Business & Finance "Abuse of FMLA in the workplace" Comprehensive assignment

2

Kiani Judge

Dr. Matt Hallam

Southern Wesleyan University

5/30/2026

Table of Contents

1. Introduction 1.1 Background of the Family and Medical Leave Act 1.2 Overview of FMLA Abuse in Organizations 1.3 Purpose of the Paper

2. Stakeholders Affected by the Issue 2.1 Employees 2.2 Employers and Human Resource Departments 2.3 Coworkers and Workplace Teams 2.4 Organizational Productivity and Culture

3. Analysis of the Issue

4. Alternatives in Addressing the Issue

5. Recommendations

6. Conclusion

FMLA Abuse in the Workplace

Introduction

Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was signed in 1993 to safeguard employees in need of temporary leave due to serious medical conditions, the need to take care of a family member, give birth or adopt a child. The legislation enables the employees who are entitled to up to twelve weeks of unpaid leaves and receive protection and health benefits. FMLA is an important legislation in the work life balance and safeguarding employee rights in the American workplace. Nevertheless, in spite of the good intent, issues of abuse and misuse of FMLA have been on the increase in most organizations.

FMLA abuse is the practice when the employees abuse the protected leave by having an interest that is not in accordance with the intended meaning. These may include cheating on medical conditions, faking symptoms, taking intermittent leave deceptively, or taking leave to be more convenient or out of medical or family necessity. Bart, indicates that one of the most prevalent and challenging types of FMLA abuse that employers can find hard to detect is its misuse of intermittent leave. Suspicious trends in leave taking around weekends, holidays or rejected vacation requests have been a cause of concern among managers and human resource practitioners in some workplaces. Also, recent employment case studies done by the U.S department of labor have proven that employers are also breaking the FMLA provisions when they wrongly discipline or fire employees without carrying out the due investigations.

FMLA abuse presents significant organizational problems since it impacts productivity, staff morale, staffing schedule, and workplace trust. Employers should strike a balance between ensuring the protection of the rights of staff as well as ensuring that the policies of taking leave are not abused. Thus, companies are turning to more robust documentation processes, policy implementation, and employee training to be able to administer FMLA leaves. This article explores the problem of abuse of FMLA in the workplace, parties who have been impacted by the vice and the potential approaches that companies can use to alleviate abuse without breaking laws.

Stakeholders Affected by the Issue

FMLA abuse has numerous stakeholders in an organization. When the employees who utilize their leaves in good faith see their colleagues exploit the system without being detected, they might be bitter about it. This may cause perceptions of inequity and lose of trust among employees. There is also a possibility of workers being overworked when they need to cover work or shifts of employees who are suspected to have abused the leave benefits.

It also has major impacts on employers and the human resource departments. FMLA abuse poses administrative challenges since HR professionals have to inquire about suspicious leave trends, examine medical requests, and verify the adherence to the federal regulations. Companies can suffer a loss of money because of disruptions in productivity, overtime, and lawsuits because of FMLA leave. Research by the Heritage Foundation indicates that abuse of leave can have a devastating impact on the business operation and low morale at work (Stevenson).

The same effects coworkers and management teams since scheduling challenges and lack of staffs can decrease the overall efficiency. Intermittent leave requests are usually hard to maintain, especially when they are unexpected by the managers. As a result, misuse of FMLA not only impacts the life of individual workers but also undermines the organizational culture, teamwork, and productivity.

References

Bart, Lea. "The Effects of the Family and Medical Leave Act on Women’s Careers."  Presentation, 2024 Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management Fall Research Conference Program, November 21, 2024. 2025. https://ljbart.github.io/lea-bart.com/Bart_FMLA.pdf

Stevenson, Betsey. "A federal guarantee for earned paid time off." (2024). https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/20241024_THP_Stevenson_EarnedTimeOff_FullProposal.pdf