by Mary
(Rochester, NY)
She called in to say she was having anixety attack and could not pull herself together. She has been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and bi-polar. An assistant manager told her to take her time and try to pull it together and come in late. She did not go in at all and did not call back to say she couldn’t pull it together. She of course knows not calling back was wrong. She was written up, she apologized and wrote a statement of what happened and explained her condition. They asked her to quit and she refused. Now the managers are not talking to her and not sharing work related information with her (my daughter is one of their assistant managers). The environment has become hostile and they are making her travel 40 minutes farther away and work another store. It is like they are doing everything they can to force her to quit. Before this incident she has never missed work or been late without calling in. When at work she does a great job. In the past they had her run the store when the manager was on vacation. The one incident has turned bother the manager and district manager (a new district manager who has never met her yet) against her. She ask the district manager if she could talk to her to apologize and to explain her situation. My daughter says they are outwardly training someone else for her position and it appears they plan on firing her….however they keep bringing up to her that if she quits they will give her a good recommendation. She does not want to quit. She gets medical through work which allows for her to see her mental health counselor. What are her rights?
Answer For: my daughter has been diagnosed with bi-polar. she had an anixety attack and did not go to work. They want to fire her because of it. Can they do that?
Hi,
Thank God .. someone who is investigating their rights for a current and ongoing problem at work!!
Document, document, document.
It sounds to me like maybe the employer is engaging in discriminatory behavior .. based on a knowledge about a disability.
However, I’m not an attorney and nothing I write about is meant to be legal advice. See the disclaimer.
But I know the time to act is now .. not after they fire her or force her into quitting. We protect ourselves best, when in the midst of a situation .. not after the situation has ended with the employment being terminated.
It’s how we acquire proof and/or it’s how we get those crossing legal boundaries to shape up because we have initiated action which could result in a much greater liability to the employer other than measly unemployment benefits.
See the following.
By the way, it’s possible that you don’t need a lawyer for this type of situation until or unless you choose to go to court over it.
I think a non-attorney advocate is sufficient right now because it’s still and administrative agency you’d be dealing with. And I know for a fact there are such people providing their services for much less than an attorney would charge.
My husband and I have engaged the services of a medicaid advocate to help us through that process for his mother. The attorney wanted $6500 .. she’s charging us $550 and is holding our hand much tighter while guiding us through!!
All these entitlement and appeal processes are confusing and have great potential for failure when you don’t know what the agency is looking for.
Chris