How long can someone be on medical LOA? It's not me, FWIW
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I'm sure it's based on (medical) reasoning, state and federal law and such. I know one associate who was out 10 months, came back for a month, was out almost a year and I heard was approaching the end of their ability to take LOA. Came back for 8 weeks and is now out again, who knows till when.
My personal experience was 6 weeks, followed by up to 6 months total short-term disability, then the remaining amount up to 12 months total time off as long term disability.
Several things to keep in mind:
1.You are responsible for keeping all insurance payments up-to-date.
- That have to keep a job open if your non-essential, but not necessarily your current job.
- If you live in an at will state, they can let you go for any reason once you return.
- Your 12 month total LOA is on a rolling basis. Once you return, you can't immediately take time off again, you have to accumulate those hours again.
- Despite company policy contrary to it, expect retaliation and resentment from your higher ups.
There’s one manager I know who had been out on LOA since the end of Q4 2024 (February 2025) and hadnt been back YET!!!
Here we are in Q3 about to go into Q4’25 in a few months and still no word on when this manager is coming back.
There's not a "one size fits all" LOA. The colleague needs to get in touch with the LOA people and ask about their specific situation.
It depends. They could qualify under the ADA and be out several months.
Six months