Short background. I live in The Netherlands (EU) and work for an American company. Apparently, according to the law here, if I fall ill within 28 days of my last illness, it counts as the same illness period. Nobody explained this to me before, and last December I happened to fall ill with a pretty bad burnout after suffering a myriad of other illnesses & issues the months before, such as my aparment going to 30c during heatwaves so I was having heatstrokes.
I always went back to working full-time after a few days though, so it came as a surprise to me when HR told me they needed me to do a first year illness evaluation to see where I stand, which among other things, gives them the right to cut my salary 70%. They only sent me to the company doctor for a long-term illness in December, though. I joined a union few months ago but they can't help me because I joined the union after I had experienced the worst which caused me to get sick.
So, I had been talking with the company doctor and we agreed I would build up my hours to full-time, and this week I finally hit 40 hours. As per previous HR's agreement (as I have a new HR), I had to send an e-mail to our HR department about my recovery hours, and I also replied to a project I'd be starting on how many hours I will be working.
The new HR person doesn't exactly seem to like me for some reason; the previous meetings she's always had this evil, fake grin while delivering bad news to me, and if I talk she rolls her eyes among other things. Despite being neutodivergent, I'm not stupid.
Within a minute of me sending the e-mail to the project, HR pulls me into a meeting and chews me out for “Not following the company doctor's advice” (even if, ironically, they didn't take my advice seriously before this) and building up unsustainable hours among other things. I kept trying to tell her it's what the company doctor adviced, she gets pissed and tells me we'll discuss this with my manager present later in the week. Doesn't say goodbye or anything before I say it, she's is clearly boiling and holding back choice words for me.
Day rolls around I'm having the meeting with my manager and HR, she starts out by chewing me out for not following proper protocolls and causing issues because I'm not allowed to report back as recovered without her and my manager's approval as “the moment the system marks you as 100% back, you're recovered in our books and we can't help you”. Everything she says with a very angry tone is always followed up with “So we can help you”, which doesn't exactly feel like it. Either way.
She then gets to the “Ok then explain to me, why did you do it?” part with a very resentful tone. I try to explain to her that as per the previous HR, I was informed she would be sent the advice from my company doctor via the HR department email and that previous HR had told me to report the hours I would be working to that department, too, as the majority of the department didn't speak the local language so they would be extra clear. I explain to her it was never explained to me that reporting full-time hours would be considered fully recovered, but she didn't have none of it.
In the end my manager had to step in to explain it's a miscommunication to try to mitigate it, and that he will send an e-mail clarifying on how I've been confused and it's a misunderstanding and I'll be working only 7 hour days and what not. So, the entire 30 min call we were supposed to have the evaluation it's HR chewing me out and I already know I will keep getting sick if I stay at this company.
It's a very petty complaint in comparsion what everyone else has here, so I'm sorry for such a long post. But I just feel so fucking isolated and gaslit with everything I've gone through the past year at this company, and it feels so hopeless when every application I've put in, even entry-level, have just been ignored or rejected. Hell, I even started going to a shrink for wanting to log out of life daily, and he dropped me because “it's not something we can fix; get a better job”. I mean, I know, but fuck. At this point I'm just hoping I win the lottery so I can keep paying my rent and not go homeless again.