Unpredictable Absence from Work

We often talk to people who have trouble attending work due to one or more medical problems. If you are missing work only occasionally, it can be difficult for you and your employer to say at what point you are no longer able to work. Sometimes people stay on the job for years with frequent absences. If your employer allows that, then you should continue working as long as you can and consider yourself lucky that you have such an understanding employer. However, typically, employers do not allow their employees to miss work more than 3 days per month if that is going to be the case over a period of months. In many cases, you will be let go the first month that you miss more than 3 days of work.

If you are missing more than 3 days of work per month on average due to your medical problems, then you could be considered disabled for that reason. If your doctor is willing to say that you would miss most probably miss that much work due to your medical problems, then you could be considered disabled for that reason. The need to attend frequent doctor’s appointments due to your medical problems can count toward this limitation.   For example, the treatments for breast cancer are so effective now that many people do not experience disabling limitations of function while they are being treated. However, if you need to miss a whole day of work per week for treatment, then you still could be considered disabled for that reason. This is true because the vocational expert at your disability hearing will likely testify that if you are going to miss that much work then there are no jobs that exist in substantial numbers for you, which is the ultimate question for the disability determination.

We serve clients throughout the Carolinas from our offices in Spartanburg, Greenville, and Columbia.