'Basically fired while on medical leave': Boss eliminates employee's position after she got 5 surgeries in 3 months

Emmy Pratt • Senior Editor

Jan 7, 2024 1:00 PM EST

Disgraced dance teacher and former reality TV star Abby Lee Miller once said, "Everyone's replaceable." While that's not true in a lot of contexts, it's certainly true in the professional world. People often talk about how if you die, the posting for your job will go up before your obituary. Although morbid, there's some truth to it, and it puts things in perspective. You can't put your job above everything else because they won't prioritize you once you're not useful to them.

One worker recently messaged her boss about her first day back after taking three months of FMLA leave. During that time, she had five surgeries. Instead of being welcomed back into the office with open arms, her boss messaged that her position had been eliminated and offered her an alternative position that would be solely remote. While all of that is above board legally, she had some suspicions about whether her position had actually been nixed or if they gave it to the boss's wife.