Disability Termination

[adelphus]

What is the name of your state? New Jersey

I have a lot of neural disorders, many related to sensory input/processing. Then you add the clinical depression, the anxiety/panic disorder, the agorophobia and the any number of other things that doctors have claimed me over the past (literally) 17 years and you have the disaster known as me. I've been in and out of doctor's offices since I was 7 and on meds about as long. I have the DSM-IV codes, GAF codes, and doctor's statements to prove it, so I'm not just whisteling in the wind here. But I'm alive, and I like being alive even with this nasty hand I was dealt. Yeah I'm a bit bent, but I also have the high IQ and savant skills that come with this kind of thing.

Here's what happened.
My boss decided to give me "special treatment" without telling me, then acused me of taking advantage of it. I asked him to stop giving me special treatment and tell me what the real rules were, but he refused, claiming I wouldn't work as good without it. He continued acusing me of taking advantage until I went to seek out the company rules. When he found out, I was fired.That's the short version anyway.The crap of it is, the depression et al doesn't hurt my work, just me. That pisses me off hardcore because I would actually use my work as an escape. The nerve. The friggen nerve. They gave me a 4% raise a month before I was fired because I had upped company profits.
There's more, but I'll see what you guys do with this. I am already in the painfully slow process of filing with the EEOC so I can get 'right to sue' papers. If you need more info, I have plenty. They left a paper trail a mile long.;-)
PS. Termination paper says reason for firing was that I "was not happy working there." Unemployment did a telephone interveiw with them to determine my eligibility for benefits and found that my termination was not work related based on whatthey heard. So then what was it...?;-p

 

[cbg]

What do you mean by special treatment?

 

[adelphus]

Special Accommodations my boss says he made, none of which where requested;

1. Small things like;
a. Having a heat lamp for my feet
i. Something I came up with that he ignored
b. Having a plant by my desk
i. Others have plants
c. Keeping figurines on my computer
i. Others have figurines
d. Listening to music
i. Others listen to music
e.Being able to have a sweater/backpack upstairs
i. I didn’t need my backpack, others also had sweaters/extra shoes/ect.
f. Being able to talk with other employees
i. I was usually too shy to do so but did on occasion.

2. Not having to wear shoes at my desk. Not having to wear corporate attire.
a. Many people didn’t. In fact, many people wore open toed shoes when I was expressly made not to. One woman wore sweatsuits every day. Sensory Integration Disorder makes the wearing of shoes and tight-fitting clothing unbearable.

3. Keeping food at my desk/having a refrigerator brought upstairs.
a. Customer service has a veritable buffet of candy, coffee, and other sweets at their desk site. The buyers always had a stack of cookies on a vacant desk. Food is found at nearly all work sites. Boss paid for refrigerator so he could keep his water bottle in it.

4.“Flexible” sick days/working hours
a. Everyone is given a piece of paper with calendars on it and the number of vacation days/sick days/personal days they have written at the top. One is supposed to circle the days they intend to take off. I wasn’t given one. I was told to take days as I needed them. This made it impossible to judge if I was over or under my available days.

situation arose shortly before I was fired. My pet bird was showing signs of sickness one morning, and as birds go downhill quick, I scheduled a vet appointment for the latest time they had, which was 3pm. I cleared it with Bob, who told me to make up the time later. I stayed late the next two days, 6pm one night, 8am the next morning and 5:30 the next night. It would make 40 hours. My boss disagreed, saying that I didn’t work a 40 hour week because I was on salary. (Life insurance sheet says I work 40 hours) What he said after that didn’t make much sense and when I tried to get him to explain it/write it down, he grew suddenly angry and accused me of taking advantage of “special treatment.”

5. Being told I could go to the tropics for a weekend in the Winter.
a. It was ridiculous. I didn’t have the money for that and I didn’t know what my vacation time was. Besides, a few days wouldn’t have been effective.

6.Being able to bounce between web-surfing/personal projects and tedious work blocks.
a. Ron did so and so did Bob. In fact, he and Ron usually showed curiosity about my side projects. Neither rarely expressed any concern because I was always ahead of schedule.

What eventually happened.

My former employers, two old men in a small photo store had gotten a high-paying restoration job that they couldn’t handle. I told them I would work on it during my break. When my boss asked about it I told him the truth about the old men and he became unexpectedly angry, accusing me of doing other company’s work on his company time.

Sufficiently creeped out, I told him I was on my break, the same 3pm break I had been taking for a while. He was inconsolable, so I told him I’d stop. He asked if I understood why it was wrong and I had to admit I didn’t. It didn’t matter, I had closed the file by now but he kept after me stating all the “special treatment” he had given me and that this was how I repaid him. Then he sent me home.

My co-worker was equally shocked and told me it would blow over. That night my mate showed me her company’s rulebook, where it was written that at her job, outside work was frowned upon but only a punishable offense if it was for a competing company. I decided to find my company’s rule book and found there wasn’t one.

Bob’s uncle Michael offered to set up a meeting where we could discuss what rules it was that I didn’t understand and wanted clarified to prevent further “special treatment.” As I listed the things I wanted to know I was cut off with the question; “Do you like working here?” Still scared from yesterday I paused, then said I didn’t know.

I was immediately fired.

 

[HomeGuru]

Is there a part four? I am glad to be asking.

 

[cbg]

Okay, you lost me. Sorry, I volunteer here and don't have time to read your entire filing.

The one thing I will add, since I can see it at the bottom of your final post, is that whether you did or did not receive unemployment benefits has NOTHING to do with whether your termination was legal or illegal. The vast majority of people who are receiving unemployment were terminated legally.

 

[adelphus]

Okay, you lost me. Sorry, I volunteer here and don't have time to read your entire filing.

The one thing I will add, since I can see it at the bottom of your final post, is that whether you did or did not receive unemployment benefits has NOTHING to do with whether your termination was legal or illegal. The vast majority of people who are receiving unemployment were terminated legally.

Yeah I know, it's there to reinforce the fact that I wasn't fired for a work related reason. That way they can't later claim that it was work related.

Is there a part four? I am glad to be asking.

And yes it's long, I'm bored. There seems to be less graphic design job postings now than when I did this 2 years ago and the economy's supposed to be improving. I chopped everything out just now except the special treatment section, which is still kind of long... I can either give you a short answer or a correct one it seems...