Terminated from Job

[Dillon]

I hope everyone is doing well on here. I don’t come on here much but I feel I should reach out.
As of today of early in the afternoon I had been terminated/fired from a job that I really loved and enjoyed. Now why might you ask, well I was told by both supervisors that I had “work deficiencies” that needed to be addressed and I hadn’t retained since I was severely sick for 2 months due to strep and appendicitis. I was told I didn’t correct the issues at hand when I clearly did and showed my supervisor. This is in relation to being a kayaking guide out on the water and I didn’t meet the requirements in safety on the water. The job at first hand never really gave me ample hands on training and the 2 months I was out of work there was further training I had missed and never been accommodated on.
I was specifically told that I was to be let go due to my health impacting the organization I had worked for to which I thought I was illegal to fire someone base on a health condition.

So there I was forced to turn over my office keys and clear out my desk. As I left I was very distraught in the fact that I had myself to blame thinking is my health really that bad for a work environment? This job was never really ND inclusive as I never received work accommodation nor support.
A “great” way to end the week though as I have to as of next week have to go in for a colonoscopy for possible progression of early onset of colon rectal cancer which I hope that’s not the case. For several weeks now be been having bleeding episodes (not going into further detail than that).

Has anyone ever gotten terminated because of a health condition or having a disability. How do you deal with the aftermath of all that?
I eventually will have to file for unemployment which is a first given that it took me 6-7 months after graduation to find me a job.

 

[Jumpinbare]

So sorry.

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

Sorry to hear that, Dillon.

It isn’t fair. It sucks.

In my experience, employers aren’t necessarily honest in their employee files. Regardless of the “real” reason for firing, they will make the records look legal. Rarely is there positive outcomes fighting with Human Resources.

Did you learn any skills you could parlay into another similar job? Was there anyone at the company you worked with who could write you a letter of recommendation?

I guess where I am going with this is, cut your losses and move on.

But I know it feels terrible to be let go. If it is any consolation, I was fired a time or two myself and still managed to develop a career.

 

[Masaniello]

I’ve been given the boot because I was too slow in a job so effectively yes, it was to do with my disability.

 

[Dillon]

Sorry to hear that, Dillon.

It isn’t fair. It sucks.

In my experience, employers aren’t necessarily honest in their employee files. Regardless of the “real” reason for firing, they will make the records look legal. Rarely is there positive outcomes fighting with Human Resources.

Did you learn any skills you could parlay into another similar job? Was there anyone at the company you worked with who could write you a letter of recommendation?

I guess where I am going with this is, cut your losses and move on.

But I know it feels terrible to be let go. If it is any consolation, I was fired a time or two myself and still managed to develop a career.

I’ve learned quite a bit actually. I learned about the conservation management of coastal wildlife species, gained experience i operating a flat bed trailer attached to a truck, and I’ve gained some great interpersonal skills in educating others about the environment.

Even with that it’s just a bummer I was let go but I’m hoping for something better and if nothing turns out I can always go to the route of going back to school. I need to freshen up on my analytical and GIS skills anyway as I was never able to use that talent at my job but gained considerable background in my education.

 

[MildredHubble]

I've experienced similar As @WhitewaterWoman said, employers will get very crafty about recording the reasons they are terminating your employment. It's very wrong to do what they did to you. It's very probably illegal too, but fighting it is usually expensive and challenging.

I unintentionally recorded my dismissal on my phone. Their "reasons" changed several times, including trying to say they were doing me "a favour". It was very frustrating and distressing.

When I discovered the recording on my phone and played it back to others, they all said that it was clear they were just trying to make something stick. That was reassuring, but I still took a long time to recover from the experience.

I hope you can find a much better job soon and you can at least be able to use the experience you gained to find one you love doing just as much!

 

[Dillon]

I've experienced similar As @WhitewaterWoman said, employers will get very crafty about recording the reasons they are terminating your employment. It's very wrong to do what they did to you. It's very probably illegal too, but fighting it is usually expensive and challenging.

