Here is some background to my story:
I worked at a school in South Carolina. I have mild ulcerative colitis. It is a condition listed under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The gist of this disease is that I shit a lot. Like 15-20+ times a day. I can’t control when. I’m on a strict diet. Sometimes I shit blood. My entire body is inflamed because of this disease. It’s an autoimmune disease so any time I have normal people health problems, it’s a little bit extra work for my body.
Last year I began getting arthritis in my knees on top of all of this. I’m in my early 30s and managing this is new to me.
The times of day when my stomach is at its worst is in the morning time. I wake up at 6am every day and sit on the toilet, and I see what my day is going to be like.
Sometimes it’s normal, and I have a normal day. (Yay!) sometimes I have a lot going on and I’m going to be a little late for work. My job duties didn’t require me to have anything done the first few hours of the day.
Some days, it was back to bed because arthritis and bloody diarrhea were the forecast for the day.
All of this is very exhausting, some days my fatigue was so bad. I slept in a storage closet once at work because I was so exhausted and tired, but I couldn’t afford not being there. So that’s what I did out of desperation one day.
I never make a big deal about my condition. I try to live as normal of a life as possible. I follow my doctors appointments, diet, exercise, etc.
I made management and HR aware of these issues as they came up. I educated them in my disease. Trust me. I said I was willing to provide any paperwork that they need, just let me know what they need so I can be accommodated. My doctors have been really good at helping me manage.
HR never responded to my emails asking if they wanted me to provide doctors notes, accommodations, or anything else.
One day HR sat me down with my supervisor, and we had the talk. “Why are you tardy?” “Because I am sick, remember?”
HR told me that morning time is an understandable difficult time for me with my condition. They agreed that it’s okay if I’m in late some days as long as I let my boss and HR know.
A few weeks later, I got an email that says, “this is your final warning about being tardy.”
I did the smart thing and started applying for jobs.
I told my boss and HR that I can’t agree t never being tardy. I can’t even promise my own mother that I’ll be on time 100% of the time because I might shit my pants uncontrollably. I said I’d like to work there as long as they’d have me, because I loved my students and the teachers that I worked with.
The head boss then says, “I hate to see you go, how about we make your last day January 11th?” I was so upset and angry. I never had write ups. I always did my job WHEN I WAS ABLE. And my direct supervisor gave me good reviews.
My last day was the 11th. My coworkers were gutted, the students were sad and didn’t understand, and I just had to tell everyone I got a new job.
I feel like I was mistreated. Is it worth my time to get a lawyer? Please help. I have no job right now.
PS: stress makes this disease worse. Since I have stopped working there my symptoms are easing up