Susan's Place Transgender Resources

I've booked my surgery with Dr. Garramone for early this May and I'm excited! Paid my flights, booked my stay at NBR and now I'm just waiting for the date :) I have 2 casual jobs at the moment (until Monday!) and thought it wouldn't matter if I were to take 3 weeks off. BUT, I finally got a full time job in exactly what I wanted (after 2 years of looking and 12 job interviews) and I am scared that if I take any time off so soon, they won't be happy :-\ I was thinking that instead of 3 weeks, I could try and survive with only 1 and a half; enough time to fly to America, have the surgery, and come back home again. Maybe they will understand I am having a surgery, maybe I am worried over nothing? I just don't want to lose my new job which was so hard to get! For the guys who have had surgery, what did you do? How did it go? And what should I do?

I felt like I could do an easy desk job after 2 weeks. Other recommend 3 weeks for desk job. I have to wait 6 weeks as I don't have a desk job and requires heavy lifting.

Quote from: Alexthecat on February 08, 2014, 10:55:03 PM
I felt like I could do an easy desk job after 2 weeks. Other recommend 3 weeks for desk job. I have to wait 6 weeks as I don't have a desk job and requires heavy lifting.

Hmm, I see. My new job is more of a physical job too  :-X

Quote from: harlee on February 08, 2014, 10:58:23 PM
Hmm, I see. My new job is more of a physical job too  :-X

I think you should tell your job that you have to be off for three weeks in May.  Telling them from the get go is the right thing to do.  Let them know you scheduled it before you took the job.

You can't lift more than 5 pounds the first week.  Then it is only light weight after that.  I don't remember the exact numbers, maybe someone will come into the thread who knows them.  For a physical job it is supposed to be 6 weeks before you go back to work.

I bet you could call Garramone's office and the receptionist would be able to tell you how much movement/lifting you can do over what time period.

This is a situation I have been trying to sort out in my mind...I actually have a hysto in July, and want to have my top surgery by the end of the year. So it's like...how in the world can I schedule that around a job?

May is still a ways off, it's not like you're asking to take off immediately. They may not be thrilled, but it probably won't be a dealbreaker for them either. You may have to take unpaid leave for it though, since you probably won't have that much PTO yet.

Yeah, its hard  :-\ But thanks guys! So far my plan is to do the best job I can, come to work early, work really hard, be super helpful, and take not a single day off between then and now. I want to tell them after I've been working for a week, is that ok? Hopefully they will understand!

Isn't it illegal for them to fire you for taking time off for surgery?

I have a friend who was worrying about the same thing a couple of years ago. He was going to save up all of his vacation time, schedule stuff around a holiday or two (Christmas to New Year's would be good), and take unpaid leave for the rest of the time. But he has been working at the same job for many years.

Quote from: Arch on February 08, 2014, 11:50:24 PM
Isn't it illegal for them to fire you for taking time off for surgery?

I hope it is :P I just really don't want to lose my job!

Well, what if your job is in jeopardy? Would you consider postponing the surgery? I have to tell you that when I came to my decision to have top surgery and people like Brownstein and Meltzer weren't open for months, I didn't think I would make it. I literally wondered if I could survive that long. Fortunately, the local guy had an opening well before the others did, so I nabbed it.

I'm not sure if it's illegal or not, it would depend on where you live.

Did they ask on your application form or in the interview if you were planning on having any time off in the next few months?  We ask that in our applications for recruiting.

I agree that you should tell them that you need the 3 weeks off.

For myself, I took 6 weeks off (permanent part-time in a job that is 70% desk and 30% heavy lifting).

I would have been able to struggle through a full-time non-physical job after three weeks, but it would have been pretty tiring. A physically demanding job? Nope. I still had serious physical limitations after three weeks--not just because of my doctor's orders.

I would be tempted not to tell them until it is closer to the time and your job is secure (but I wouldn't tell them that Id scheduled the surgery ages ago, but rather make it like it is unavoidable now).
   I would worry that telling them early on, they would figure itd be best to find someone else who can stay permanently. I don't know though.