I unintentionally recorded my dismissal on my phone. Their "reasons" changed several times, including trying to say they were doing me "a favour". It was very frustrating and distressing.

When I discovered the recording on my phone and played it back to others, they all said that it was clear they were just trying to make something stick. That was reassuring, but I still took a long time to recover from the experience.

I hope you can find a much better job soon and you can at least be able to use the experience you gained to find one you love doing just as much!

I can say on top of this I had major surgery to get an burst, inflamed, and dilated appendix taken and a couple weeks later when I had returned to work I had a co-worker who wanted to throw me to the wolves and have me lift 60 plus pound kayaks on my own when I was under heavy lifting restrictions for another week of not lifting anything greater than 10 pounds. Supervisor was the same way and kept asking my doctor how long I would be on restrictions for.

 

[MildredHubble]

I can say on top of this I had major surgery to get an burst, inflamed, and dilated appendix taken and a couple weeks later when I had returned to work I had a co-worker who wanted to throw me to the wolves and have me lift 60 plus pound kayaks on my own when I was under heavy lifting restrictions for another week of not lifting anything greater than 10 pounds. Supervisor was the same way and kept asking my doctor how long I would be on restrictions for.

That's really bad that they treated you like that. I know that it can be dangerous to lift heavy weights after abdominal surgery as you can get hernias besides lots of other things, and it can potentially be life threatening. It's a disgusting way to treat someone with any health issues, particularly when they are recovering from literally having their body cut open and things removed.

Before I was dismissed, I'd just had 2 badly impacted wisdom teeth removed under general anesthetic. I was told by the surgeon I'd be ok to work after 24 hours. I was forced to take a days vacation to get the surgery and came back to work the next day. I was in a real state, my jaw and face were super swollen, I was sick still from the anesthetic, my jaw seriously hurt, I had a pounding headache and I was dizzy and disoriented.

My senior colleague told me that I didn't look well enough to work and insisted I go home. I protested but eventually I agreed as I was so unwell I was likely to be a liability. I thought "How kind of him to be so nice to me and send me home." But as it turned out this was one of the "reasons" for my termination and I was given a lecture on how I had been "unreliable and inflexible" when I was "let go".

Some places are just rotten to the core and everyone is just looking for an excuse to screw others over. It can be very traumatic to find yourself working somewhere like that and it can take a while to process it all, particularly when you were doing something you had a lot of passion and enthusiasm for.

I'm sorry they behaved so badly, but don't let them ruin your enthusiasm for that sort of work in the future! Other opportunities will reveal themselves.

It's probably all feeling very raw and no doubt a big shock. It will probably take a little while to process what's happened.

It's clear from what you've said that this is not your fault in any way. They certainly sounds like one of those "rotten to the core" employers to me. Fortunately they are relatively rare.

 

[Aspychata]

https://www.employmentlawfirms.com/...leave is over, with a few limited exceptions.

 

[Aspychata]

The other act is ADA, the Americans with Disability Act. This protects those who don't get accommodations due to ASD etc. Sorry that this endeavor didn't quite pan out. However, you have excellent job experience that shows you to be versatile, and a quick learner, and great at dealing with the public.

 

[Levitat0r]

I hope everyone is doing well on here. I don’t come on here much but I feel I should reach out.
As of today of early in the afternoon I had been terminated/fired from a job that I really loved and enjoyed. Now why might you ask, well I was told by both supervisors that I had “work deficiencies” that needed to be addressed and I hadn’t retained since I was severely sick for 2 months due to strep and appendicitis. I was told I didn’t correct the issues at hand when I clearly did and showed my supervisor. This is in relation to being a kayaking guide out on the water and I didn’t meet the requirements in safety on the water. The job at first hand never really gave me ample hands on training and the 2 months I was out of work there was further training I had missed and never been accommodated on.
I was specifically told that I was to be let go due to my health impacting the organization I had worked for to which I thought I was illegal to fire someone base on a health condition.

