Is this how America treats soldiers families?

[montana500]

This company needs to hear a few phone calls:


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9834214/


CALEDONIA, Mich. - A woman who took an unpaid leave of absence from work to see her husband off to war has been fired after failing to show up for her part-time receptionist job the day following his departure.

“It was a shock,” said Suzette Boler, a 40-year-old mother of three and grandmother of three. “I was hurt. I felt abandoned by people I thought cared for me. I sat down on the floor and cried for probably two hours.”

Officials at her former workplace, Benefit Management Administrators Inc., confirmed that Boler was dismissed when she didn’t report to work the day after she said goodbye to her husband of 22 years

[rkc3]

1. I'll bet her supervisor has a big yellow ribbon on his SUV.

[SheilaT]

2. It has nothing to do

with the spouse being a soldier, respecting the military or anything like that. It's the fact that the vast majority of workers are "at will" employees, which means they can be fired at any time.

I think it was in St. Louis several weeks ago that a woman was fired because she stayed home to mind a four year old or so grandchild whose parents were stranded in New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina. In that case, bad publicity did make the company rethink its policy and the woman was rehired.

So, the essential problem is that employers consider all employees easily replaceable, and no one has any job security.

[Ian David]

4. My "pro-family" boss fired me when I wanted an unpaid medical leave...

I had a sick mother, my grandmother had just died, and I had cancer.

The guy was on the board of one of the "pro-family" (anti-gay) groups. (I didn't find out about that until after I'd been working for him for a long time.)

This, more than anything, is what politicized me into taking to the streets to expose people like him for the lying frauds that they are.

There is an especially hot place reserved in Hell for him, and I just hope it is full of bacon.

[SheilaT]

9. Did you check into

the Family Medical Leave Act provisions to see if they applied to you?

And it's amazing to me how many people who claim to be "pro-family" pull shit like this.

[Ian David]

12. Yeah, I was all around that stuff. Brought a lawyer to see him, etc...

The kicker is, when I applied for unemployment, he tried to deny my claim, and said I left without prior notice or follow-up!

Gee, then why were there two long phonecalls from his cellphone to my house... and the emails... faxes...

Lies lies lies and cold-hearted maliciousness by a man who's the official chaplain for a major city in Massachusetts.

[SheilaT]

15. If in the legal sense you actually have a case

(and I'm certainly in no position to judge that) it will take a long time, probably years to resolve it. That's one reason why so few people pursue such claims. It's just not worth it, either financially or emotionally.

The sad fact is that many employers openly violate the law, and the entire system is stacked in their favor.

I'm curious, what did the lawyer advise? Although if as far as you're concerned this is all over and done with, I'll understand if you don't bother to respond.

[Ian David]

16. The company was too small to be covered under family medical leave

Otherwise, I would have had a case.

In any event, let's just say I'm still satisfied with the way things have since resolved.

[postulater]

3. Benefit Management Administrators Inc.

Sounds like a health insurance benefits administration company to me. When did we ever think that they were actually concerned with the person they were administering benefits for?

To those companies, people don't count, the profit is all that counts. Regardless whether it is a plan beneficiary or an employee.

[Ian David]

6. The site isn't "temporarily down"...

They took it down because too many people were scrutinizing them.

All the text is gone, but the graphics are still up...


http://www.benefitsthatfit.com/images/

[Ian David]

7. Here are the cache'd copies of their pages...

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:http%3A//www.benefitsthatfit.com/

Welcome to Benefit Management online
Benefit Management Administrators, Inc. (BMAI) is a full service Third Party Administrator, resident licensed in Michigan.We provide benefits, and are consultants to over 53,000 employees nationwide. We also provide benefit consultation and administrative services to more than 1,900 businesses and 225 insurance brokers. With multiple locations throughout the Midwest, we have full-time agents, a knowledgeable support staff, and claims processors ready to serve as your full service benefits specialists.




OUR COMPANY | OFFERINGS | USER RESOURCES | CONTACT US | REQUEST A QUOTE

2004 Benefit Management Administrators, Inc.
Site Designed by Justin McIntosh
(email address deleted, but posted on site.)


Who We Are
http://www.benefitsthatfit.com/whoweare.php


In 1989, founder and CEO Henry Bledsoe created Benefit Management Administrators Inc. with the understanding that company benefits were over priced and too complicated for most non-insurance professionals to understand. His mission was to provide high quality insurance benefits and investment options through employer sponsored programs that are both easily manageable by the employer and that also remain affordable to the employee.


<snip>


Currently, Benefit Management Administrators is based in Caledonia , MI and works on meeting these goals everyday for over 50,000 employees in Michigan , Ohio , Indiana , Illinois , Tennessee and Georgia .

For more information or to request a quote, call us at: [phone] or click here to request a quote.


Contact Us

CONTACT US

Benefit Management Administrators, Inc.
PO BOX 17
6307 - 84th St. SE
Caledonia, MI 49316

Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

DEPARTMENTS
Customer Service
Ext. 309, 324
Billing
Ext. 315, 302
Claims
Ext. 311, 307, 306
Mobile HR
Ext. 310
Cafeteria Plans, COBRA, Flex Spending
Ext. 308
Quoting
Ext. 317

[Ian David]

5. Benefit Management Administrators, Inc.

N. Henry Bledsoe
President/ASM
Benefit Management Administrators, Inc.
PO BOX 17
9365 Cherry Valley Ave
Caledonia, MI 49316
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
URL: http://benefitsthatfit.com

Our website is currently down. Please check back at a later time. We apologize for the inconvenience.

[Ian David]

8. More

<snip>

“We gave her sufficient time to get back to work,” http://tinyurl.com/935xw">Clark Galloway, vice president of operations for Benefit Management, told The Grand Rapids Press for a story published Wednesday.

He added that other factors were involved in the decision but he declined to elaborate.

More:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9834214

[peacebaby3]

10. When I took my husband to Ft. Benning to drop him off, I didn't get to

take the next day off. In fact, I didn't even get the week off before he left. As a responsible employee, I would have called my employer the following morning and confirmed that I would not be able to make it in that day because I was too emotionally distraught to do competent work, but I would expect to face repercussions had I just not shown up with no phone call.

I have great compassion for this woman because I have been in the same exact position she is in now and I feel for her because all of the other days that follow while her husband is in Iraq will be just as difficult, but she has to honor her responsibilities to her employer as well.

The employer also stated that there were other factors involved in her being fired but are not able to discuss them due to certain laws. I think to condemn the company without full knowledge of all the circumstances is a visceral reaction and not reasonable thinking.

[elehhhhna]

14. not calling off on the 17 th was probably a fireable offense--

they're payroll/benefits outsourcing frim and probably know the local laws very well.

She could have phoned.

[meisje]

11. Maybe she was also a bad worker - no need for facts around here

I guess.

[Ian David]

13. Unless she was setting fires in the office, it could have waited a week