Hello! After seeing multiple threads calling people with disabilities “liabilities”, I have a lot to say, but most importantly, what?
First of all, any admittance of viewing persons with disabilities as a liability is already discrimination and is already illegal. Does that make a difference though? No, because all that matters is that capital keeps flowing and money keeps coming. But seriously? I don't even care that I have a disability and what I'm speaking on resonates with me, but a person with a disability that hinders their way of life should NOT have to worry about them also having a lesser chance at getting a job.
I don't care what kind of business you run or how fast-paced it should be, your inability to accommodate people for how they have to live due to the way they were born or something that happened to them is cruel and selfish. Maybe it's too much of a dreamland that I live in where I thought I would have an equal chance at getting a job even though I have a disability. Maybe it's unrealistic that I should have a consistent flow of money in order to live. Maybe I'm being too idealistic to be able to survive in a world based off of natural selection.
Now for my personal tie into this bull:
The last job I was in, I didn't get a promotion that I had been told to be fully qualified for and the supervisor nearly guaranteed the promotion to me. The manager had other plans though, and they promoted someone I had trained who did not have the respect that I had earned by working hard or knowledge of the job that I had. Maybe I worked too hard and was too essential at the low-level laborer position I was in, sure. Maybe I'm better at doing work than y'know… doing the same work for a slightly higher wage.
My manager had disliked me since the first month I worked at the job because I almost ended up in the hospital due to my disability. The following 5 months, both my manager and supervisor joked about me saying that I wasn't reliable since I had to take a few emergency days off, even though I had not taken a single day off and even volunteered for extra hours since that incident. I built my reputation from the ground up after the “rough start”, and I still didn't get respect for any of the work I did. I got three special recognitions at company award ceremonies, but not one of them was from my manager. The awards I got were rewarded by the operations manager (my manager's manager), the retail manager (for going above and beyond in my knowledge of retail products we had and giving proper recommendations to guests), and the events manager (for creating a warm and welcoming environment for all guests and accommodating each person to their specific, tailored needs).
Instead, someone I trained who only worked for three months compared to my eight months got the promotion. Maybe five more months of experience doesn't mean anything. Maybe my training of nearly every new person who came on in those eight months meant nothing. Maybe the accommodating of guests like no one else was or making people feel welcome and want to come back is not the point of the job. Maybe receiving employee of the month by the operations manager due to my excellence and efficiency in the job meant nothing.
So I quit.
And now I'm seeing threads of people saying that people with disabilities are considered “liabilities” to companies. I quit that job so I could have more respect for the work I do. I quit that job so I could get the respect I deserve for the effort I put in. I quit that job so I could actually be valued for what I was doing. But now I don't know. Maybe I shouldn't have been born like this, and I apologize to the employers out there that see me as a liability since I was born this way. I'm sorry that 26% of the US population is seen as a liability to you, I truly am.
Maybe you'll see people with disabilities as people some day, but until that day, stop trying to put on a good person facade.