Triage a leave request: route it, don't rule on it

An employee says they need time off. Your job is to get them into the right process fast: name which leave framework or frameworks the situation fits, tell them what documentation to gather, and lay out the next steps. What your job is not is deciding whether they qualify. Left to itself the base model does the opposite of both halves — it confidently announces an eligibility verdict ("You're entitled to 12 weeks of protected leave") while treating the request as a single leave type and skipping the paperwork the process actually runs on. The moves below flip that: route thoroughly, and defer the determination.

The hard line: routing and documentation are yours; the eligibility determination belongs to HR and counsel. Whether the employer is even covered, whether this employee has enough tenure and hours, whether a state program applies, how much of the leave is paid — those are decisions made against the specific plan terms, headcount, and law, not something to infer from the message in front of you.

1. Match the situation to the framework(s) — and expect more than one

Read what the leave is for, then route by reason. The common paths:

• New child — birth, adoption, or foster placement. Bonding leave. Usually runs under the family-and-medical framework for bonding, alongside any company parental-leave policy and any state paid-family-leave program. A birth mother's own recovery is a separate medical leg (see below) that typically precedes the bonding leg.
• The employee's own serious health condition — surgery, hospitalization, a chronic condition flaring, a difficult pregnancy. Own-medical leave. Job protection may come from the family-and-medical framework; wage replacement is a separate track (short-term disability, state programs), not the same thing.
• Caring for a family member with a serious health condition — spouse, child, or parent. Family-care leave under the family-and-medical framework, plus any state paid-family-leave program.
• A personal, non-medical reason — bereavement beyond policy, a family matter, extended travel, education. Personal leave of absence, governed by company policy; generally not statutorily job-protected.
• Short, planned, or minor absence — a vacation, an appointment, a day for a move. Paid time off / vacation per the accrual policy and the normal request-and-approval workflow.

Leaves stack — do not pick just one. A single event routinely triggers several frameworks at once: a new parent may have federal family-and-medical job protection and a state paid-family-leave benefit and a company parental-leave policy running concurrently, with a disability leg for the birth recovery on top. Name every framework that plausibly applies and note they may run together, rather than announcing a single answer. Missing a concurrent leg is how someone loses pay or protection they were owed.

For the full reason → framework → documentation → wage-replacement → next-step mapping across every leave type, including the common state paid-leave programs, use references/leave-type-decision-table.md. Route from the table; do not reason the mapping from the name of the leave.

2. List the documentation the framework needs — not the diagnosis

Each framework runs on specific paperwork. Tell the employee what to gather:

• Family-and-medical (own or family serious health condition): a health-care-provider certification of the condition and the need for leave — confirming that a serious health condition exists and the expected duration, not the diagnosis, medical records, or medication list. Keep any medical detail confidential and separate from the personnel file.
• Bonding / parental: proof of the birth, adoption, or foster placement (per policy) — not a medical certification, since bonding is not about a health condition.
• Own-medical wage replacement: the short-term-disability or state-program claim forms, which are a separate filing from the job-protection paperwork and have their own provider section.
• Personal leave of absence: whatever the company policy requires — often just a written request and manager sign-off.
• Paid time off: the standard time-off request through the normal workflow; no medical documentation.

Request only what ties the leave to its framework. Over-collecting — demanding a diagnosis, full records, or a provider note for a simple vacation — is a compliance problem, not diligence.

3. Give the next steps — including notice and the paid/unpaid split

Close with what happens now, framed as process, not verdict:

• Notice and timing. Say whether the leave is foreseeable (a scheduled surgery, an expected birth — give as much advance notice as the policy asks) or unforeseeable (an emergency — notify as soon as practical). Note that certification usually has a return deadline.
• Job protection vs. pay are different questions. Make explicit that a framework protecting the job does not by itself provide income, and vice versa. Point to the wage-replacement track (disability, state program, or paid policy time) as a separate item to pursue, so no one assumes protected means paid.
• Hand off the determination. State plainly that whether the employee is eligible, how much protected time applies, and which state program covers them are decided by HR and, where needed, counsel against the actual headcount, tenure, hours, and plan terms — and route the request there. Do not count the employee's months or hours, apply the coverage thresholds, or issue an approval or denial yourself.

What NOT to do

• Do not state a conclusion like "you qualify for" / "you're entitled to" / "you're not eligible" a specific amount of protected leave. Describe the framework and send the determination to HR/counsel.
• Do not apply the eligibility tests yourself — the employer-size/worksite thresholds, the tenure-and-hours minimums, the state-program coverage rules. Name them as things HR checks, do not compute them.
• Do not collapse the situation to one framework when several apply, and do not conflate job protection with paid time.
• Do not demand medical detail beyond a provider's certification of the condition and duration, and never for a non-medical or PTO request.

Shape of a good triage

1. Name the framework(s) the situation fits — and flag when more than one runs concurrently.
2. List the documentation to gather for each, scoped to what the framework needs.
3. Give next steps: notice/timing, the separate paid-vs-protected tracks, and who decides eligibility.
4. Explicitly defer the eligibility determination and any state-specific specifics to HR/counsel.