Yesterday, my Rheumy gave me a letter to give to my employer asking for them to provide me with a regular work schedule. She did this because after talking with me about my fatigue, she discovered that my work schedule was all over the place. For example, two weeks ago I worked 6 days straight with the following schedule: 7am-4pm, 12noon-9pm, 7am-4pm, 12noon-9pm, 7am-4pm, 12noon-9pm. I also told her that I am frequently scheduled to work 10 days straight, which I can never make it through the 10 days without calling out at least once.
Here is the body of the letter that my Rheumy provided me to give to my employer:
To Whom It May Concern:
Joel <my lastname> is currently under my care in the Rheumatology Clinic for severe Psoriatic Spondyloarthropathy. Due to this chronic (longstanding/permanent) health condition, his work schedule needs to be limited to Day Shifts only, ending no later then 5 pm. and for a maximum of 5 work days in a row.
Please let us know if you need any additional information.
After giving the scheduler at work that letter, he said the following to me in front of another co-worker:
"I will see if I can find you a position here. I'll have to talk to our Manager"
He made it sound like if he can't find a position for me, then I would no longer have a job.
To start, document and get ever offer in writting. Sorry you have to go through this but if you don’t trust your employer the best is having everything written down incase.
Talk to the manager, yourself BEFORE there is a problem, and this one could be. You need to get the manager on your side. Its a fine line but your scheduler is probably with in her rights. ADA accomidation doesn’t necessarily require creating a different position. Also if I was being a real a** reading that letter I’d be wondering WHY your work hours needed in a particular time frame.
Monday morning I’d be at your HR office (or managers) but HR first. I’d be sooooooo sweet that there would be fear of
a bee swarm finding you. Your opening line will include: I so enjoy working here. Despite my DISABILITY, I have been able to to my job as reflected in my performance reviews. I was hoping my DISABILITY woulld not require much in the way of accomidation. I am so glad that all my disabilty requires is some rest time between 40 hour shifts and a limit to mandatory overtime. I should not have put the scheduler on the spot by discussing my DISABILITY with her first.
Be polite humble use the word disability as often as possible. Never use chronic illness or progrssive.
Suck up to the scheduler nd aplologize for not going to HR first, but rather were hoping to avoid all the disabilitystuff…
Sorry couldn't finish. Schedulers are in a really tough position, its almost as if they have to screw everybody in order to keep peace. Everyone complains that SOMEONE ELSE is gettin a better deal and they are getting screwed. The instant it actually happens (no matter the reason the life becomes a living hell. However if the instructed because of DISABILITY, then they are off the hook and can point to someone else....
Its always important to use the word DISABILITY, it scares the H out of mid-management and especially HR. Disease illness etc DON'T use, they can lay you off until "better" or can yopu because you won't get better and are unable to " to do the job"
The best way (simplest) is to think od ADA all the have to do is get you to your work station, and make it possible to get to and use the toilet. Obviously its bit more. but it could take years to get "it"
I concur with Lamb here....if you use the word DISABILITY it will scare the living daylights out of HR people and management! Be as polite and accomodating as possible but from this point forward I would definitely refer to it as a disabiity, they will try alot harder to work with you then. I know this from personal experience.
If they give you too much trouble you could just go on LTD. The point is you WANT to work. They need to get that and give you what you need so you can. They're asking for a lawsuit with what that supervisor said.
I would document that and anything else that's said that is rude like that. Then bring the folder to HR. Let them know that you're organized. They're not stupid. They'll realize that if you sue them, you will win.
Talk to the manager, yourself BEFORE there is a problem, and this one could be. You need to get the manager on your side. Its a fine line but your scheduler is probably with in her rights. ADA accomidation doesn't necessarily require creating a different position. Also if I was being a real a** reading that letter I'd be wondering WHY your work hours needed in a particular time frame.
Monday morning I'd be at your HR office (or managers) but HR first. I'd be sooooooo sweet that there would be fear of a bee swarm finding you. Your opening line will include: I so enjoy working here. Despite my DISABILITY, I have been able to to my job as reflected in my performance reviews. I was hoping my DISABILITY woulld not require much in the way of accomidation. I am so glad that all my disabilty requires is some rest time between 40 hour shifts and a limit to mandatory overtime. I should not have put the scheduler on the spot by discussing my DISABILITY with her first.
Be polite humble use the word disability as often as possible. Never use chronic illness or progrssive.
