This probably isn't the best subreddit for this, but I don't know of a better one so sorry and thanks for reading.
I work for a government-adjacent non-profit; we are a company that is owned by the city in which I live. This means that our C-suite is not only beholden to our board, but also our Mayor and City Council. I am a system admin and SME for a rather niche piece of finance software. Our physical office is located downtown, in a 100-year-old building whose ventilation hasn't been updated since they put in A/C in the '80s or '90s or whenever. I have been with this company for just over six years.
I have a host of health issues, and am immunocompromised as a result. Here's what's relevant: I am working toward an EDS diagnosis, and I have a heart condition: chronic tachycardia. My resting heart rate usually hovers around 125 but can spike up to 140; the lowest pulse I ever get is 90. I am on beta blockers.
(I'm also physically disabled. I'm knock-kneed, and my party trick is frequent dislocations. I have a complete ACL tear in my right knee, a partial ACL tear in my left knee, bone marrow subluxation, Achilles tendonitis (left foot), and a history of plantar fasciitis (both feet). I am not a wheelchair user but do sometimes require a cane, icy winters are the bane of my existence, and I can't find a doctor who will agree to just lop me off mid-thigh and install a Segway. I need knee replacement surgery, and insurance refuses to pay for it because I'm “too young”… but that's a whole 'nother rant. AMERICA! *jazz hands* This is not relevant re: immunocompromisation, but is relevant re: office parking is three city blocks away and my knees are not getting any less fucked)
So, yeah: gimpy and sickly. Lockdown never ended for my household; we refrain from leaving the house unnecessarily, wear masks religiously, and don't set foot in restaurants or other crowded places. Oh, and my 75-y-o FIL also lives with us — he is also immunocompromised.
The Mayor is pushing return-to-office, hard. And I… can't. I've had Covid once, in August. With 4 vaccines under my belt, omicron laid me out for two solid weeks. Any sicker and I would have been hospitalized. Other than lingering fatigue — I require a minimum of 10 hours of sleep now or I'm a bleary wreck — I haven't had much in the way of Long Covid, but I am well aware that I have been incredibly lucky, and that every reinfection would be a game of Russian Roulette.
Right now we're supposed to be in the office 3 days a week. My doctor's note has bought me the ability to “work it out” with my immediate boss and the CFO for now, so I'm coming in 1-2 half-days per week, I guess so that my coworkers can see me and assume that I'm in as often as they are? It's also a don't-ask-don't-tell situation, which is FANTASTIC now that all meetings are now mandatory-in-person, I can't attend them because it's impossible to social distance (the last meeting I was invited to had 21 people in a room rated for 10 — it's our largest conference room), I can't remote in because they're not allowing Zoom meetings anymore, I can't officially ask for meeting notes because DADT, so I have to rely on asking my boss for broad details on what went on… if he was even there. I'm feeling very isolated and out-of-the-loop, and my anxiety is through the roof.
In January, they will be announcing a firm date for Return To “Normal”, and HR is being very clear that there will be no exceptions. I've updated my resume and interviewed at a couple places, but honestly? Before this, I was really happy here. I like my coworkers, I love the mission… my work actually, materially, benefits my city, and that's not nothing, you know? I'm really not excited at the idea of going back to making rich fuckwads richer. But if nothing changes, I don't see much alternative. I may love the mission, but I'm not dying for it. Or disabling myself further.
I “slipped” to my boss that I have been interviewing, and he talked to the CFO. Neither one of them wants to lose me because I'm a damn good admin and also because our financial software is niche, highly customized, held together with duct tape and chewing gum… and also something that my company is stuck with because of the terms of the grant that paid for it.
Boss and CFO came to me with the following offer: I quit and get re-hired as a 1099 independent contractor, and can work from wherever the hell I want.
At first glance, it seems like the perfect solution to my problem, but. I've barely started researching the logistics, and it's just so damn complicated. From sourcing my own insurance, to setting up formal office space (I have to learn how to calculate depreciation of my stuff now???) to figuring out how to even bill. Most of my job these days is waiting for a user to have a problem, but the CFO or controller can and has called me at all times of the day and night to run synchronizations or pull reports or do other stuff. My job is a LOT of downtime, punctuated with the occasional (roughly semi-yearly) disaster that requires 16-hour days. I've performed maintenance tasks on my phone at an Olive Garden birthday party (pre-panini, obvs). I haven't minded doing these things, because I'm salary, it doesn't happen too often, and the company is conscientious about granting comp time for excessive OT, but if I'm switching to a billable hours model where all the burdens are on me, I don't think I can (or should) be on call 24/7. Is it possible to negotiate a billing structure that boils down to “basically salary” so I can just keep doing what I've been doing and not have to tell workaholic finance guys that they need to talk to me on Monday during business hours?
I've also never actually made a formal ADA request for accommodation. My husband doesn't think I should, because look at all the hoops they're jumping through in order to NOT make any kind of official exception for me — he thinks I will be fired if I do. And I'm not in a cube farm, I'm in an office that I share with one other person, so they might argue that that is accommodation enough. But as I said above, our AC system is at minimum 30 years old and isn't likely to be upgraded to a modern, Covid-ready HVAC anytime soon. Any illness tears through our office like wildfire, because it's basically a germ-dissemmination system.
My FIL has put me in contact with his financial advisor. I'll be calling her on Monday and I have a slew of questions to ask. In the meantime, I will gratefully take any advice that anyone has to give me. Because right now I am vacillating wildly between excited, cautiously optimistic, and terrified, and it is EXHAUSTING.
tl;dr: I'm immunocompromised, work is ending WFH, our office is a petri-dish full of sugar with a little sign on it saying WELCOME GERMS, and the solution I have been given is to become a 1099 independent contractor.