Marla Gilson Fired From The Association of Jewish Aging Services of North America

The Washington Post:

Marla Gilson had just returned home from a second round of chemotherapy to treat an acute form of leukemia when the e-mail arrived.

She had asked her employer, an association of Jewish homes for the elderly, for permission to work from her home in Chevy Chase for six months while she recovered from an upcoming bone marrow transplant.

Read the whole story: The Washington Post

Comments

[MaryfromIL]

04:17 PM on 06/05/2011

This isn't at all unusual. Coworkers of my relatives have been called at the hospital to lay them off.

[no exit]

12:11 PM on 04/07/2011

The health insurance ghouls are at the bottom of this I bet. Nonetheless, what a callous indifference to human life demonstrated by her employers.

The Association of Jewish Aging Services appears to have the same level of compassion as did the outfit that used to round them up and take them to "camps."

[bgofca]

10:25 PM on 04/06/2011

as a healthcare worker (nurse) for many years, i can attest to the lack of sympathy the hospitals and nursing homes have for their own employees. One hospital i worked for allowed the nurses to take off 2 mental health days a year (to cope with loss of patients in the children's hospital). Sounds nice, but you needed to ask for the days off 6 wks in advance, and could only take one day at a time, and it was only granted if there was adequate staffing (which was rare.) Another hospital only allowed a person to be out sick 8 times a year and that there needed to be at least a month between occurances even if you were contagious (flu, cold, vomiting, cold sore, etc.) Also, if a person was out for too long due to a major illness, their position could be eliminated (thus the person would loose their job and their insurance. ) Also, after a person was out for a month, they had to start paying a very large amount (around$500 for one person) to keep their insurance active.

[ehorth]

06:05 PM on 04/06/2011

Marla Gibson's story is another great example of why we need changes in our thinking in the US. Because it's not only that we should have Universal Health Care to make sure everyone can get to see a doctor and receive proper medical care, it's that business, and that includes NON-PROFITS too, need to be more a part of the people who live and work here, and not just money-making/fund-raising machines.

It sounds to me as if Ms. Gibson had made every effort to work with her employer, Association of Jewish Aging Services of North America, to make sure they weren't shortchanged for the 6 months that she had to remain home and work from there. This organization does not appear to be a small organization that wouldn't be able to pay a consultant to help out, especially since Gibson said she would take a pay-cut during that time. No, this group, like many others, feels that they are being inconvenienced, and rather than understanding that making a little effort to work with their employees would result in far better working relationships in the long run, their practice is to cut the "offending" employee loose.

The ultimate irony, of course, is that her employer oversees 112 facilities for Jewish elderly - compassion indeed.