So it's not the net you take home every week, it's your actual, like what you would take home if the government would stay out your check.
And if you didn't have to pay any health insurance or anything like that.
So take that number, multiply that by 0.6, and then that's how much your benefit is going to end up being.
And they will not take taxes out of that because it's insurance, it's not income.
So now when you look at it, it's closer to your take home than what you thought.
Even at 60%.
And if you're lucky enough to have 80 or 90%, then that's even better.
In some cases, you might take home, because if it's 100 % for those first few weeks, you're gonna take home more than you do when you're working.
You just have to understand your company's policy and plan, and every company's is different.
So what you had at one company won't be the same as another company most of the time.
but they're usually very similar.
The worst I've seen is 60%.
The other thing, if you were smart and you might not need to take leave now, but if you always plan that you might take leave, when you do your benefits, a lot of companies have
an option to add additional short-term disability benefits.
And so if you think about it when you're doing your benefits or you start a new company and you're doing your benefits, always pay for that extra
Short-term disability.
So like maybe the company already gives you short-term disability at 60%, but you can bump it up if you pay a little extra into it.
You can bump it up to 80 % or 90%.
Pay for it and make sure you use it.
So also it's tax deductible, cause insurance, it's a win.
Trust me.
Make sure that you have short-term disability.
That's another thing.
because you can take your FMLA, you just won't make any money.
And if you've saved up and you have a nest egg and you don't need money, but you definitely will need to come back to a job, then take the FMLA.
But if you like, oh, I can't take leave and not get nothing, listen, be like Denzel, I'm leaving with something, okay?
And so short-term disability is you're leaving with something.
So this is why you call the people to take your leave.
And usually,
FMLA is handled by the same people that handle the short-term disability.
It's very similar paperwork.
So they just kind of all wrap it all together most of the time.
So again, it's based on your company's policies and what they have in place.
So that's why I said, make sure you download everything, read it ahead of time.
Okay.
Now that we have that understood, while you are on leave, you need to get your own computer.
Don't use them people computer while you on leave.
Don't you do it.
I mm-mm, I don't hear it.
Them people watching everything, do not use them people computer while you on leave.
Now I need you whatever you gotta do to get you a little laptop, something cheap.
You can do Gmail and all the things.
You can send your resume and things out.
You can apply for jobs.
Do that.
Please do that.
Because here's where you need to take the time out to really take some time.
So for the first four weeks, I want you to chill.
I want you to chill and I want you to not do much of nothing, but dream and breathe and hang out with your people.
And if you are taking care of somebody, focus on that, but take a break from that.
get some help, line up some resources.
Not too much administrative stuff, but if you gotta do some administrative stuff, do a little bit of that.
But like, eat bonbons and ice cream and watch raggedy TV for a whole day.
Like things that are just unapologetically resting, okay?
Take that time, take that mental break, take the load off.
And don't be kiki-ing with your work friends.
Separate yourself from work for real for those first few weeks, okay?
And don't worry about what's going on nowhere.
Just take care of you from the inside out.
Go for walks, go see some movies, go do some shit you've been wanting to do.
Do you, be you, take care of you unapologetically, okay?
You'll feel so much better.
Then I want you to start thinking about what is it that you really wanna be doing?
If this job is driving you crazy, how do you maneuver?
How do you do what you do?
So this is where I want you to take some time out and update your resume at four weeks.
So now you've got eight weeks left.
So week five, update your resume, start calling people, having conversations.
You don't have to talk about you're on leave.
They don't know.
They don't work with you.
You're not talking to work people.
You're talking to people.
You used to work with other companies, networking, seeing what opportunities are out there, thinking through what you want to do next.
Okay?
And then you get serious on a job search, week five through 12.
And the goal is that you're getting some interviews, you're honing in on what you want to do.
That's if you want to leave.
Or if you want to get promoted, start thinking about mapping out like, what does this promotion plan look like?
What's my strategy here?
Who do I need to build a relationship wall with?
Who do I need as an ally in my corner to get this promotion?
These are the things that you work on your last eight weeks of leave.
Now, the very last week, I want you to do fun stuff again and
prepare your mind, prepare your spirit, your heart to go back.
And the cool thing is, even though you are supposed to go back to your job, the rule is you can go back to a job that's similar, they can't cut your pay, but you could be going
back to a different job.
So it could be one of those situations just like, I know at a lot of companies, people plan their pregnancies around rotation cycles.
So that, especially if they're on a crappy desk, like they're working on things they don't wanna work on, or business lines of business they don't wanna work on, then they'll plan
their pregnancy around rotating to a better desk, right?