So there I was forced to turn over my office keys and clear out my desk. As I left I was very distraught in the fact that I had myself to blame thinking is my health really that bad for a work environment? This job was never really ND inclusive as I never received work accommodation nor support.
A “great” way to end the week though as I have to as of next week have to go in for a colonoscopy for possible progression of early onset of colon rectal cancer which I hope that’s not the case. For several weeks now be been having bleeding episodes (not going into further detail than that).

Has anyone ever gotten terminated because of a health condition or having a disability. How do you deal with the aftermath of all that?
I eventually will have to file for unemployment which is a first given that it took me 6-7 months after graduation to find me a job.

I've been essentially fired for being "unpleasant", and I'm pretty sure it's illegal to formally reprimand or discipline someone for non-specific reasons, as that is clear discrimination and a form of bullying or harassment. I think they knew it was an HR and legal misstep to let me go solely for that, so they simply bashed me until my stress went up, my quality of sleep went down along with my performance, and then they could say it was for performance, but it was their fault for being bigoted jerks. On another occasion I was fired simply because they were quietly exporting the business unit to China, they were liars who were keeping it under wraps until the last moment, and it had zero to do with me.

 

[Boogs]

That's a rotten thing to happen to anyone!

Discrimination in employment is rife and common, and not just for the neurally diverse. In the UK at least, employment protection has been deliberately eaten away until what little remains is rarely of much help.
Through my life I've repeatedly experienced similar things, and seen the gross dishonesty that a typical HR department will manufacture when another departments manager(s) wish to divest themselves of someone because it's easier than accommodating them, and usually there's already been discrimination they wish to cover up.

At 60+ having finally discovered my own condition(s), and seeing the gradual start of problems I decided to out myself about a year ago to my manager and their manager. They were of course very 'accepting' and listened to what I had to say etc etc. Subsequently my manager has pretty much ostracised me from my own team which he manages and I now unofficially report to his manager for work. My main comfort is I know now I can prove a case of discrimination without relying on my own words against my managers, I can back them up with independent evidence. I still have a tricky and unpleasant situation that at some point I'm going to have to navigate, in finding a position that's formalised and satisfactory to myself, or find another job, which I don't want to do - frying pans and fires and all that.

But at least this time I have some ammunition they can't brush aside, and gang up against me with their word against mine (the managers always win on that one). But it's a poor thing to have to do that, and even worse, this is in a non-profit company in the care industry who recently ran a school for autistic children. I naively thought they may have different attitudes, sadly not. Who knows how it will pan out, I can only wait and see.

As general advice, I'd say to record what ever happens that you find contentious or even out right discriminatory. Keep a dated diary of these things, it still may be your word against theirs, but something like a record rather than poorly remembered events that are hard to argue can go a long way to making a more solid case to defend yourself with, if you feel strong enough to do so. But sometimes it's better to let go, unless the possible rewards of fighting outweigh the likely outcomes.

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

I’ve learned quite a bit actually. I learned about the conservation management of coastal wildlife species, gained experience i operating a flat bed trailer attached to a truck, and I’ve gained some great interpersonal skills in educating others about the environment.

Even with that it’s just a bummer I was let go but I’m hoping for something better and if nothing turns out I can always go to the route of going back to school. I need to freshen up on my analytical and GIS skills anyway as I was never able to use that talent at my job but gained considerable background in my education.

This is excellent! Super-great.

(Of course it’s a bummer to be let go. Not trying to invalidate that.)

I’d love to hear more about your job and what you learned if you want to talk about it. It sounds like the kind of job I’d have liked to have had. I did work some summers outdoors in ecology type positions when I was at uni.

 

[thejuice]

Ive been driven out of a job and also fired without being told the real reason. You know your true worth its hard to hold on to it when you get rejected like that but not everyone can appreciate our unique gifts

 

[jsilver256]

If your health/disability affects your ability to perform the job, yeah, it's not illegal to fire you. I'm deaf and can't talk, they should fire me within 5 minutes of starting a call center job.

But don't take some rando's word for it, go ask a lawyer if you must.

