Over the past couple of months I have had to take time off (Including time in a mental health facility).
This was caused by applying for the National Redress Scheme in Australia.
This caused me to relive my childhood trauma and forced me to take the time off because I was experiencing panic attacks at work.
I work in retail and have to deal with abusive customers daily.
The day that caused me to break, the eftpos system was down. I am a duty manager. The upper management made me stand at the door and tell the customers we could only take cash. This resulted in a lot of the customers abusing me and saying things like “You're fucking useless” to my face.
The next day before I started work I talked to my manager and said I needed time off due to this.
After I spent time in the hospital and saw my doctor and a psychiatrist. I returned to work and had a panic attack. This caused HR to suspend me for a week pending a medical certificate from my doctor.
My doctor gave me a medical certificate saying that although I may still have panic attacks I was fit for duty but to avoid registers for four weeks.
After two weeks HR finally got back to my manager and said that due to this they have deemed that I am not fit to continue working for them.
They have given me one week to clear myself completely or they will terminate my employment due their duty of care stating that it is for my long term mental health.
This has caused me as much if not more mental anguish than the reasons I took time off in the first place.
This is a minimum wage job and I'd just quit if I thought my future prospects of work were any good at all.
Sorry for the text dump. I am just not sure what to do.
TLDR: Mental health reasons caused me to take time of work. HR wants to terminate my employment because of this.