...though not that of the tyrannical librul-pinko-commie-bastard state, but HR. Of my transatlantic employer. No, you don't report sick leave like this on the "Report Sick Leave" page of the HR sub-intranet; if it's this long you open a separate ticket (or "Case") for it. And no, the screenshot of the doctor's official certificate of "Unable to work due to illness" that I took from the Social Security Authority's (a previous employer's) web site is no good; they want it "on paper". Though in this electronic day and age a phone snapshot of the printout of the exact same information that I was given on discharge from the hospital is just as good, of course. Biiig diff from a screenshot of a Web page... (Well yeah, actually: The screenshot was much more legible.) Just for spite, I copied the same thing as text -- again, from the SSA Web page -- into that second e-mail.

And I must have misremembered the length of my sick leave back five years ago: Your employer apparently only pays the first four weeks, then it's the tyrannical librul-pinko-commie-bastard state, i.e. the SSA again. Can't recall applying for that back then. But maybe I did, and just forgot. Or missed it completely, so I'm out a grand or so, who knows. Anyway, I foresee it being less of a struggle than what I've had so far.