So I (34M, Australian) recently started a new job last week. After the first shift, I got very ill. I'm still pretty sick due to my stomach complications, which was accompanied by migraine, fever and throwing up.
When today came around, I still wasn't feeling any better. I planned to go to the doctors, but when I told mum (I moved back with mum for my health) she told me to “just get over it!” And went full on about how I was raised poorly, I should just get out more, stop being sick, who's going to look after you when I'm gone, etc. It took me off guard, that I forced myself to go to work despite being sick. I told my job provider how sick I was and all I got is “see how you go this shift”, “you're just stressed, just see how you go this shift”. It was the same answer I got when I first got sick and had to call in sick the day after my first shift.
It didn't matter anyway, because protocol at the company dictated that I had to go home because I said yes to their check-list of symptoms. I still needed to do paperwork, though. Of course, I was shit scared to go home because of mum forcing me out of the house to work. But she calmed down when I told her they sent me home due to protocol and not me. Job provider just said “see how you go next shift, just don't stress”. It's like the things I hear about my depression “just don't be depressed”.
In this such a short time, I see how many people and companies only cared about you working and not your health and well-being. I've been going through depression, anxiety, stomach complications and then I got pretty sick after my first work. But my sickness and complications don't matter when it comes to work. “Just go to work”, “just see how you go”. You get all this help and support job hunting, then when you get it all that support is gone. They don't value you, they only see you as a statistic to work. Even I think my mum thinks that way and doesn't care about my health. She just gets annoyed that I'm this brittle.
It's not like I want to work, I just want to work when I'm better and at a job where my body doesn't get this sick. I don't believe this job is right for me and I should just quit, but then I'll feel the force of the family, the job provider and Government. It's such an awful position to be in.