jlynn-we must work with the same person!!

[l334pm]

What is the name of your state -- PA ---I totally understand what jlynn is going through. I was just fired from my job because the "wonderful" person I worked with did the same things you described - and she'd take all my data entry mistakes to the boss, even though they were stupid mistakes that were easily corrected (nice me would correct her mistakes and not run and tattle-tell to the boss because I thought it was childish).
But now I am the one without a job because of it. If I had known this was going to happen, maybe I would have turned in all her mistakes. She made it so difficult for me, I once had a panic attack at work because she was back after being on vacation - and that week prior that she was on vacation was wonderful for me!!! I enjoyed my job, but I hated going in there to see her. We both performed the same job, I had seniority in the company, and she hated that fact. I think that's why she was making such a case against me with the boss - she was afraid of being laid-off so she made me look really bad, hoping that if it came down to it, they would get rid of me -- which they did and said it was because of my mistakes. (I was also recently approved for FMLA for migraines -- coincidence??) 99% of the mistakes I made were because of the stress she put on me everyday that I was there! And my boss (and everyone we worked with) knew that, I had gone to him several times about her attitude towards me and he even called us both into his office once and used the words "psychological torture" to describe what he felt she was doing to me. And I feel it was, but now I have no job and I don't know if I have any legal ground to try to get it back.
I'm also on antidepressants and my psychiatrist at one time said he thought I could come off of them, and I told him not as long as I'm working with her I can't. I have been off work for approximately 2 weeks now and I have felt so much better, it's unbelievable. My headaches have even lessened. Even though I have no health insurance and no income right now, and I'm a single mom with a 10 year old son, I feel a weight has been lifted off my shoulders since I dont have see her everyday. I am looking for employment, obviously, and I need to get health insurance for my son at the very least, but I don't feel super stressed-out like I thought I would be. All things happen for a reason, I guess.
Anyway, does anyone think I have any legal recourse to sue the company, or at least to sue her? Thanks for reading!!

 

[Beth3]

No and no. Neither the FMLA or ADA specify that an employer has to overlook quality and job performance issues. You are still responsible for performing the essential functions of your job and perform them correctly.

 

[cbg]

And while I'm not excusing her behavior, nothing in the law requires her to be nice to you. She is entitled to be a bitch if she chooses to be.

 

[l334pm]

...and she admittingly was proud of it--and might I add, an expert.

It still gets to me, it's not fair and it sucks. I wish I had never left my union job for this job (I worked in a hospital that had union and non-union positions), but at the time I needed to go full time as I was getting divorced and had to raise my son.

There's not too many people I can say this about, but I truly wish I had never met her. But what goes around comes around, and now she is doing it all the work herself, which is very hard to do over a long period of time.

Move on and move up is all I can do. She's caused me enough stress -- now it's my turn to be happy.

Thanks for the replies!
Dana

 

[Nursie30]

Well you might just want to check out Section 902 Defination of Disability at this website: http://www.eeoc.gov/docs/902cm.html Documented mental illness is a disability, and yes FMLA, and EEOC do understand that people with mental illnesses do make mistakes, and should be offered reasonable accomadations such as FMLA/ altered work schedules, etc........

 

[cbg]

Whoa, hold the fort, Nursie. NOTHING in the ADA requires an employer to put up with sub-standard work as an accomodation. And FMLA can only be offered in cases of a serious medical condition - not as a way to give someone a rest from a nasty boss.

 

[Nursie30]

What I am referring to about substandard work, is the fact that the ADA recognizes that it might be caused by the mental illness, and if an accomadation would help in any way with this then the employer should do so.....That is if the person has called in, and it could be documented towards the mental illness, then the employer can't count that towards substandard work...at least that is the way I understand it when I read it?
Or if assignments are not being turned in on time, and it doesn't cause undue hardship, then more time for the assignments could be a reasonable accomadation?
I definately don't know the absolute, but that is the way I understood it, it may not apply in this situation, just thought she might want to read it, did I interpret it wrong? I don't know?

 

[cbg]

Unless it is exceedingly obvious (the person is in a wheelchair, for example) the employEE, not the employER, is responsible for self-identifying themself as having a potential disability and requesting accomodation. The employer is not required to assume that an accomodation is needed - in fact, employers are told not to assume an accomodation is needed (except in the aforesaid wheelchair example) unless they are asked for one.

Once the request is made, the employer has two responsibilities. One is to determine whether the disability qualifies under the ADA (not all disabilities do) and the other is to determine whether there is a reasonable accomodation that can be offered. What is and is not a reasonable accomodation is VERY situation specific. What is reasonable in one case may not be reasonable in another. While alternate work schedules, extentions of a medical leave, and other such adjustments may in some cases be reasonable accomodations, they are not in all cases and are not specifically required under the law.

The employer is required to include the employee in the discussions of what would and would not be a reasonable accomodation. However, the employer is NEVER required to do any of the following:

1.) Accept a lesser standard of work than would be required of a non-disabled employee
2.) Excuse the employee from completing the essential functions of their position
3.) Give the employee the accomodation they want, even if it's the one the doctor recommends (as long as the accomodation offered will work)
4.) Grant the employee more tardies, absences, or leaves than would be available to a non-disabled employeeor allow the employee to violate company policy with regards to call-in procedures
5.) Create a new job for the employee
6.) Bump the employee into a more desirable shift, position, or schedule that they would not normally have been eligible for

While an employer MAY eliminate non-essential functions, it is not automatically required. While an employer MAY decide to allow an employee x number of extra absences, tardies, or mistakes, they are not automatically required. The function of the ADA is to level the playing field, not to grant the disabled employee extra privileges that other, non-disabled employees do not get.

 

[l334pm]

First of all, she was NOT my boss. Everyone I have told the situation to asks that, but we performed the exact same job. She was just there first (9 months before I was).
Secondly, I was granted FLMA for my migraines, which at times did affect my work (but the stress of trying to get more done to "make her happy" was worse), but I reluctanly filed for it when my abscences were adding up and my boss (yes, the same one that complained about it to another supervisor) suggested I do so. What FMLA does at this place is, if you call off for a migraine (or whatever your documented serious medical condition is), then you need to have documentation from your physician to return and the abscence is not counted against you (we were allowed 9 abscences per year before possibly losing your job). I had only missed time in April, then again in August, both for migraines and both requiring ER care. I wasn't going to file for FMLA because so many people abuse it and I didn't want to be looked at as one of those, because that's not how I do things. But I filed since my boss suggested it, to protect myself from losing my job.
I am the kind of person that's wants to avoid conflict at all costs, and this time it ended up costing me my job. If I had been able to not care what she thought, and just go on the advice from my boss that my productivity was fine and not to worry about the fact that she made me feel it wasn't, then maybe I would not have hurried, which caused the mistakes, and I would still have my job. But that is a lesson learned and I have to move on.
My main reason for posting here was to find out if I had any recourse against her, especially since everyone and even my boss knew of how she was treating me, yet nothing was ever followed up to correct the situation. I don't know if I said this before, but my boss had called us in to the office once and told us we had to go to the Employment Assistance Program (EAP) and talk about this situation, once by ourselves, and once together, and that he could mandate this if we didn't agree, but that was never followed through with on his part. So in that way, I feel he failed me also.
Anyway, I am still looking for work, but it's difficult to find employment making near what I was making with the benefits, but something will work out.
Take care everyone, and thanks for posting.
Dana