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First of all, congratulations to @maple_shaft! He just spawned a new process!

Now to his question: Giving two-weeks notice when on maternity/paternity leave?

When giving two weeks and one is on family medical leave (viewed as short term disability in the US), would this be considered a reason to blacklist the person from future employment?

Unfortunately, there are only two possible answers to this question:

No. Based on my experience, your wife will not be blacklisted if she gives her two weeks notice while on maternity leave.

And...

Yes. Based on my experience, your wife will be blacklisted if she gives her two weeks notice while on maternity leave.

And I'll bet you 100 Schrutebucks that @maple_shaft will choose the most convincing No, she will not be blacklisted... answer as the accepted answer because it's most favorable to his situation.

My Questions:

  • Are questions like this a good fit for this site?
  • Do we want to welcome questions where the OP is most likely looking to feed his/her confirmation bias?
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  • 5
    Maybe my bias is bulging, but I didn't think this was an unanswerable question. Your assessment of the question presumes that it is unanswerable in an objective way. I know that somewhere in Greenwich, England in the same facility that operates the Atomic Clock is the authoritative volume on Best Practices and Procedures for giving Employment Resignations. Do's and Don'ts that mere commoners like myself are not privy to without expert guidance :)
    – maple_shaft
    Commented Dec 15, 2013 at 20:17
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    Should I be upvoted if I agree with you that the question should be closed? Or, should I be upvoted if I disagree? I think I know your bias on this question, and therefore the correct answer, but I wanted to clarify before putting my $0.02 in.
    – ChrisLively
    Commented Dec 15, 2013 at 23:23
  • @Chris Lively: It's perfectly acceptable to ask a question loaded with a point of view on Meta. No points are awarded on this Meta, it's all about influencing the community.
    – Jim G.
    Commented Dec 15, 2013 at 23:43
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    @JimG: I know how meta works .. I've been on SO since the original beta. ;). The purpose of my comment, which appears to have been missed, was to highlight the irony of your question. By asking what you did, your position is obvious: you don't think those questions belong although you want community confirmation of your thoughts prior to taking action. maple_shaft's question is obviously one in which he hopes others feel like him, again, prior to taking action. However, as Joe has pointed out, those type of questions are actually the most likely type to appear on TW.
    – ChrisLively
    Commented Dec 16, 2013 at 0:09
  • @ChrisLively: There's no irony whatsoever. Guilty as charged. Most Meta questions are in fact loaded with a point of view. Are you saying otherwise?
    – Jim G.
    Commented Dec 16, 2013 at 0:10
  • @JimG. No; however I misstated a bit. My initial comment was using irony to highlight the similarity in your question to his - not that your question was ironic. I wasn't quick enough on the edit. That's what I get for typing fast... so I'll be perfectly clear from this point, and put it in the form of an actual answer: see below.
    – ChrisLively
    Commented Dec 16, 2013 at 0:30
  • Questions should not be asked on meta unless there is a problem to deal with. I do not see anyone calling for a closure here. This is a real problem that someone has to deal with unlike say slapping your bosses wife which is just stupid.
    – IDrinkandIKnowThings
    Commented Dec 31, 2013 at 15:31

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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If it's a good question, then it shouldn't matter if the poster choose whatever answer is most favorable to his situation. I suspect that's what happens in the majority of acceptances anyway.

A good question is a good question - no matter which answer is accepted, if any are.

I'll bet if you analyze all the questions asked, the majority are looking for confirmation about their feelings anyway. And many questions follow this pattern very closely.

  • Doing Individual Projects worth enough?
  • What should I consider before wearing Google Glass to a job interview when I do development for them? (Originally, Is it appropriate to wear Google Classes to an interview?)
  • Bring printed list of questions to interview

All sound to me like they could be retitled "I'm planning to do X. That's ok, right?"

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    I wish I could accept this answer as it is most favourable to my situation.
    – maple_shaft
    Commented Dec 15, 2013 at 23:06
  • @maple_shaft: Done.
    – Jim G.
    Commented Dec 15, 2013 at 23:43
  • "A good question is a good question". Indeed. +1
    – Hugo Rocha
    Commented Dec 16, 2013 at 11:53
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    Agreed. A good question is a good question. And even if the OP selects an answer that might feed their confirmation bias, the community can still upvote the answer(s) they feel are the better ones.
    – もしもし
    Commented Dec 16, 2013 at 17:18
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I believe that the majority of TW questions are going to be asked about situations in which the OP desires confirmation of their position.

There are just a couple types of potential perspectives questions will be asked from. The first is an employer seeking how to handle a situation; the second is an employee doing the same. If it's an employer then they are either wanting confirmation of the approach to take OR seeking how others approach certain policy formation. The latter isn't as likely as the former. Why? Well, that has to do with the people approaching a website for answers vs asking their own HR/Legal departments. Namely, businesses that can afford to pay for expert advice will. More to the point, you won't see a Microsoft, General Motors or Aetna manager posting a question on how to handle a workplace question here; they will ask their HR department.

You may see questions from new startups asking how to define things like vacation policies or when to term someone. However the type of person that is an entrepreneur is someone who will generally already have a position on a topic before they seek outside advice...

The next group are employees. Employees are going to ask questions about how to deal with bosses, company policies and coworkers. Again, confirmation bias is incredibly likely here.

So, to answer the question in the title: "How should we deal with..." The answer is simply to give them the truth as you see it: unvarnished and to the point. In many cases it will likely boil down to how you would handle the given situation given your own perspective. How the OP decides to take that is completely up to them.

To answer your other questions: "Are questions like this a good fit for this site?" I think that if you toss out questions like this then there won't be a site. So proceed with caution.

"Do we want to welcome questions where the OP is most likely looking to feed his/her confirmation bias?" Same answer as above.

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    +1: For How the OP decides to take that is completely up to them.
    – Jim G.
    Commented Dec 16, 2013 at 1:19
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    that second paragraph is a really valuable perspective, thanks!
    – enderland
    Commented Dec 17, 2013 at 1:36

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