Suck up to the scheduler nd aplologize for not going to HR first, but rather were hoping to avoid all the disabilitystuff....
You need to go to the NPF website and look up the disability and fmla related info. Think about submitting the fmla paperwork, fmla is there to protect you and there are laws your employer is required to abide by.
A few days after receiving the note from my Rhuemy requesting that I work day shifts ending no later then 5pm. (This is Home Depot, they are idiot, so my Rheumy placed 5 p.m. as end of day shift, otherwise they would try to interpret day shift as the end of the day). And to work no more then 5 days in a row (they routinely schedule me up to 10 days in a row), they modified my schedule for the next few weeks.
However, today, one of the managers called me in the office and wanted me to fill out more paper work. He wants to wiggle out of this, because a co-worker complained that I now have only day shifts.
Can he wiggle out of my Rheumy's request because another employee complains that I work only day shifts?
Before, the note, my schedule OFTEN would be open, close, open, close, open, close. 6, 7 up to 10 days in a row. It is almost an unreasonable schedule for a person without PsA. By the time the after noon hits, I feel so fatigued that I can hardly do anything. whether I'm at work or not.
The only thing you can do is look into all the disability and equality at work legislation you can…most. Managers will try to bully you into working the way they want you to if they can get away with it. Here in the UK there’s a lot of legislation about equality and it should be no different elswhere. I had to prove my manager and HR department were not working within their own sickness management policy let alone working within the law of the Equality and Diversity act 2010. It also helped that I had my union backing! I had been so ill I was signed off from work by my doc for 4 months and had received a written warning about the absence even before I got back to work…they had to withdraw the warning and I received an apology. I work within a facility agreement now, this is a written document that states when I can and cannot work, which was agreed with me, my union, occupational health at work and my manager and is to be reviewed annually.
Its not easy to push for your rights especially when you’re at a low point in your life, but believe me no one else is going to help…collegues may moan but your employers has a duty to make ’ reasonable ajustments’ to your working times or environment and to protect you from victimisation
Good luck
You fill out the paperwork. Your manager is in a tough situation too. This might be a good time to educate your manager. You gotta understand the world is full of whiners. They are constantly "exerting their rights" Now while I understand the discomfort of a hangnail and certainly have all sorts of sympathy for a poor soul with one, I'm afraid I draw the line at not working produce in a grocery store because it exasperates the condition (honest to gosh a recent complaint.) You have a condition that is not easily seen by others. With whiners outnumbering true sufferers, its pretty easy to understand why just about everyone is skeptical. Even with our disease we have those the day after their Dx running to their employers for concessions, new furniture, better hours etc etc. They didn't need it the day before, but they need it now. There are even those who rush for disability.
Your managers are simply trying to keep peace. Of course other employees are complaining. I don't mean to be demeaning but from the day we first learn to speak we move quickly from "No, Dah Dah, and Ma Ma" to "not fair"
And while discrimination is illegal in this country, there are limits to how much concession need be made, with a further swing to the right there will even be less. Employee rights END when the employees ability to the job end. FMLA and even ADA have NOTHING to do with ability.
FWIW while Home Depot is a jerk outfit, they do unlike other entry level retail offer health insurance. Keep in mind they CAN reduce your hours to accommodate your required schedule because "only those shifts are available" and be within the law (this can effect your benefit package) Relationship with your managers and supervisors is everything.
There are reasons why Unions are disappearing........
MajorFlake said:
A few days after receiving the note from my Rhuemy requesting that I work day shifts ending no later then 5pm. (This is Home Depot, they are idiot, so my Rheumy placed 5 p.m. as end of day shift, otherwise they would try to interpret day shift as the end of the day). And to work no more then 5 days in a row (they routinely schedule me up to 10 days in a row), they modified my schedule for the next few weeks.
However, today, one of the managers called me in the office and wanted me to fill out more paper work. He wants to wiggle out of this, because a co-worker complained that I now have only day shifts.
Can he wiggle out of my Rheumy's request because another employee complains that I work only day shifts?
Before, the note, my schedule OFTEN would be open, close, open, close, open, close. 6, 7 up to 10 days in a row. It is almost an unreasonable schedule for a person without PsA. By the time the after noon hits, I feel so fatigued that I can hardly do anything. whether I'm at work or not.
Glad to hear that your Doctor is standing behind you and looking out for your best interest! I hope this makes a difference for you and that your Employer will cooperate!