Wow! It's great your boss is keeping you on, paying the full-time health benefits even tho' you are only part time! Gary is right about the part-timers not getting health benefits - my state is one of them! I worked for several years as an instructor teaching French and Spanish at a university as a "part-time" person working FULL time with no benefits as did many of my colleagues. It wasn't until many people raised a little ruckus about it that the so-called "part-timers" working full time finally got health benefits! The operative word here (as Gary says) is "tread lightly". Being sweet helps, too. I'm glad things are going better for you.

Hi Gary----I have worked at this restaurant for 16 years, and have developed a close relationship with the customers. My diagnosis was very public, and everyone was following my treatment and kind of rooting for me. When you see someone almost everyday for 15 years and then they just disappear, you want to know what is going on. Some people wanted to know why I had this cancer, as they knew I was very health conscious and in very good shape. So I had no problem telling those who asked about the HPV link. Yes, I realize HPV is an STD, but people still get freaked out about stuff like that.
I live in Massachusetts where everyone now is required to have health insurance.

Also---I do have to give kudos to Mrs Boss who found a way to keep me on the books while I was out of work for 7 months in order to keep me on my health insurance. And kudos to the customers who were super-supportive. My employers, co-workers, and customers got together and arranged a benefit for me while I was out of work, and I think out of fairness I have to express my appreciation of that!

It has just been the past 4 months that have been baffling, and I needed to know where I should be headed---A new job or should I hang there? I think we worked a lot of things out.

I just came across your plight and wonder if Mass laws are simular to Wisconsin. If you are "able & available " for work, and your employer refuses to put you back on full time, you can STILL file for AND collect unemployment. To be clear... You can collect unemployment when your hours are cut.. you get a "partial" UC check. (It's the fastest way to get them to give you your hours back!)

Filing a UC claim in Fl won't pressure the employer to hire you back even if you are deemed 100% chargeable against that one employer because their rates won't be negatively affected that much. It takes a lot of claims, all chargeable against a single employer before their rates changes and since it only applies to the first $7000 annually of each covered employee, you're not dealing with a lot of tax money.