Thanks again Baz

Happy looking' dog, except maybe for the bandages. Jeannie is doing her hobbies ..mostly making jewelry. I wish she'd try to sell more. She's not really a self promoter though. She and I will hang in there and I'll do my part of listening every nite as she 'down loads'.

Several years back I did some relief vet work there but after having one's own gig most of my life it's hard to work for someone else. I never did work for this new owner and couldn't.

Mark - Jeannie should consider eBay for her jewelry. There's several folks I know who sell online that I have bought from in the past - especially when it benefited animal rescue. Even if selling is not her thing - someone else could help with that part. Lots of people these days sell crafts in many venues. Guess water will seek it's own level with that scenario but that's my opinion FWIW.

And I hear what you're sayin' about having your own gig. Nothing like being the captain of your ship, eh?

Best of luck to you both!!! :)

Hey mark, My wife is making jewelery also. She has found that she really enjoys having house parties to sell at friends houses. The friend will arraign the party for her friends at her house. My wife ( Margaret ) shows up early to set up her displays and let the hostess select a couple pieces for her efforts. Then they all enjoy the evening chatting, playing with the jewelry, etc. She will often sell a grand or more worth of pieces, and have a good time. This sometimes results in one or more of the attendees deciding to have a party for her circle of friends, and so no.
This way of marketing allows her to sell at wholesale +. Way less than retail at a store, and allows for personal contact with the shoppers which leads to custom orders.
A win win, and fun to boot.
Since your wife is not too tied up with her other job maybe she can give this plan a go.

Cheers Richard

Hi Richard,
I think she's considered that and does sell a bit to her work pals already. She's also in one jewelry store but with this economy things aren't moving that much. A lot of her stuff is higher end silver and semi precious stones. Sounds like your wife's is pretty high end too. I guess Jeannie would have to get her friends to invite other friends...maybe that's the way it works...

On that tangential note, the cottage industry will hopefully be a booming market.
Handcrafted is so much nicer.
A friend of a friend makes gift cards that are exquisite. The kind you see for $5-10 bucks in the shops. She looked around for selling venues and concluded there wasn't any. A shame she gave up.

One venue is Handcrafted Wood Jewelry on Etsy - Bracelets, earrings, necklaces, pendants. A lot of it is junk and some of it is production crap posing as handcrafted (just like the iphone;)).

But there is also Regretsy | Where DIY Meets WTF :D

Custom auto parts and designs is something that shows up a bit in the high end low-rider and stereo groups.
I've always wanted a maki-e Japanese lacquer dash, door handles, etc.(not on the pcar). I know, cheezy perhaps, but a potential venue for that product.

If there is demand, there is a market. Build it and they will come.

There is that too John, We also have a county web site here called nevadacountymakes.com. I've looked at that one and Esty and some of ebay. Jeannie's jewelry is higher end than the stuff I see online and those sites are flooded with 'hand made' (in China) stuff. Seems it would be hard to be noticed, but she has not tried it yet. Local fairs and such might work.

I can't see anything terribly unfair - she got displaced from one of the top spots due to absence. I do not think there is a law that requires you to have the same hours, unless you specifically signed up for a certain schedule in your job offer. I would just be happy the wife recovered, is reasonably healthy and able to work again. Go along with it until you are able to look for and find another opportunity. Start your own pet sitting / grooming / kennel operation, for example. Even if she gets her hours back, the place sounds like it has a terrible company culture. Life is too short to work in a poisoned atmosphere.

This is a bit sobering - I always imagine country life to be nice. Here in LA you'd have 15 vet clinics to chose from within easy driving distance and experienced help is always needed.

G

I don't necessarily disagree with you. Ca is frequently on the side of the consumer and worker so I just wondered if there was any resource we could use. I said in my OP that 'fairness' was not the right word to use but being foggy this AM on Vicadin for my back I couldn't think all that well. She now accepts that it's just the way things shake out but truthfully a more considerate employer would bring her back in her original spot. A large corporation would likely have mandates to take care of this situation

Definitely not managed terribly well if she is that frustrated. It could also be that they have several newer people that stepped up to the plate in her absence and now need to be rewarded with good shifts / more hours. You probably have to look at the entire picture not just from your wife's perspective.

Like I said, focus on the positive - recovering well from a bad injury like that is much more important than the job. Get her out of there long term and in the meantime just play along ...

Good Luck!

George

I have 12 employees, so I know what a huge disruption the extended absence of one of them can be. It is unreasonable for 1/12 of a small businesses' workforce to suddenly disappear for 6 months and then expect everything to be exactly the same when they are ready to come back.

I am sorry your wife was I'll, that's unfortunate.

Maybe it's just me, but if I were in her shoes I would just be happy that there was any work for me with my prior employer. Her position was likely replaced, or labor redistributed.

Fmla usually applies up to 3 months per year, and you have to belong to a company with 50 or more employees. This varies by state. Usually requires fmla paperwork be filled out early in the illness.

