Long story over several months but I need advice as I'm really flying in blind to this. Some background First
-I've been working on and off for this Company since 2014. I work at the airport where shifts run 12 hours a day 8:30am-8:30pm for day shifts and 8:30pm-8:30am night shifts. I recently rejoined January of this year.
-I have crippling Anxiety and Depression and really felt I couldn't do very much, but needed money. This job is rather light on workload and I don't work with anyone else on shift at this job.
-Despite my best efforts I could not get into the field of work I am trained for and just took whatever I could. This job came up with this company, they would hire me on the condition that I would have to stay with them for 1 year of employment to cover training costs. I felt retraining was wholly unnecessary and a waste of my time and their money. It felt like it was a way to trap me in a contract with them. I only intended to stay until I found work within my field.
– When I applied for this job they told me they were highly considering me for a supervisor role, something that I had done before and understood well.
Everything seemed fine, until the last few days of training. We get the new schedule, see attached. I'm the Orange one in this one. https://ibb.co/qxJjzyG
Immediately, I refuse this schedule and ask a lot of follow up questions. I work it so that my January looked more like my March. I didn't like the flip from day to night, I hated the 7 day stretch. The standard was just days or nights and 3-4 days in a row and suddenly theres a huge shift in what I thought I was signing up for. I knew that making me work this long of stretches and flipping from days to nights was going to be bad for my mental and physical health.
I said so in an email and CC'd all my coworkers who were training with me. I wanted an open discussion about the schedule. My new boss [Y], stated that it was a temporary schedule and he wanted us to make one amongst ourselves. I complained to the Manager of Operations [M] about [Y]'s scheduling and how it wasn't really safe for us to be doing these sort of schedules. [M] then suggested that I get around to making a schedule. I agreed, at first, but then I didn't want them to push a supervisor position on me without being officially offered the position, so I left it to wait for someone to be named supervisor.
It never happened. A few months in around the end of February and March I'm trying to be the team player and just do the scheduled shifts as assigned. I talk to Blue, and I say, “hey, trade me all of your day shifts or all of your night shifts. I don't care which I just can't keep doing this day to night thing.” Blue initially agrees to trade with me, but quickly changes his mind. Yellow and Green were able to agree on such a thing, but I could not get Blue to.
When we get to April and May and I'm at the end of my rope. Everything in my life goes wrong. I lose my tire to a pothole on the way to work; the government is asking me to repay my CERB (Canadian); theres been mass flooding in my city with more storms coming.
I'm doing my best to hold it together but I'm burnt out and my anxiety and depression worsen. I spent a whole 5 hours on the phone with my mother to help keep me together during my shift because I didn't know if I was going to be able to make it to work the next day. I had been sleeping so horribly that I was getting maybe 8 hours of sleep a week. I became afraid of passing out behind the wheel and passing out at work.
I decide to call [Y], I didn't want any of the blame pinned on me if something went wrong and I wanted out of a horrible situation. The schedule doesn't really leave room for call outs. Without a supervisor, no one is there to help arrange for my shifts to be filled that isn't 1200km where [Y] is. I told him I was concerned about my, as well as my coworker's, ability to come into work with the situation within the city. I asked if we could have someone on call in case I need to call in. I asked if we could fly someone in for a short period to help cover some shifts. Anything; if I lose another tire I don't have another. I was already running on my spare because I was in a 7 day stretch. [Y] says he'll talk to the others and get back to me.
Next day [Y] calls me and asks how I'm doing. I don't hold anything back. I'm completely honest. I'm not okay. I explain some of my anxiety symptoms about how my hand was shaking just being on the phone with him. [Y] goes straight to business, they won't do anything. He then continues to tell me that Blue is quitting and Purple is out for the summer so he was going to be giving us overtime. Then he asks if I'd been working for 26 hours. I tell him no, I've only been there for 2 and Blue must have not logged out of my account. Happens all the time. [Y] tells me that someone being on my account means their potential poor performance would be attributed to me, and that the government run agencies were doing audits soon. The call ends.
That's it. Soon after I snapped. I just couldn't do it another day. I called my mother to try and keep me calm but it didn't work, so I called an emergency line for some help. It got me through the rest of the shift but when I got home that night and was at least relieved I had 7 days off. When I went to bed it all happened. My body won't stop spasming, then it locks up. I'm in the hospital. This happens again a few weeks later.
This is where I need more help. This is what I've done to address things.
- I told Human Resources [T] I was having a medical emergency and had to see doctors about what this was and could no longer do full time. I said i'd get medical documentation if necessary. I asked for any advice on the matter.
[T] relayed the info do [Y] and my schedule got adjusted to 4 shifts a week.
-
I contacted the Human Rights commission to file a complaint.
-
I refused all OT entirely.
-
I tried to call a lawyer and heard no word back…
-
I told [T] that if they failed to accommodate my needs as a person with mental illness, then I wanted to be released from the contract. I cited the horrible schedule as the main culprit many times. [T] never replied to this email.
-
I got a new doctor who was finally able to get me medical documentation to end my flipping from day to night shifts.
Ive lost a lot of wages along with 2 hefty ambulance bills… and I knew all along this would happen and tried my best to avoid it. I know I'm not the only one they worked to a breaking point and I'm afraid I won't be the last. I'm afraid of the consequences of this Company's negligence and apathy to a safety job of all things.
Am I just supposed to cut my losses after my contract ends? Do I get a lawyer? Or is it, sucks to be you?