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Antiwork

Lost a job because they wouldn’t let me put my health first

Recently got hired at a job starting at the end of the month. I got excited to finally be working again. For context I'm American and I left my last job last November because I was pregnant and very sick. The pregnancy made me so sick it almost cost my life and my baby's. I wouldn't have been able to afford having my baby with the insurance from that job either so it was actually cheaper for me to quit and have the baby on Medicaid since I wasn't going to qualify for FMLA anyway. I'm a mother to a newborn that's still in the hospital. Babies are expensive of course so I was itching to start working again so I could help my family especially because my husband is disabled. I reapplied to the job from last November, and despite the circumstances outside of my control behind why I…


Recently got hired at a job starting at the end of the month. I got excited to finally be working again.

For context I'm American and I left my last job last November because I was pregnant and very sick. The pregnancy made me so sick it almost cost my life and my baby's. I wouldn't have been able to afford having my baby with the insurance from that job either so it was actually cheaper for me to quit and have the baby on Medicaid since I wasn't going to qualify for FMLA anyway.

I'm a mother to a newborn that's still in the hospital. Babies are expensive of course so I was itching to start working again so I could help my family especially because my husband is disabled. I reapplied to the job from last November, and despite the circumstances outside of my control behind why I had to leave they wouldn't hire me again.

Okay, fine. So I applied to a different but similar customer service job that paid less and got it. Great! My financial woes would be eased soon, or so I thought.

The job was supposed to start on the 24th of this month. While I was pregnant my teeth got worse so I now urgently need a crown fitted before I lose a tooth. The first half of the procedure for the crown is before work would start. But I thought about it and realized that the second half would have to undoubtedly have to be scheduled during training. So I contacted my recruiter apologizing and explaining my situation; other jobs usually ask if you have medical appointments within 90 days when you first get hired, although I thought it was odd this never came up during my interview. I thought, surely they could accommodate me going to a procedure for an hour and a half tops; it's not like I planned to even call off, but just to show up late for one training day so I could get the much needed procedure I'd waited MONTHS for.

Well, I was told sorry, unfortunately I needed to attend every single day and hour of training and they could not accommodate me during training time, (9:30 am-5:00 pm Mon-Fri) which incidentally was the same exact times the dentist was open. So I asked for the dates of training so I could try to schedule the second half of my procedure for after training.

Apparently training is the entire 90 days of this job in a right to work state meaning I wouldn't get the second half of my procedure for another three months after part one. 3 months of having a nub of a tooth which was not feasible and would surely cause more complications and damage in the meantime. After getting a half-hearted apology and basically a shrug of a response, I had to decline the job that I desperately needed because they wouldn't allow me to put my health first; I can't even miss ONE precious hour of work time for 90 days even if it means my tooth breaking off and being lost forever.

I was planning on paying off the procedure and getting dental insurance ASAP with this job, but I guess I'll put it on my credit card and keep looking because fuck me I guess. I'm just numb.

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