Honestly, complaining may cost your wife her job....

Good luck

Apparently some of you guys who replied later in this thread don't completely understand my/our position. My wife and I understand the small business aspect. No one is whining here. We just wondered if there was any Ca laws re this issue that we could rely on. It appears that there are not. I had told my wife at first that she was just SOL, fairness be damned. She understood. I realize that pushing this will result in her being fired. We have a handle on where to go with this now. Small business in Ca, at least, is in a totally different category than big corporations. Just is what it is. We were willing to go our own route with this unless there was some legal recourse that would help. Oh well, there isn't.

Nuff said...Just so you guys don't think I fell off the truck last night...

I hear you...

Fairness though is subjective. I think the fact that there was any position waiting for someone that missed 6 months of work is pretty understanding of the employer...

It sucks when someone is I'll. But it wasn't the employers fault. Why should they bear the burden? For the 6 months of illness, the other employees probably worked harder, and longer. They had to readjust their lives. Perhaps additional staff were hired, etc. no employer has to provide employment.

I don't want to be insensitive. I am puzzled why you feel that what occurred was unfair. Legally, the employer could have let your wife go 3 days into her illness. They waited 6 months, twice the legal requirement which they aren't subject to...

I don't think you should hold negative feelings towards your employer. They did more than right by you. Life isn't fair, your wife broke her leg. Your employer didn't cause it, and the fact she still has a job is pretty great...

There is no response to you. You don't have a handle and you can't even spell...sorry, but please bow out and let it drop. You obviously have not ever read what I wrote....and take some English courses...

I don't think his reply was out of line, but obviously you do. The comment on spelling would be appropriate if your spelling was flawless. It's not. read your first post again.

What is the law? If the job has to be 'held' for three months and she was gone six (as someone indicated) then you are out of luck. Personally, if someone worked for me for 13 years and was off six months I would try to hold their job for them.

Fairness is not the right word. It's a legal issue. There is no point in appealing to someone's sense of 'fairness' when it is clear they don't have one.

Let me state this one more time.. I don't ever like having the govt intervene but if such a law were to exist I would want to use it in this case because this woman vet is such a beotch.. I am a vet myself as many of you know and over the years I have come to expect a little more compassion and understanding from my colleagues than perhaps other business people..or at least some courtesy.

Apparently no law exists in this instance which is all I wanted to find out... We are both adults and we can deal with what it is. While I certainly do appreciate those who gave advice/info without judgement can we just let this thread die peacefully without any more 'be thankful' posts... we are thankful for what we/she still has.

In the industry I work in, 5 to 6 months is the cut off for short term disability.
If you're off 6 months or longer the company has the right to replace you and you no longer have any claim to the job if and when you're ready to come back.
6 months is a very long time to be off.

IMO she should be grateful she still has a job and is only ENTITLED the opportunity to re-earn over time the PRIVILEGES she once enjoyed.


EDIT: if this is not what you wanted to hear, feel free to disregard and no reply will be necessary.

No, Sammy... I've learned from all the above. We do understand. When I was in practice though, and had a valuable employee I would have made sure she could come back. Most of my colleagues are the same way. Finding and keeping good techs in this business is very difficult. As I said before, most of the younger ones don't even have much of an education and just have a big 'awe...factor' and want to play with the animals all day. It's hard to trust many of these with serious tasks such as monitoring anesthesia. I should never have used the word 'fairness' in my original post.

You're right. It isn't about fairness. It was more than fair for the employer to keep any part of her job open for six months. I'm sorry about your wife's injury and I'm sorry she works for a beetch. But from the sound of it, the problem isn't one of fairness, it's about the beetch.
I agree that your wife has a lousy employer. She should have addressed common situations like this at the time she hired your wife. We implemented a thick employee handbook years ago to deal with situations like this. It has an accompanying statement that the employee has read, understood, and accepts the terms of employment that must be signed by the employee. For this situation it states explicitly that once your sick leave has been exhausted, you don't have a job anymore. No body walks out of here expecting to walk right back in six months later.
Your response to Sammy also indicates she is a lousy business person. If good techs are really that hard to find, she should be happy to welcome a good one back. I'm sorry your wife is stuck in an area where this person offers the only opportunity for employment.

That's a good point you just made, Mark. I learned first hand how much more respect vets normally give to each other than they do to regular people when a vet told me once "I'm on the phone with another doctor!" as I was trying to ask her a question after being left in an exam room for more than 1/2 hour with no contact and my girl with an opened incision that just needed a couple sutures.

Just like firefighters and law enforcement.....doctors [including vets] should always take care of themselves - that "beotch" your wife works for...well she just doesn't "get it". :rolleyes:

I am now in possession of my own suture "kit" in case the need arises - we'd hate to inconvenience a vet again with our dumb questions....

Respectfully....just a person and his furkids. :)