A friend recently was fired from her job in the medical field after asking for an extra day off due to her mental illness. She had been meeting with a psychiatrist for awhile due to some mental illness she had been struggling with. After feeling overwhelmed she spoke to her psychiatrist who suggested she take an extra day off work. Her psychiatrist wrote her a note to give to her job that explained that “in her professional opinion, an additional day off would be necessary to help cope with her mental illness.” My friend hasn’t told me exactly what mental illness she has, but regardless, is should still be taken seriously by an employer.
About a week ago she presented the note to her employer who said they would likely not give her the extra day off. Today she was called into HR office and told that “they could not meet her needs” and “she would be let go in a week.” This understandably was very upsetting for her. She would be losing all her benefits and would struggle to find a new job in just a week.
They then explained that she would be fired from her position, but was welcome to stay on at a different position that was at a much lower pay and was completely without benefits. Personally this whole situation sees pretty messed up to me. What I’m wondering is if this could be a wrongful termination situation. Can a job really fire you because you have a diagnosed medical issue that requires an additional day off? I guess jobs don’t really take mental illness seriously.
My friend isn’t sure where to go from here or if she has enough to go to a lawyer about the situation. What, if anything can be done? Any help would be appreciated.