Or getting a different job, getting a different manager, right?
This is a strategic career tool to use at your disposal.
So use it wisely and prepare.
So we're gonna take a quick break.
pay a bill or two, I'll come back, I'm gonna talk about what could go wrong and what could happen on the back end and how to prepare for that when we get back from the break.
Hey guys, so we have digital tools that accompany each episode to help you work through some of the tactics and strategies that you need to put into place so that you're thriving
at work.
So go to TrillinBA.com and if you haven't already, sign up for our freebies and you'll get access to not only these digital tools that go with these episodes, but you'll also get
access to
every digital tool I've ever created that's free to you to help you in your career.
Now, let's get back to the Show.
And we're back.
And so again, get your own computer.
I'm so sincere.
Okay.
As you're in that last week and you're preparing to go back to work, prepare yourself for it could happen.
Most of time it does not happen.
It has happened to me, but you could go back and HR put a meeting on your calendar the day you get back and then tell you the company has decided to let you go.
That could happen.
Now, the great thing is, is you saw this episode and you were prepared.
I don't want you to get upset.
I want you to smile and say, well, thank you very much.
How are you?
Are you doing okay?
Then what you're to say, oh, okay, send me over the paperwork and I will have my attorney look at it.
Thanks.
That's all you got to do.
Don't even worry about it.
Because before you even planned this leave, you lined up an employment attorney.
oh
And here's the deal.
In order for them to let you go when you get back from leave, they have to prove that they decided to let you go before they knew, before they knew you were going on leave.
When do they know that you're going on leave?
The day that the third party administrator tells them that you're going on leave.
That should be the day that they know that you're going on leave.
This is why you don't tell them ahead of time for that because there's paperwork and documentation in that that they cannot get around.
There's no hearsay about it.
It's documented.
Now, the thing is, you've been gone for 12 weeks.
In that 12 weeks, they could have decided, we gonna lay a bunch of people off, blah, blah, blah.
The other thing you can do is you can look and see if they've submitted a warrant act.
ahead of time, it's 60 days before they start letting people go.
So if you look up the Warren Act and your company's in there, don't take leave yet.
Because what'll happen is they'll say, oh, we had already planned to eliminate her position.
So there's no retaliation here.
But you want to wait until after if you make it through the layoff period.
then go on leave, like right after.
Because then if you come back, they can't say, oh, we planned for it.
No, you already did what you had planned.
You executed that already.
So it's harder for them to prove that it's not retaliation because they cannot retaliate against you taking FMLA.
Right now today, in April of 2025,
I don't know after that.
I don't know, guys.
I don't know what this is.
I don't know what's happening.
I could get deported, y'all, who knows?
You gotta laugh to keep from crying.
So for right now, if they let you go the day you get back, that's retaliation.
Because the thing is, if they say, well, when she wasn't here, we realized we didn't need her, that's retaliation.
Find me somewhere else.
You're supposed to hold my job.
If you found other people to fill in while I was gone, great, now let me get back to my job.
Not, oh, we didn't need her.
No, you can't do that.
That's not legal right now.
And the great thing is most companies will settle with you.
You know, it might take a little time, but at this point you already started looking for another job for eight weeks, you've been in it, you got interviews and stuff, then you not
worry, you ready.
And so even if you plan to go back to your company and you want to stay, and even if you do a promotion plan, I need you to get your networking up in those eight weeks and keep
your eye on what could be outside of your company.
just in case they act a fool.
Cause you can't stop them from acting a fool, but you can prepare yourself for their foolishness.
And so we gonna stay ready.
We ain't got to get ready.
And you gonna be fine.
And you're gonna be so much better on the other side of that time that you taking for yourself.
And if you are like me and you believe in higher power,
Jesus is my homeboy.
I practice Christianity.
I'm here to tell you, that time off and convening with God and putting your eye back on that spirituality and that faith, it'll change your whole life.
And you deserve that.
So if you believe, take that too.
Take that as time to do things in your house of worship and like...
get more involved and feed your soul in that way too.
And I should have probably said that first, Lord forgive me.
But yeah, like you deserve to take breaks.
You deserve time off.
You deserve all those things.
And we have a tool.
We have a tool called FMLA.
Use it.
Use the tool.
Please use the tool.
Use everything at your disposal.
Don't leave nothing out, okay?
And don't be afraid.
I know a lot of people, probably hear, but they let you go.
So they can let you go.
Yes, they can let you go for anything at any time.
