What is the name of your state? California
I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder last November. I told my employer that I have the disorder, and even passed this on to my new boss, in January of this year. I was never asked if there were any accomadtaions I would need due to my disorder. I was fired yesterday for engaiging in an activity that kept me from having a nervous breakdown at work. The only thing that was I was able to do at times to get through the day, was getting my mind away form teh job through inernet usage. My wife had commented that after taking this job that I bacme very distant from her and our children. My schedule left me with little to now time with my children during the week which made my condition worse. Oncew I started to take medication for my condidtion I was fine fr a while but then the tensions of waiting for my wife to deliver our second child, almost pushed me over the edge, as he was over 2 weeks late, and there were concerns over wheher or not he would be "normal" as we had conceived just before my wife had a radiation treatment forher thyroid cancer. she had a sugery to remove the thyroid and the cancer 2/13/04. Since that time my wife's parathyroid glands have not been working the way they should. She is prone to numbness and locking of joints if her calcium level slips to low. When our son was born on 12/31/04 Idid take the next week off work, as I was told that I would nopt qualify for bonding time until after I had been with the company for 1 year. That date would have been 3/15/05. 2 weeks after the birth of my sone my wife had a seizure due to low calcium levels. She was hospiltalized for 2 days. This again pushed me to the edge with my condition even though I was taking my meds as directed. I did take 2 days off form work to be with our new born. 1 and 1/2 weeks later my wife was in a car accident with our infant in the car. I had mentioned todirect reports and peers that I was looking forward to my bonding time, and that Ijust wanted to get there, because I really needed thetime away to recover from a turbulent start to the year. At no time did I go off my meds. However I was having an increasingly difficult itme at work. It was time for annual reviews and I was havng difficulty writing the reveiws the way that my new boss wanted them. I had not written year end reviews for this company before and since I was given no special instruction, I wrote them as Iwrote reviews in the past. I was asked to soemthing I was uncomfortable with, and that was to drop certain employees by name in level which would imact theraise they would get. Iwas also told to use a weghitng system that was not accurrate for dertiming their perfomance levels. I told my supervisor I wa not sure just how to work with these special cases that had been transferred form amtoher department during the last quarter. I was instructed to weight their performance in as a judgement call when it came to their production numbers for the year. Their was no weighting other than what my boss would approve. I was told to reduce the level for one employyeee by name who was labed a trouble maker for his inquiries to HR about fair treatment. Ihad not signed or delivered the review prior to my termination, and was feeling a great amount of turmoil that aggrvated my condition further. Knowing that I suffered form bipolar my boss at no time asked if I was ok, or if I was able to handle the increased stress. During the last 2 weeks my perofmace had not suffered but actually had increased, which attribute to taking time each day relieve the stresses I had been feeling that were pushing me towrds a breakdown. When asked about my internet usage I said that it was to relieve stress and that some days it was the only thing that got me through the day. I was terminated moments later. Given my condition, and that i was a salaried employee receiving no ovetime and never turning in a time card. My schedule effeted my homle life aggravating my condition, my work had ne in a norla dilema which further aggravated my condition, My behavior to combat this actually increased my performance. At no time was I asked if there were any accomodations that I needed. Under ADA woudl any one recommend pursuing this or should I just forget it and keep looking for a new job, and hope I do not get denied unemployment?
Thanks if you made it this far.
Jim
I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder last November. I told my employer that I have the disorder, and even passed this on to my new boss, in January of this year. I was never asked if there were any accomadtaions I would need due to my disorder. I was fired yesterday for engaiging in an activity that kept me from having a nervous breakdown at work. The only thing that was I was able to do at times to get through the day, was getting my mind away form teh job through inernet usage. My wife had commented that after taking this job that I bacme very distant from her and our children. My schedule left me with little to now time with my children during the week which made my condition worse. Oncew I started to take medication for my condidtion I was fine fr a while but then the tensions of waiting for my wife to deliver our second child, almost pushed me over the edge, as he was over 2 weeks late, and there were concerns over wheher or not he would be "normal" as we had conceived just before my wife had a radiation treatment forher thyroid cancer. she had a sugery to remove the thyroid and the cancer 2/13/04. Since that time my wife's parathyroid glands have not been working the way they should. She is prone to numbness and locking of joints if her calcium level slips to low. When our son was born on 12/31/04 Idid take the next week off work, as I was told that I would nopt qualify for bonding time until after I had been with the company for 1 year. That date would have been 3/15/05. 2 weeks after the birth of my sone my wife had a seizure due to low calcium levels. She was hospiltalized for 2 days. This again pushed me to the edge with my condition even though I was taking my meds as directed. I did take 2 days off form work to be with our new born. 1 and 1/2 weeks later my wife was in a car accident with our infant in the car. I had mentioned todirect reports and peers that I was looking forward to my bonding time, and that Ijust wanted to get there, because I really needed thetime away to recover from a turbulent start to the year. At no time did I go off my meds. However I was having an increasingly difficult itme at work. It was time for annual reviews and I was havng difficulty writing the reveiws the way that my new boss wanted them. I had not written year end reviews for this company before and since I was given no special instruction, I wrote them as Iwrote reviews in the past. I was asked to soemthing I was uncomfortable with, and that was to drop certain employees by name in level which would imact theraise they would get. Iwas also told to use a weghitng system that was not accurrate for dertiming their perfomance levels. I told my supervisor I wa not sure just how to work with these special cases that had been transferred form amtoher department during the last quarter. I was instructed to weight their performance in as a judgement call when it came to their production numbers for the year. Their was no weighting other than what my boss would approve. I was told to reduce the level for one employyeee by name who was labed a trouble maker for his inquiries to HR about fair treatment. Ihad not signed or delivered the review prior to my termination, and was feeling a great amount of turmoil that aggrvated my condition further. Knowing that I suffered form bipolar my boss at no time asked if I was ok, or if I was able to handle the increased stress. During the last 2 weeks my perofmace had not suffered but actually had increased, which attribute to taking time each day relieve the stresses I had been feeling that were pushing me towrds a breakdown. When asked about my internet usage I said that it was to relieve stress and that some days it was the only thing that got me through the day. I was terminated moments later. Given my condition, and that i was a salaried employee receiving no ovetime and never turning in a time card. My schedule effeted my homle life aggravating my condition, my work had ne in a norla dilema which further aggravated my condition, My behavior to combat this actually increased my performance. At no time was I asked if there were any accomodations that I needed. Under ADA woudl any one recommend pursuing this or should I just forget it and keep looking for a new job, and hope I do not get denied unemployment?
Thanks if you made it this far.
Jim