Id been in a similar situation to you, choosing between a job or surgery. Im having my final stage of phallo surgery on Tuesday. But up until 5 days ago, I didn't have a date (but had been fighting to get one for 6months!) Ive not been earning any money this whole time since I had been lead to believe my op would've been done by now. I potentially have my dream job starting in March, so was worried I wouldn't heal from such a big surgery in time. Im going to try to go for it anyway :)

I hope it all works out for you.
I would say that 2weeks you would be ok to go back, hopefully. But depends on how physical your job is, since you say it is quite physical.
But anyway, good luck with your surgery, your healing AND your job! :)

Here (I know you're Aussie too!) it is against the law to discriminate on the basis of sexuality, race, gender blah blah blah including transgender - but I would suggest telling them after you've been working there for a month or so, but definitely a month before you need to go! Make it clear you've booked overseas holiday tickets or something that you can't cancel and see what they say. IF they kick up a stink then present a letter from your shrink stating why you want the time off and see if they knock you back then! As someone above said you're not taking off a week into a contract! And it's not as though it's Christmas when everywhere is really busy etc it's May, coming into winter!

Hope they play ball mate. As for the time off - I have a physical job (lifting bags, stretchers etc) and 5-6 weeks was sufficient for me but YMMV.

j.

Quote from: harlee on February 08, 2014, 11:49:39 PM
Yeah, its hard  :-\ But thanks guys! So far my plan is to do the best job I can, come to work early, work really hard, be super helpful, and take not a single day off between then and now. I want to tell them after I've been working for a week, is that ok? Hopefully they will understand!

it's not til May. I think you should work on being irreplaceable. And then you could ask, not sure a week is enough time, but I would let them know a couple months early.
I think that Dr G's office would say 6 weeks, all the stuff says 6 weeks til you can lift real amounts of stuff. For the first 3 weeks you are limited to 5 lbs. I started doing stuff like the garbage and litter box at 4 weeks.

--Jay

Quote from: Make_It_Good on February 09, 2014, 07:46:48 AM
I would be tempted not to tell them until it is closer to the time and your job is secure (but I wouldn't tell them that Id scheduled the surgery ages ago, but rather make it like it is unavoidable now).
   I would worry that telling them early on, they would figure itd be best to find someone else who can stay permanently. I don't know though.

Id been in a similar situation to you, choosing between a job or surgery. Im having my final stage of phallo surgery on Tuesday. But up until 5 days ago, I didn't have a date (but had been fighting to get one for 6months!) Ive not been earning any money this whole time since I had been lead to believe my op would've been done by now. I potentially have my dream job starting in March, so was worried I wouldn't heal from such a big surgery in time. Im going to try to go for it anyway :)

I hope it all works out for you.
I would say that 2weeks you would be ok to go back, hopefully. But depends on how physical your job is, since you say it is quite physical.
But anyway, good luck with your surgery, your healing AND your job! :)

I think you are right, letting them know in a months time does sound better :) I hope your surgery goes well also!!

Thanks everyone, I feel a bit better about it and I'm hoping it all works out just fine!

It's SURGERY.  I would tell them closer to the date that you need to have surgery.  I wouldn't tell them for what, or that you are leaving the country for it.  None of their business at all.  I told NO ONE when I had lower surgery other than family and a few trans friends.  I went alone.  Nobody at work knew I left the country for it; one or two suspected I had lower surgery but I denied it (none of their business) and when they asked if I had to travel for it I said no, I was local.  None of their business.  Only now, years later, do I hint I have male junk at work (we talk about all sorts of topics on the night shift; we have a weird sense of humor) but for the most part it seems like most have forgotten that I transitioned.


Jay

Quote from: sneakersjay on February 09, 2014, 08:35:21 PMbut for the most part it seems like most have forgotten that I transitioned.

Sorry to jump off topic but that's awesome! My transition isn't really a topic of conversation (well, people don't talk about it with me anyways!) but I can't wait for it to be like I had my tonsils out and everything stops revolving around "transition".

Congrats  bro :D

j.

So I had my first day today and everything is looking good! It's with a group training program and I am now an Electrical apprentice! I found out we are doing 11 weeks of paid training and then the program will place us with host employers. I leave for my surgery the week after the 11 weeks is up! Great timing! I do believe that God answers prayers :P That should mean I can take the 3 weeks off and after that, they will place me with someone to work for. (Also, I think that if I do the training, they would be less likely to just fire me for a stupid reason, because it would have wasted their time and money!) They seem really nice and talked about time off for injuries and that sort of thing. I will talk to them about it, but it sounds like it will go just fine!

Harlee that's amazing! I couldn't really have pictured it to go better for you, the timing is perfect.
  I am very happy to hear that for you and I hope you have a really good experience throughout the next few months :) It sounds so positive!

Wow, Harlee, that is perfect.  Awesome!