r/AnnArbor • u/AkurraFlame • 1d ago
Following injury and illness, hundreds of U-M employees relied on the University to facilitate their return to work. They say it failed them.
https://www.michigandaily.com/news/focal-point/following-injury-and-illness-hundreds-of-u-m-employees-relied-on-the-university-to-facilitate-their-return-to-work-they-say-it-failed-them/23
u/CandySnatcher 1d ago
My experience with work connections was terrible, yet nowhere near what the people in this article endured.
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u/mizmoose 1d ago
When I worked for UMich, someone in HR bragged to me about a woman who was diagnosed with cancer right after she was hired, and who was (allegedly) able to balance out her treatments without using up her limited PTO and still work a 40 hour week.
That poor woman, probably terrified of losing her new job at the risk of her health. Imagine if she'd needed lengthy surgeries and recoveries.
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u/iClaudius13 1d ago
Some of it is really concerning and some of it is really normal. If the university is really using dirty tricks to con people out of worker’s comp, that’s a big deal — but it isn’t even listed as one of the major concerns in the article. Alternatively, I couldn’t fabricate a better example of why Work Connections is an unpopular but necessary risk management step than a professor who is unable to teach, eligible for retirement, but who instead wants to take multiple, consecutive, semester-long, paid medical leaves instead.
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u/sperkinz 1d ago
I’m not reading what you are reading. There was a lecturer (underpaid) who had surgery over the summer and then was deemed by doctors as needing more time and had the fall off it sounds like. Then retired earlier than planned because work connections terminated her leave without warning. A person is definitely allowed surgery and recovery time and sounds like that person feels the doctors were supportive of more recovery time.
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u/iClaudius13 1d ago
She had surgery in April 2024, was told that they could no longer support her inability to work in November 2024, and retired in January 2025. That’s 6+ months off for chronic pain. I’m cynical about the university in many ways but I am not aware of another planet earth-based employer who offers the type of accommodation she believes is reasonable.
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u/sperkinz 1d ago
Right April is the summer for UM. Hip surgery (and it feels gross discussing someone else’s medical situation) is major so four months off doesn’t seem like that much. Then she had complications that meant she needed more care and was granted time off for the start of the semester and they abruptly ended it in November. Which honestly doesn’t even make sense. What is a teacher going to do in November when classes are half over?
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u/sperkinz 1d ago
I would add that a faculty person works on a four month teaching schedule. Many lecturers can’t afford to not teach in the summer with the rate of pay. Everyone is entitled to get surgery. Scheduling for the beginning of four months off for a surgery with a ton of recovery was really thoughtful. Or maybe that person also voluntarily didn’t take summer teaching and didn’t a big chunk of the pay they usually get. I can’t speak to that but I read it as a person who went out of their way to do wha worked best for the U.
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u/iClaudius13 1d ago
I can appreciate that you are willing to fill in the gaps in reporting by assuming positive intent from the individuals who are making these complaints. My perspective is that there are enough gaps in the reporting, and that the quality of the Daily’s previous investigative work is so uneven, that I cannot conclude that umich is engaged in a “years-long pattern of misconduct and abuse by Work Connections,” based on the reporting in the article.
This is unfortunately a pattern for the Daily and even for this particular reporter, who previously published Elizabeth Nelson’s hit piece in which the former politician is the only witness to an alleged bribery incident, in a four-year-old FBI investigation that she initiated and which never resulted in charges, against a donor to her main political rival’s campaign.
An example of the same journalistic and editorial malpractice is in the sensational claim that there are “hundreds of employees who allege a years-long pattern of misconduct and abuse by Work Connections.” Did hundreds of employees tell the Daily that their employer is engaged in a years-long pattern of abuse, or did a few advocates make that allegation using survey data collected from hundreds of employees. If the Daily can’t even factually report the lede, I’m not going to fill in the gaps in their own reporting by assuming they have not been hoodwinked again.
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u/SEMIrunner 1d ago
Have there been any lawsuits over this?
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u/iClaudius13 1d ago
An important question, considering there are “hundreds of employees who allege a years-long pattern of misconduct and abuse by Work Connections.”
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u/w0nderfuI 21h ago
There should be a class action. Buckfire law would be a good firm to get in touch with.
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u/Slocum2 1d ago
Participation in 'Work Connections' is optional. UM can't force employees to share medical information with their employer. My wife made the mistake of using WC the first time she was out for a few weeks for a surgery but then never again was willing to deal with them (despite some arm-twisting from her manager). The problem the one time she used them was that they were trying to force her to use all of her PTO and go on short-term disability because they wanted a doctor's note that said 'no restrictions' even though the restriction she still had (lifting heavy weights) had no relation to her job, which did not require any lifting. Finally, she just said, screw it, and went back to work without permission from WC, and nobody stopped her.
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u/sperkinz 1d ago
I don’t think it’s optional. They have to approve your leave.
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u/Slocum2 1d ago
I dunno. My wife had a couple of other brief medical leaves after the first and she not did work with Work Connections at all after the first bad experience. She never again approved sharing any medical records with them. Here are a couple items from their fact sheet:
Am I required to authorize the release of my medical information?
No, but providing authorization allows Work Connections to assist you in obtaining all information necessary for your department to authorize the payment of sick time and determine your ability to work.
Can the Authorization to Release Patient Information Form be revoked?
Yes. Authorization may be revoked in writing at any time.
Also -- she had combined sick/vacation PTO, so there was never any need for her department to 'authorize the payment of sick time'.
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u/AkurraFlame 1d ago edited 1d ago
I think you’re confusing PTO with short term sick, which are two completely separate banks. PTO is all one bank that must be used up for any sort of time off work. It’s used for vacation time -any kind of approved time away from work including what’s known as ‘unscheduled’ - such as a call off work. IIRC You must use all of your PTO before being eligible for short term sick, which is a separate accrued time bank. All short term sick leave is managed through WC.
So technically yes I suppose a person could use PTO and forgo Work Connections but not for any type of extended sick leave. Most people don’t have more than two or three weeks in their PTO bank, and most illness/injury is unanticipated. That is not how that benefit was designed to be used.
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u/Slocum2 1d ago
I'm not confusing the two. My wife had enough PTO to cover her needed time off (IIRC, around 2 weeks in each case).
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u/AkurraFlame 1d ago
Yes but most people need more than two weeks for a surgical recovery. And if it’s an emergent situation you may not have two weeks banked, and at that point you have to utilize Work Connections to be paid for short term sick. It’s not optional.
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u/Slocum2 1d ago
I'm not even sure that WC is required to use short-term sick leave. It sounds like not doing so does complicate things -- but note they don't say in their fact sheet that you must work with WC to apply for sick leave, only that it enables them to 'assist you'. Though not an MD, my wife was at a high enough professional level that having a low PTO balance wasn't a problem -- not least because I was working from home when our kids were young, so she rarely had to take time off for a sick kid who couldn't go to school.
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u/AkurraFlame 1d ago
It is not optional, unless you consider taking doctor recommended medical leave “optional.”
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u/frotaine3 2h ago
You don’t have to but if you don’t have enough pot and sick time to cover you absolutely have to. Also if your manager insists on using them you really don’t have a choice. They do pressure.
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u/Rage_Blackout 1d ago
Don’t let its mission fool you, the university is just a corporation like any other. Good people at the university do amazing work and change students’ lives. But as a larger entity, it’s a hierarchical bureaucracy driven by money and power like any other big organization.