It's at will employment.
But if they let you go the day you get back from medical leave and you weren't on a PIP and it's not in the midst of layoffs,
And even if it is in the midst of layoffs, again, they gonna have to prove that they decided to eliminate your position before they found out you went on leave.
That's hard to prove, especially if you go on leave and there wasn't no layoffs in sight.
So let's talk about the best time to go on leave.
Best times to go on leave.
Pay attention to your company, the cyclical nature.
There are some companies, I ain't gonna name no names, but there are some companies that have layoffs and restructures every 18 months.
And if that makes you angry or hit, dog, or holler, I don't know what to tell you.
But every 18 months, y'all restructuring and laying people off, giving packages, like that has become your business strategy.
That's lame.
But I digress, if you work for one of these lame companies, here's what you do.
You plan your leave in that cycle.
So let's say, I'm gonna throw some dates out.
Let's say there's rumblings.
So you start to hear the rumblings, like, oh, they gonna do this restructuring thing again.
If you start to hear the rumblings, that means they probably haven't finalized decisions.
They just decided they're gonna lay people off.
Hurry up and get in there then.
Because then they won't be able to say that they decided before you went on leave.
The only thing they decided was, we're gonna lay some people off.
But they haven't decided which departments.
If you start hearing what departments, then hold.
stick around and find out what they, if they give in package, maybe you want to take one of the packages or whatever.
Now, if you do want to take one of the packages, what you can do is now that you know that there will be layoffs, you could take your FMLA and then they still have to pay you
through that.
So let's say what you want to try to do, you want to try to time this right.
And so this gets tricky.
If you can find out
through the grapevine what they're thinking the last day of work would be for people that are letting go and restructuring.
What you can do is you can put in for your FMLA, you can time it to where you still get your FMLA and then you just don't have a job to come back to.
So like, let's say March of 2025, we'll say March, they're like, March 31st will be everybody's last day.
Then you go ahead and you file for FMLA.
at the beginning of March for eight weeks.
And according on policies, you may get away with this.
Now this one's iffy, right?
Like it's just according on how things are set up, but you probably could get away with, okay, I'm on leave until this.
And so you have to pay me out the insurance.
Because again, the short-term disability is not income, it's an insurance policy.
And it will stay in effect past them letting you go.
unless they change the policy.
So double check your policies, double check all the things.
And the cool thing is these are questions you can ask the third party administrator and they'll never go back until your company you ask these questions.
It's law, it's medical stuff.
Like they can't do that.
That's why they have a third party handling everything.
It's a liability that they're trying to weigh.
Cause if...
If they didn't have to worry about the liability and the shadiness, they wouldn't have a third party company.
They wouldn't pay that money.
But because of all the things that could go wrong, they're mitigating risk with the third party.
So you can ask the third party all the questions.
Just be cautious what you say to the third party, because to the third party, you are sick, okay?
You are sickly, and that's why you say you can't leave.
You are not well.
You're just well enough to get this paperwork to them.
And you're just well enough to fill out stuff.
Other than that, you're not well.
Okay.
You're not well.
You need a break.
But now what's the policy?
Let me make sure I understand.
Okay.
All right.
So hopefully this was helpful.
I've been waiting a long time to do an episode like this, to break all this down because I don't think companies take too kindly to us taking care of ourselves.
unfortunately.
And so if it's them or you, it better be them and not you.
You better pick yourself every time.
They can be disappointed.
Don't disappoint yourself.
Take your leave.
Until next time, guys, keep it real.
Well guys, that's a wrap on another great episode of the Career Management Podcast for Black Women.
Yes, girl, this Show is just for you.
We're here to tell you how to play that chessboard at work, So, subscribe, comment, like, follow us on social media at TrillinBAShow.
Listen, every time you tell one of your friends, you share this information, you share this podcast, it helps us to grow and make even more dope content.
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That's why we're here.
Now, if you are facing a workplace dilemma, such as a performance improvement plan, or you're not able to secure your promotion and raise that you have worked for and you have
deserved, basically, if these people are play playing in your face, we are here to help.
Go to Trillinba.com slash coaching.
to schedule a one-time one-on-one call to workshop your specific dilemma with me.
Or schedule a consult to get more information about the consulting packages that I do offer on a longer-term basis.
As always, you can reach out to us with your listener letters and your questions at trillmba.com.
Until next time, guys, focus on your best possible outcome.
Ask for help when you need it.
Please, please, please ask for help.
And as always, keep it true.
I'll see y'all next week.