Hey y’all, so ima start with saying I’m 21. I’ve been a lurker, mostly just here to remind myself of what’s to come if I don’t focus on me. Right now I am seeking advice. I run my own business with just enough money to pay bills. My overall goal is to provide a safe working environment for workers when I grow older. With this— I understand labor laws. My sister however, works in a distribution center. I’ve had my share of getting f’d over by companies, so, naturally, I want to take this opportunity to F this HR team up.
My sister, 24, has a thyroid issue. She was born with it, meaning that she has trouble with weight and is on the heftier size (nothing wrong with that). She eats healthy, takes walks, however the weight stays which has an overall impact on her endurance and joints. Strength is not an issue, it’s simply the continuous work that she cannot keep up with. They schedule her 12 hour shifts at times. When she called me crying today saying what happened, let me tell you my jaw f’ing dropped.
So here I am, doin my early morning stock review, sippin on some apple cider, when all the sudden I get a call. She’s not the type of person to just call, so i immediately knew something was up. I pick up the phone to her absolutely bawling her eyes out. Shes the type of person to lead with emotion, where I lead with logic. She proceeded to tell me the story. She had an appointment with her doctor discussing one of her 5 duties at work. Her doctor gave her a note requesting accommodation for 1, only 1, aspect of her job. Once again, she had a fucking note. She’s not just “asking” for accommodations, she has a legitimate disability to why she cannot do it, and it’s due to her inability to lose weight due to a bad thyroid. She only struggles with endurance based tasks due to her weight— it is NOT a strength issue. The issue is that she has a hard time pushing pallets around continuously— NOT that they’re too heavy. It’s an endurance issue. Keep in mind she can lift 50+ lbs easy, and also understand that warehouse employers are only allowed to put employees on leave if they can lift less than 10 from my knowledge. Even then, mmmmm my biscuits are buttered let me tell you. Having worked in a factory myself, we had a bunch of people working in a separate area that we liked to call the “cripple crew” when people get injured or have a disability. Some of them were temporary, others are permanent— this is how I know her employer is blatantly discriminating towards her. This is not an unreasonable accommodation that she has asked for. Her duties include packing, lifting 10-40 lb packages, inventory, and the last is moving the pallet from one department to the next. An accommodation idea: she still picks tools, packs them, places them, does inventory, but someone else pushes the pallet. Is that unreasonable? Is it? IS IT??? Please be honest with me because I’m going for their fucking throats if I am correct on this. So tell me why she called me today, saying that she gave them the doctors note THIS MORNING, and 4 HOURS later she was called into HR and was told she was being forced to go on a leave of absence so they can further “investigate”— forced to leave IMMEDIATELY. Did I mention it was unpaid? U N P A I D. You know what they offered? “Use your vacation time”. She told me that she doesn’t even have vacation time, let alone shouldn’t be forced to use it on a FORCED, NON-COMMUNICATED leave of absence with absolutely 0 notice. She was forced to leave halfway through her shift. Please tell me how that makes sense? Doesn’t that make productivity slower? Literally make it make sense.
I do not know what smooth brain fucks work in that HR department, but I am not bout to let my sister get trampled. I have already informed her to get in contact with the ADA or EEOC. Her response was “well I want to call corporate to see if it was a mistake”. I tell her, IT IS A MISTAKE, and that mistake is on THEM. It is not up to you to figure out or barter, the ONLY thing that matters is that they did what they did, and DO NOT give them the chance to fix their mistake. The final thing is financials. Her boyfriend works 50ish hour weeks to help my sister only work around 25-30. My sister is also pursuing an art career. This is what she loves and the only way to do it is to be financially sound. It is also another reason to why her S/O works so many hours, and that is so she can puruse this career. Her and her boyfriend cannot pay bills without 2 incomes. They are just short. His is for bills, hers is for fun & saving/investments. They will need to dip into savings if they would like to continue to live at the bare minimum.
So, in close, I am seeking advice. Only being 21 I do admit I lack a lot of life experience, however I enjoy learning new things from others knowledge and experiences. I want to make sure I am correct on this and not way off the charts. Being so young, I have very strong feelings against capitalism and every mf that supports it is in for a rude awakening when their employer just drops them because they just can. Please share your knowledge and advice, I’d like to get started on this as soon as I can.
Thank you, and for anyone wondering, this is based in Illinois.