I am a teacher at a charter where I normally love my coworkers. Now that I have Long-Covid, I'm getting the corporate end of the stick.
I most likely got sick from school and had it over the holiday. It took me 3-4 weeks to not feel like death (I hadn't got my booster bc I was either sick or didn't want to miss work/errands on the weekend). I took my 2 weeks covid leave, thought I was great. Until Long-covid started & I couldn't remember my kids names or how which way to turn the keys to get into my classroom. I talked about accomodations, but realized there was no way to make it work, since I need constant rest to not have chest pains and lose oxygen.
I reached out for short term disability & the helpful environment froze immediately. I needed to get a dr's note to even fill out the paperwork. Once I did, they went back and added PTO from previous dates, some of which were incorrect. When It reached out to HR, they said to talk to the school. They waited 2 weeks to send in my paperwork & I had to remind them.
I just got approved for under 60% of my paycheck & they still want me to pay benefits out of it even though they made sure I wasn't paid for a week by adding extra PTO. I was trying to come back as soon as possible so I could be “responsible”, but it's no use. They even replaced my position after a week. With my doctor's encouragement, I'm going to extend my leave time, because I haven't been able to afford to go to the Drs I need to get better.
After this ordeal, I'm trying to look to other places. You can't be essential and not valued, do emotional labor without receiving empathy. I'd be great with an office job that allowed me to leave it at the office. A co-worker told me “don't work yourself to death for a job, they'll post your position before you write your obituary”.