TL;DR: a woman at my workplace is possibly suffering from dementia and our boss is treating her like crap for it
So Ive been at my job (corporate retail in the US) since 2019, I left for about a year to pursue my education but came back about three months ago.
There’s a woman I work with who was a little older (70+ yo) when I started back in 2019. She was an amazing employee and had been there close to 10 years, knew how to do everything in the building and was someone I went to with questions.
Coming back this second time, I can see a clear decline in her health and mental status. She asks what my name is almost every time she sees me despite working together for 3 years. She asks questions about things I know she used to be able to do. She gets confused and overwhelmed by pretty average things we deal with on the daily. It’s pretty obvious that she’s getting some sort of Alzheimer’s or dementia. I know from talking with her she doesn’t have any family besides a son who lives across the country.
We’ve gotten several new managers within the past year, and one in specific is extremely rude to her. She talks down to my older coworker and gets frustrated she doesn’t work as fast as the rest of us (who are all 17-22 yo). It’s bothering me as this older woman is someone who I respect and tries so hard to be a good employee. I watched my own grandma suffer from dementia for 7 years before passing, I know how terrible a disease it can be. No one should be treated like that in the workplace, let alone someone who has been loyal to the company for so long and does her damndest to work hard.
I’ve brought it up to another manager, he said there’s not much he can do. I’ve wanted to reach out for this woman who may not be able to on her own, get her some help, but I’m at a loss for what to do in this situation. It’s common knowledge at my workplace that if you go to HR to “complain” that your hours will get cut or you’ll stop being scheduled altogether.
Any advice would be appreciated.