Help! Time to hire a Lawyer?

[janegust]

I live in the Dallas Texas area. I've called several attorney's and most of them do not handle employment law anymore. I did reach two and am still waiting for one of them to call me back.
Here's the issue: I came down with "Severe Pneumonia" on Sept 28 and was hospitalized. One vein has completely collapsed (it's been fairly bad). My employer called me the following Monday to tell me I will be on STD or leave without pay. I questioned that, as I am a salaried employee and I asked him to let work half days during the recovery period at the office and half days from home. (he had previously allowed another employee with the exact same job title and position as myself, to work half days while she had walking pneumonia) He refused and told me not to return until I am 100%. Since then, he has told 3 diffeent employees not to discuss work with me, he has contacted an outside vendor and told him to not discuss business with me, he has intercepted email from my personal email account to any company employees. Today, a certified letter was left in my mail box (no, I did not sign for it) to tell me that I am not eligible for FMLA and I am to return to work on Nov 3rd. If I am unable to return to work, my position can be filled and I can be considered to have voluntairly "quit". Quite nasty. My boss has been doing things of this nature to me since he first came to the company. I have never been written up, never received any verbal warnings, never received any bad reviews. This is purely personal. I have escalated this to HR, asked for a transfer to a diffeent manager and been denied.
On top of which, my boss informed another employee that I had gone to HR and told her to not talk to me. I don't think I'm being paranoid, but this situation is surely making me feel as if my job is being threatened (I've felt this way since this man took over this department). I thought I had the right to work in an environment that was free from harrassment? However; it appears that my boss can do as he pleases and I have a few options, either suffer through it to keep a job, quit and not be able to pay my bills, or get fired and not be able to pay my bills. I've spoken to his boss as well and asked for a transfer. I was denied there as well. I was told that since he is "foreign" I must make allowances for his behavior. There's plenty more, but for opinions and help this should be sufficient. Any ideas? Or am I just out of luck? The job market is so bad right now and unfortunately the more money you make the less jobs there are. I'm scared, I don't mind telling anyone that. I'm sure being worried all the time about my job isn't helping me to recover from this pneumonia either.

All replies are gratefully appreciated.

 

[ALawyer]

A letter from a lawyer may help. I would not know if you are or are not disabled without a lot more factual support. You may be.Keep looking -- and you may have to pay the lawyer upfrnt as it is not a real contingency fee type case.

 

[JETX]

A couple of random comments:

1) You say, "I thought I had the right to work in an environment that was free from harrassment?"
That is a common mistake and is NOT correct. You have the right to work in an environment free of SEXUAL harassment and that is not what seem to be claiming.

2) Texas is a 'work at will' state. That means that you nor your employer need ANY excuse to severe your work relationship AT WILL. Neither of you needs to offer an explanation or reason to quit (or for termination).

3) Your only 'workplace' protections from discrimination are as noted on the EEOC website at: http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/qanda.html
And, in my opinion, nothing you have shown meets those conditions.

Finally, as ALawyer correctly pointed out, due to the lack of a solid, supportable case, you will very likely have a hard time trying to find an attorney to handle this case without requiring a substantial retainer. Are you prepared to pay several thousand dollars to get this issue heard?

 

[janegust]

To: A Lawyer,

Thank you for your post. That was my thought as well (a letter from an Attorney may help). I am "disabled" short term. Meaning, I am unable to perform my job duties at 100%. The reason for this is, my left lung is damaged from the pneumonia which, in turn, means I cannot take a full breath. I'm operating at about 60% lung capacity.
How does this affect me? To quote my Dr: "Walking up a flight of stairs will exhaust you for several hours". In realitive terms, this means I cannot walk from the parking lot to my desk without being out of breath, unable to take a full breath with secondary affects of dizziness and severe nausea as well as weakness. I have no idea how long it will take for my lung to heal. Neither does my Dr. It's a "case by case" thing. This is why I qualified for Short Term Disability. Most of the Attorney's I have contacted no longer handle Employment Law. I suppose this is because as the other Atty pointed it, Texas is a "at will" state. To address those issues:
1) Several thousand dollars to keep a job that pays nearly six figures is worth it.
2) Even though this is an "at will" State; there are some rules an Employer must follow, regardless of which of the 50 States I live in.

I have read what information that I can find regarding the EEOC and FMLA.
A calendar year consists of 12 months, but broken down to hours, excluding vacation, sick and Holidays it is a total of 1840 hours.
I have been on the job for 10 months. I have worked a minimum of 45 hours every week and sometimes much more. I have put in at least 1840 hours. That includes weekends, nights and long hours at the office. Can FMLA be claimed going on the fullfillment of hours? Can Disability be claimed due to the illness? I'm obviously considered disabled by the insurance for STD. I wouldn't qualify for Social Security, because those standards require the illness last at least a year, be ongoing, not responding to treatment etc.. I don't meet the first criteria. It isn't going to last a year. I don't know what the ADA covers.

I appreciate your comments, if you could suggest an Attorney, that would be wonderful. I've checked the attorneypages.com and find a few and contacted one as requested by the site, did not contact multiple lawyers.

Regards,
Jane