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In a message dated 4/6/99 12:21:35 AM Eastern Daylight Time, [log in to unmask] writes: << From: KEn Becker <[log in to unmask]> Subject: Re: Fw: Re: filing for disabililty (employers LTD benefit) It is sad that so many employers will offer the moon and the stars to get an employee to come to work. Then when they have to pay out some of the wonderful benefits, they will pay more to avoid being fair to the employee, than it would cost to do the right thing >> Ken, I worked for many years in Personnel and Benefits for a large corporation. In all fairness, while I realize there are scumbags, my experience was that most of the managers cared very much for their employees. We were more likely to be "taken" by frauds wanting benefits, for example, the guy out on Long Term Disability for back problems found to be doing heavy loading and the only way the corporation found out about it was an article in the newspaper where this guy was caught steeling! In other cases, many managers wanting to help an employee who was not performing well, would try all kinds of methods to get the employee on long term disability rather than deal up front with a performance problem. Or it was his friend and the guy wanted to "retire" and he helped him get income from that source. This kind of abuse can affect judgement in what are just cases. And then there were the cases of drug/alcholol abuse where they were placed in treatment time and time again. Much of this has been tightened up administratively because the costs got out of hand. And even a physcologist hired to help people ultimately resigned because it was felt they were abusing and using "excuses" to get rid of people they didn't want. It's not really black and white. But my experience was that the majority of management really wanted to help, especially long service and productive employees. Many times they would try to place people in a job they could perform but it was perceived as a put down and frankly, such a job was not always available. I also suspect that the insurance companies hired to check out these situations have tightened up their practices and are now more likely to be suspect and to save themselves money draw out the examination and final decision. When you are the one going through it legitimately, it is stressful and sometimes humiliating. Virginia Christiansen White Plains, NY [log in to unmask]