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lost job on july 19 in philly

Fri, 07/21/2006 - 16:02
I lost job on july 19 in philly am more angry than any thing else. Could use any advice that any one has out there to get thru this.Have some info on help but could use more thank you.

Comments

Re: lost job on july 19 in philly

Submitted by gretchen1 on Mon, 2006-07-31 - 22:26
Hi Kevin - I was put on forced medical leave for 3 months. Couldn't get the sz's under control but they told me the accomodations they were arranging and they were doable. Would be profitable for me, helpful to them. And THEN I'm told 2 days before I'm to start? They had deleted my position. I find out later they created another position exactly like mine with a different title, of course. I was so darn mad I couldn't believe they could get away with that. But they did. This was a hospital. I went to the CEO in a professional manner, with an appt, and got kicked out of his office. I went to the Board of Directors and was told I had 3 minutes to speak. After I did? There were no comments and they ruled not to act on my complaint. I went to the EEOC and found out all they can do is negotiate with your employer for acommodations IF your employer will negotiate with them. But not really the EEOC in my state - they referred me first to the Commission on Civil Rights which was so overworked in a year of bugging them they never completed my intake form with me. If they EVER get the ADA reformed maybe it'll help us but as it stands I've talked to several attorneys and they won't even try to use it. There is one phrase that is so ambiguous, was held up by the US Supreme Court by Sandra Day O'Connor that it made the whole ADA worthless as a legal tool. Last I called 13 attorneys. Not ONE would take my case. My son in a large metro area went to an attorney. He has epilepsy, felt because of that he was being put in a compromised position to pirate software, epilepsy blackmail. He refused and he was fired or given an offer to pirate or leave, he left but he did get unemployment after a billion appeals so I'm not sure exactly how all that worked. Before he started sz'ing again tho he was flying up the ladder, the golden boy. He had a few sz's at work? He was treated like the untouchable. That was 2 years ago, he's well employed again, but that still smarts. NO attorney he went to would take his case and told him that except for one state in the US, it's very hard to sue for employment discrimination because there is only one state that is not a "free to hire" state which translates also to "free to fire" or they can fire you with no reason and it's legal. My state has very poor resources for people with health problems. I also think a lot of what quality of help anyone can get is what representative of say the Social Security you get or are not lucky enough to get. An example is we got an excellent rep. with the American Red Cross to help us buy a car. She really invested her time, caring in us but she didn't have to. We've had very apathetic SS reps. Go down to your local Social Security office. Don't call. You always have to leave a call back and even their 1-800 number has advised us it's far better to report in person. If you have no transportation they're supposed to make an appt, come out to your house and they've done that for me twice. Anyway I knew I qualified for Medicaid. The rep filled the form out for me, wrong, and I was refused. Then they had to go back 3 years and pick up some pretty hefty medical bills when I proved if you have NO income, you do qualify for Medicaid. I had an apathetic, half awake rep. I got a very good one when I applied for Disability, she'd been on Disability at one time herself. In my case only she helped me see I really do sz too often to hold any type of job. And I do sz a lot, I'm also hospitalized a lot. It took me 3 years, repossessions, unbelievable poverty in my case to accept that. I don't know what your situation is. My ultimate boss in the hospital had a very very blatant bias about me having epilepsy and I was controled the first 5 months and did work, got 2 promotions and good evaluation reports but she gave me some comments that were absolutely gasping. Of course always when it was only she and I in a hallway or somewhere no one else heard. For example, she found out I have had my knee replaced. Did years before. It's a far better knee than what I had before. It was noted on my employoment physical, she asked me, I said that's true innocently and she said - "strike two". But no one heard it. I would start out by calling the Social Security 1-800 number which you can find on the Social Security site. You can find that on Google. Lately I've had problems with my check and they've been knowledgable and helpful with that and gave me some other ideas and resources to help me be more independent. They called me back to see if their ideas were helpful and they were enthusiastic too. I spoke to several reps. Your local Social Security office might be a resource, it depends if their reps are interested. Keep in minid your situation and mine is not an uncommen story for them. If your community has a local job center, called different things in different communities, that has helped others I know about. It didn't help me but they did try. I simply can't get hired. I sz multiple times daily and finally had to accept I guess I am in that way really disabled. I continually have to re-accept it tho. I loved what I did. Had hit the pinnacle of my career. To be honest I'm still struggling with that loss, the loss of my income and benefits and all those ramifications and it's been 8 years. I found the Job Service Corp, just remembered their name when looking for unemployment earnings. You're certainly not alone in your feelings and despair friend. I hope you can find something. I applied absolutely everywhere after all else failed. Over 30 places and I still do once in awhile but I do feel I have to tell them I seize because I will at any place of employment, that's a given. Once I mention that seizure word, epilepsy word, anything like that? I can almost hear the door go - SLAM. I was told that bigger companies are more likely to hire compromised people and I looked into that but I'm not about to run a machine and that's all that was available plus it still was not offered to me. The last idea I have for you is inventory your talent, all of them. I did that on suggestion and was astonished how many we all have and I've done a lot of little self employment things. None pay much, and usually I wind up donating my time because it is so little but at one time I had Nubian goats I milked, made pretty stamped butter in a round pretty pattern, sold milk and I was at least paying for the groceries. Good luck. This is a very hard problem a lot of us face. I know some have solved it, many of us haven't. My son has found a company that knows he has occasional breakthrough seizures and said ok. It is a very large company BTW. Gretchen

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