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Need advice, looking for unemployment before I get fired. Long story; based in USA in NJ at state agency and have history of disability that HR is aware of

My job has been a little weird over the years but let me try my best to condense it. I was a sort of nepotism hire because someone I knew was aware of the ceo. I have no direct contact with the CEO and since this is a state agency he has recently been replaced by another guy but this has not been fully public knowledge to every employee yet. I got hired right as we were heading into locked down, I worked for two weeks and was barely trained as my supervisors had nothing for me to do usually. Once we were in lock down, there was 0 training, my boss at the time also was a new hire and pretty much useless. I had nothing to do during lock down but wrack up more depression. Once we were back in full time much later then most people in…


My job has been a little weird over the years but let me try my best to condense it. I was a sort of nepotism hire because someone I knew was aware of the ceo. I have no direct contact with the CEO and since this is a state agency he has recently been replaced by another guy but this has not been fully public knowledge to every employee yet. I got hired right as we were heading into locked down, I worked for two weeks and was barely trained as my supervisors had nothing for me to do usually. Once we were in lock down, there was 0 training, my boss at the time also was a new hire and pretty much useless. I had nothing to do during lock down but wrack up more depression. Once we were back in full time much later then most people in my area, I was struggling to come in on time, had extreme anxiety, entirely unaware of surroundings. My supervisor took note and I started to be open about my disability; so I actually got recommending to take temp. disability leave. I took it and my job was taken by someone else. Once I returned, I was placed in a whole different building. Next door on company property there’s a science building teaching kids mostly nature science. I went from being an admin and reception coverage, to solo managing a large hydroponic system, taking care of 5 turtles and 3 more aquatic tanks, a pigeon, class supply maintenance, and instructing highschool interns. It’s a lot in comparison to my old work and has a lot of manual labor, I didn’t mind cause it’s cool stuff I actually have experience with. It’s absolutely not what I was told the job would be, I was told I’d be an admin and doing newsletter art. I didn’t complain cause I still have good benefits for my disability and it’s chill. Mind you I still have no official work description that has been signed off.

Cue to now where Hr had decided to use my overloaded schedule and add more things in different departments. At first I was ok with it under the impression it was “when I had time” and I did just that. Till someone complained it was taking too long and claiming it was a time sensitive task (it wasn’t; old coworker left files lying around and didn’t do digital archiving for 10 years). I tried to say I was too overloaded, stress beyond belief to the point of insomnia. Ended up in a meeting with supervisor and HR who ignored every statement I said and reprimanded me for extra time I worked there in order to keep up on the work load. Was told to just drop certain jobs including animal care (which hurts my ethics, no one has time for proper animal care there). And I was willing to comply till I got this PIP memo. Basicly states I can no longer use more pto and will not be paid for it despite having way more for the year. They changed it to accumulated pto based on work time despite when I signed on the job it being the opposite. I’m absolutely being pushed out and I feel targeted and it’s destroying my ability to even show up anymore. I’m asking for work accommodations and they are so far refusing. I really could use my healthcare for treatment, so I’m hoping I can at least keep that for a while. But seems like the PIP is going to prevent unemployment benefits

I know what they’ve done is illegal with giving me a job position unequivalent to my previous one. The manual labor is so bad and I got tendonitis now where I can’t even fully do everything as tasks stack up. I’d have legal ground but honestly they have their own legal team and I’d probably lose. Any advice on at least getting unemployment? It would help me out so much

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