Is it moral to use FMLA?

[happiness]

The Family Medical Leave Act forces my employer to let me take up to 12 weeks per year off of work for reasons related to having a medical condition. The company doesn't pay me for this missed time, but the state does, and because they're so incompetent, they pay me significantly more to miss work than I make in a day by actually going in. When I need to take time off for a medical procedure, I could use my normal sick and vacation time, or I could use FMLA time and save the regular allocation of time off for later use.

If the company did not want me to use FMLA time, I would not do so, as it's a violation of their rights. This is a huge company whose business model seems set up to absorb the impact of FMLA, and the managers of my outfit don't seem to mind if I use it; in fact, they recommended it to me. But at the end of the day, either my absence hurts the operation, or I'm not providing value to the company, and not really needed. So, as an Objectivist, I am inclined to say that I should not use FMLA. By doing so, I am being evasive and slothful, and failing to advance in my life as much as I could if I did not allow myself to use it.

Thoughts?

Edited June 11, 2022 by happiness

[tadmjones]

You are not acting against contractual agreement with your employer as they recommend this specific course of action , the benefits or renumeration you receive do not come by any effort on your part to defraud or gain through dishonesty.

Perhaps use those opportunities for personal growth instead of ‘slothfulness’.

[StrictlyLogical]

I agree with tadmjones.

Your wages and time away are automatically considered when they suggest and or allow you to use FMLA.  This indicates agreement, and as such in complete accord with the trader principle.

As for the government paying for it, if you compare how much in taxes you should pay in a proper society versus what you (and your parents) have paid, and account for what kinds of goods and services you would have gotten in a free society versus the mixed economy one you actually got....  unless you and your parents had been truly needy through all your lives,  you will find that the State owes you big time, that you paid far too much for far too little in return... and if anything FMLA helps to balance the ledger a little bit.