Hi all, I could use some guidance about my situation…
So almost 2 months ago, I had my newborn daughter. I wanted to provide financially to support my family, so I decided to work for a small concierge company, on-call graveyard shift. I have been working for them for one and a half weeks so far but I’m seriously considering quitting.
During one of my shifts around 3am, my mom who was watching over my daughter sent me a dim video of my baby’s belly button. Her onesie was stained with blood from her bellybutton, and her bellybutton was filled with pus. She was crying hysterically. On a related note, I struggle a lot with postpartum anxiety and a panic disorder.
My mom wasn’t able to admit my baby to the ER due to communication issues (she’s deaf and can’t speak English). I told her I’ll be there as soon as possible. As I’m trying to reach any of my coworkers, I start to feel super lightheaded and panicked. I’m sure I was about to faint.
I was able to reach only one of my coworkers. He answered the phone with “what.”, which I thought was super out of character of him, as he had always been super kind and told me to call him whenever I needed to. I explained the situation to him, to which he responded with “I don’t know what to tell you. Get one of your friends and family to cover for you. Do you even know what time it is?” This just made me 1000x more distressed. I was never able to find anyone to cover me, and I ended up being wheeled away from my post on a stretcher by EMTs with no one to cover me. My coworkers excuse for not coming was that he had a doctors appointment in the morning.
As minuscule as the situation sounds, in a way I’m traumatized by the whole thing. Having to stay in the ER not knowing if my daughter was okay was terrible – I’m getting teary eyed just thinking about it. It’s hard enough being a new parent… Am I just flying off the handle, or should I bring this up with HR? Should I sue for emotional and physical distress? Negligence? What would I even ask from HR? Corrective action, I’m guessing?