I've been asked to share this because I briefly mentioned it in a previous post.
I got fired from my previous employer for a couple reasons. The owner tried to say I wasn't active enough during the day despite me explaining exactly what I did every day. He had some sort of tracker on my computer to see when and how often my mouse moved or I used the keyboard. A lot of my duties were away from a computer, so that wasn't a good way to track my activity.
The other reason was ridiculous.
Some background: I've struggled with intermittent depression for most of my life. There was a boyfriend I had who exacerbated the problem but I didn't recognize it back then. He cheated on me, left me, and then his new girlfriend started harassing me through his social media. Eventually I broke down and went to a state facility for 3 days because of fear of self harm. I got a diagnosis of bipolar type 2 while I was there.
I returned to work, now on medication (which has helped my mood swings IMMENSELY). I told the owner about it and we discussed how to move forward with this information. I thought he'd understand since his brother suffered from debilitating depression. I was wrong.
It can take a few years to get the dosage right for this medication (which I told the owner). I was still experiencing mood swings, but they were much more mild than before the medication. I still had a lot of mornings where I wasn't in a good mood (doesn't help that I'm not a morning person).
The owner talked to me about my attitude once and I explained again about my medication but also said I'd put more effort into not being abrasive in the mornings. I thought I was doing really well. Then a new office manager was hired.
This manager had no business being in that position (they lied about a degree and some work experience just to get their foot into office administration, but I digress). This person decided that because I didn't talk much in the mornings that I must be a terrible person with an awful attitude. They complained to the owner almost daily but I didn't find that out until later.
After the manager had complained for almost a month, I got pulled into a meeting with the owner. He said that I wasn't doing enough work during the day and that we had previously talked about my attitude. I reminded him that I had once again had a medication change a couple months before this and was still getting it figured out. He said (direct quote) “we don't know who you're going to be each morning”. Because of my condition, I didn't know who I was going to be in the morning. So he fired me but “let” me finish the week.
The US went into lockdown exactly two weeks after my last day, so I was having an extremely difficult time trying to find a new job. Once my vacation payout was almost gone, I decided to file for unemployment. I thought “maybe I'll at least get a couple hundred bucks a week until I find a new job”. In my application I explained these events and submitted, not expecting much.
A couple weeks later, I received a letter from unemployment. It said that I was awarded funds for discrimination. I got a huge payout from that employer, plus 8 months of unemployment at 75% of my wages at that company.
I wish I hadn't been surprised that it was discrimination, but I hadn't been previously informed that it's not just for physical discrimination.
I'm grateful I got the payout. It carried me until I got a new job (I'm a contractor now, working for myself), I paid off most of my debt, and the rest has been put into savings.