Employer wins case despite not giving FMLA notices

Case in point

Account Manager Patricia had been doing fine until 2020, when she took on more challenging accounts.

In October, Patricia’s daughter required surgery, so she requested time off from Adam, her supervisor. Adam told Patricia to take the time she needed.

Over the next three months, Patricia requested and took a total of 7.5 intermittent days off to care for her daughter. Neither Patricia nor Adam mentioned the FMLA, and Patricia’s time off wasn’t treated as FMLA leave. Patricia instead used some of her paid time off days.

Patricia’s job performance continued to suffer. She took a day off on February 12 to take her mother to a doctor’s appointment. Again, neither Patricia nor Adam mentioned the FMLA.

Scrutiny over a particularly difficult account made Patricia feel like she shouldn’t take much time off. Nobody, however, made negative comments about her taking time off or discouraged her from taking it.

Because of her poor job performance, the employer fired Patricia on February 24, 2021. Patricia sued the employer for violating her FMLA rights.

In court

Patricia argued that Adam discouraged her from taking more leave by subjecting her to undue scrutiny and criticism of her job performance after she requested leave. The court disagreed, saying that Patricia took all the leave she requested, and Adam’s comments didn’t mention her leave.

Patricia also argued that the employer interfered with her FMLA rights because it didn’t give her an FMLA eligibility/rights & responsibilities notice and a designation notice. The court disagreed with Patricia again, saying that failure to follow these notice requirements is interference only if an employee was prejudiced by this failure. Patricia, however, wasn’t prejudiced. She was granted all her requested leave.

Even though the employer fired Patricia only 12 days after she took leave, the court said that timing wasn’t enough. The employer had documented Patricia’s poor work performance even before she began taking leave.

Haran v. Orange Business Services, Second Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 24-2312, November 25, 2025.

Key to remember: Just because employers fail to give employees FMLA notices doesn’t always mean they will lose in court. Best practice, however, is to give the notices.