I’ll start off by saying I have a disability. I have a care team with over a dozen doctors. Every 3 months I need to do a full blood work-up to make sure I’m still in check.
I started a new job in January of this year. When submitting my application I noted I had a disability. When filling out my onboarding paperwork I again noted I have a disability.
Basically in the first 3 months of working I used all my sick time for the year because I ended up getting an infection due to being immunocompromised from the medication I take to manage my disability. Also note I am extremely cautious, always sanitizing my hands or washing them and still religiously wearing a mask whenever I go out.
Long story short my mangers didn’t know I had a disability. It got escalated to HR, they requested a letter. I got it, sent it to both my managers and HR. I had a discussion with my managers who said they would start scheduling my doctors appointments on my days off instead of using time and I would start scheduling appointments mid week on our least busiest days. In return I would work more Saturdays . Great, thanks, that works out perfect all around.
My doctors appointment happens the be next Friday, which I requested off in Mid January— long before I had the discussion with them. Which I again emailed to confirm with the managers after our discussion.
Now, next weeks schedule comes out. I go in late one day during the week and am off Saturday— the second Saturday in a row might I add. And have a “sick day” on Friday.
I email manager telling him “I have no more sick days.”
He replied “you can just use vacation.”
I reply “can I just come in earlier the one day and work Saturday because I already had my vacation times approved by the other manager. Therefore I’ve already booked the flights and hotels months ago.”
He replies “nope that won’t be fair to the other staff. Also we are already are being lenient as senior staff haven’t even booked their vacations yet.”
…. Like what? it’s not my fault that senior staff haven’t picked their vacation weeks yet. Especially since they should have done so the end of last year, before I was even hired!! And we are already a quarter of the way through this year! Like when is that going to happen?!
I also asked the other manager if those weeks were okay, as I didn’t have anything booked yet I could have changed them. But he approved them so I booked them!
My saving grace— the company rewarded us an extra week of time off because they were rated one of the top companies in the state. But I was hoarding them as I don’t have any more sick time and we are only 1/4 the way through the year. And let’s face it, the odds are stacked against me. It’s inevitable that I will get sick again before the end of the year.
Am I acting too privileged? Or do I have the right to be angry? My anxiety is through the roof right now because of this.