I Will Not Suffer In Silence

On Friday during the weekly one-on-one meeting with my boss, she told me that she’d checked with HR and found out that they do not allow people to work from home for any reason.

Then she said that I am in danger of losing my job if I miss any more time. I asked if she understood that I have a health condition. She said yes and said that HR thought I’d be cured by having surgery. She said she continues to fight for me to stay on, but it’s getting increasingly difficult to convince the HR department.
I told my boss that I was due for menses this coming Sunday, and that likely I’d be out of work again for part of the coming week. She said the only thing she could do is keep trying to make a case to keep me to stay. She again raved about my numbers and the fact that I’m still in the top half of the department call ratings.

That day, I spent half of my lunch on the phone with my boyfriend, discussing my impending firing. He suggested I call the labor board. I did, and they booked me for an appointment. That made me feel A LOT better about my situation. That company is not going to get off easy.

I spent the rest of my lunch hour writing to my boss. I realised that most of our discussions about my disease and time off work had been oral conversations. I want this shit in writing. Part of what I asked her was,

“Just to sum up what we talked about this morning: I informed management from even before day one of my permanent hiring that I have a health issue (Endometriosis), which I was having surgery for. I was told that [the company] was waiting for me to have surgery before hiring me. I interviewed the week before my surgery. I informed everyone that my disease is incurable. I informed everyone that the surgery might help with the pain. Since April, I have been informed by you that HR thought that the surgery would cure me – do I have that right? And I was also told since April that continued absences post-op will be a threat to my continued employment. I just want to know for certain – if I have to miss more work this week (because menses is due on Sunday), is it certain that I could be terminated as of next week? Or do I have a month left where HR will decide whether to keep me on? I need to be prepared and let my partner know ASAP what my financial situation will be like.”

She replied with,

“You are correct. [The company] was under the impression that you were going to be cured after the surgery and it is unfortunate that is not the case. Unfortunately, continued absences is a threat to your employment. You have 1/2 PTO left for this period until July, and if you are in real pain next week and cannot come in, you will be borrowing time from [the company]. We will continue to review the situation with HR, but there is no definite date if/when you will be terminated.”

This weekend, I went over my monthly expenses with my man. He says he can support me when I get fired.

I had a nightmare this morning whereby I was starting a new job at some clothing factory. I went in to work with a basket of some of my own clothes, which were for some reason bright green tie-dye… and I carried a big ladder with me in to this job.
I was there for all of ten minutes and received the worst demeaning treatment from the new boss. I was talked down to and even scoffed at for asking simple questions. The manager was a blonde barbie doll type bitch, as was most of management.
So I up and left and spent the day walking around the mall that this factory was attached to. When I came back at the end of the day to retrieve my belongings, the management wanted to know where I’d been and began to berate me. I told them I wouldn’t stand for such aweful treatment and as I began to say I wasn’t going to stay on as their employee, I was held down and forcibly tattooed below my bottom lip. It was a circle with some design in it which I now forget and in it was a tracking device so they couldn’t lose sight of me on my breaks anymore. I told them I’d sue, because I never consented to this shit. I fled the workplace after shouting at length with the management and telling any co-worker within earshot what had happened to me. They were too afraid to run and liberate themselves. I fled and management fled after me. A car chase ensued in which they tried to kill me. I somehow lost them while driving a comandeered tractor trailor, which I ditched down a road off the highway. Next thing I know, I’m being taught by some guy how to clean up after a sewage truck on the side of the highway while looking around anxiously for the goddamned killer management from the job I’d just fled.

Last night I went dancing with my man and a friend. Right before I went dancing, george arrived. The cramps were light at first and became more moderate throughout the night, but remained manageable. At the end of the night, I sat down for a moment before we left the venue, and for some reason that spurred the cramps into high action. The car ride home was grueling, and I took Tylenol 3 when I got home and went right to bed.

Today I have spent the day bleeding like a stuck pig and doped up on Tylenol 3.

I know I’ll likely miss work tomorrow, and stress over whether I’ll be fired or not.

I will be selling CDs and DVDs, a Mac G3 and CRT monitors – let me know if you are interested. I will be making a list of those items in a moment.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 3rd, 2007 at 6:54 pm and is filed under Depression, Employment, Endometriosis, PTSD, Rant. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.