I recently took a remote position with an in-home veterinary euthanasia company because I’m two years in to a disability that I’m still acclimating to and working on accepting. I have been in the veterinary industry for several years prior to this as a practice manager, veterinary assistant, and receptionist. I am no longer physically capable of working in a normal clinic setting unless I strictly work reception -and- only have good days. On bad days, I need to lay back and elevate my feet because not doing so causes severe chest pain and a high heart rate for me. I hate it so very much.
I’m telling you all this because I resigned from this position four hours after starting. The first four hours of work was a Zoom call that covered introductions and what we would be doing in training, as well as some tax paperwork with HR.
This was by far one of the most overbearing companies I have ever worked for, even if it was only for a moment. They have a stipulation in their handbook that says you have to ask permission to get a second job even though they only pay $15/hr. We were instructed that we couldn’t help elderly clients look up somewhere else to go if we couldn’t help them “for liability reasons” (but really they just didn’t want a bad experience to come back to them).
They wanted to be able to visit my actual physical house to make sure my work area that I paid for met their standards.
These were all reasonably sized red flags that I ignored.
Four hours in to training, we break for lunch and I am asked to stay behind by our trainer, Erin.
Erin asks me why I am not sitting at a desk. I explained to Erin that though I started the session at a desk, I grew uncomfortable and had to move to a different chair because of my disability.
Erin asks if I disclosed this disability during the interview and if it was “clear that I needed to provide a satisfactory workspace”. I explained that I was under absolutely no obligation to disclose my disability during an interview and that I wasn’t having any problem working from where I was sitting.
Erin told me I could not sit in the chair I was sitting in and that I would need to make an accommodation request in order to continue sitting there- but until then, I needed to sit in the chair that I found extremely uncomfortable. Prior to this, I had an ice pack on my chest because I was in a great deal of pain from sitting at the desk chair.
I thanked Erin for her time and logged off. I wrote a resignation to HR because my time and energy are far too valuable to argue over whether or not I’m allowed to create my own accommodation that has absolutely no effect on my working ability.
The company in question will be reported to the EEOC for continuing to refuse to allow me to sit in a specific chair. And yes, I realize how insane that sounds.
I spent a solid hour sobbing to my parents about this when it happened. It broke my heart to yet again have this horrible medical condition stand in my way. But I was not going to subject myself to the humiliation of having to ask permission to be comfortable.