How to handle time off for surgery?

manpreet Best Answer 2 years ago

I've got a major surgery coming up, and my company is just as aware of it as I am, and I'm covered for the time off, but what I'm wondering is how is a longer term leave like this typically handled?

What kind of notice period should you give for a major surgery? I let them know as soon as I knew everything, told them in my interview I was expecting a surgery date this year, and then let them know as soon as I got the phone call today.

What should my expectations be for salary while I'm away, is this typically covered by benefits, do I take time without pay? I'm guaranteed to come back, but I'm so far unsure how this will be handled, I've built up a savings just in case.

Localized info

I'm in Canada, and it is a spinal surgery, they estimate I'll be recovering for around 2-6 weeks.

manpreet 2 years ago

The coverage issue should be worked out with your company's HR department, as should be the mechanism for leave.

One thing I strongly advocate is making sure that you have a very thorough hand-off of anything you're working on when you leave for the surgery. Odds are someone will be put in charge of it while you're gone so leave copious notes, pointers, and any and all information you can think of to make that person taking over as easy as possible.

This will pay off in the project's potential for the least interruption/downtime as possible, the least expense getting someone else up to speed and a whole lot of professionalism points for you.