It's too late, but sounds like what you should have done here is when you started having health problems impacting your ability to perform your job, is that you should have requested FMLA. (However that kicks in only when you've been employed there one year - and this assumes you are in the USA.)

Most decent companies will work to accommodate you if they feel they are getting value from you. When they stop accommodating, they are either not decent or they are not getting the value they feel they should be getting from you.

 

[Levitat0r]

That's a rotten thing to happen to anyone!

Discrimination in employment is rife and common, and not just for the neurally diverse. In the UK at least, employment protection has been deliberately eaten away until what little remains is rarely of much help.
Through my life I've repeatedly experienced similar things, and seen the gross dishonesty that a typical HR department will manufacture when another departments manager(s) wish to divest themselves of someone because it's easier than accommodating them, and usually there's already been discrimination they wish to cover up.

At 60+ having finally discovered my own condition(s), and seeing the gradual start of problems I decided to out myself about a year ago to my manager and their manager. They were of course very 'accepting' and listened to what I had to say etc etc. Subsequently my manager has pretty much ostracised me from my own team which he manages and I now unofficially report to his manager for work. My main comfort is I know now I can prove a case of discrimination without relying on my own words against my managers, I can back them up with independent evidence. I still have a tricky and unpleasant situation that at some point I'm going to have to navigate, in finding a position that's formalised and satisfactory to myself, or find another job, which I don't want to do - frying pans and fires and all that.

But at least this time I have some ammunition they can't brush aside, and gang up against me with their word against mine (the managers always win on that one). But it's a poor thing to have to do that, and even worse, this is in a non-profit company in the care industry who recently ran a school for autistic children. I naively thought they may have different attitudes, sadly not. Who knows how it will pan out, I can only wait and see.

As general advice, I'd say to record what ever happens that you find contentious or even out right discriminatory. Keep a dated diary of these things, it still may be your word against theirs, but something like a record rather than poorly remembered events that are hard to argue can go a long way to making a more solid case to defend yourself with, if you feel strong enough to do so. But sometimes it's better to let go, unless the possible rewards of fighting outweigh the likely outcomes.

It's my experience that they eventually figure out that the law is on their side because nobody follows the letter of it against people who are broke, disconnected from society, and thus have no recourse. What is going to happen if they treat you outrageously? Who are you going to tell? That's the problem. Word isn't going to go out that the system is broken and corrupt, because you have nobody to tell who is going to listen. You lose. You always lose, once they figure out who you are, and more importantly who you aren't; that you're nobody from their perspective.
This is incidentally, something that even the speaking having in common with the mute and non-verbal. You're still functionally mute because nobody listens. Nobody's ears are open, and when your calls for help and justice get louder and more desperate, all they do is laugh and shake their heads at the hysterical fool.

 

[Levitat0r]

It's my experience that they eventually figure out that the law is on their side because nobody follows the letter of it against people who are broke, disconnected from society, and thus have no recourse. What is going to happen if they treat you outrageously? Who are you going to tell? That's the problem. Word isn't going to go out that the system is broken and corrupt, because you have nobody to tell who is going to listen. You lose. You always lose, once they figure out who you are, and more importantly who you aren't; that you're nobody from their perspective.

This is incidentally, something that even the speaking having in common with the mute and non-verbal. You're still functionally mute because nobody listens. Nobody's ears are open, and when your calls for help and justice get louder and more desperate, all they do is laugh and shake their heads at the hysterical fool.

 

[Boogs]

It's my experience that they eventually figure out that the law is on their side because nobody follows the letter of it against people who are broke, disconnected from society, and thus have no recourse. What is going to happen if they treat you outrageously? Who are you going to tell? That's the problem. Word isn't going to go out that the system is broken and corrupt, because you have nobody to tell who is going to listen. You lose. You always lose, once they figure out who you are, and more importantly who you aren't; that you're nobody from their perspective.

It's sadly human nature to attack and discriminate against those who are not understood, are different in a way not appreciated. I think many need it to help establish and strengthen connections with their peers, and finding a victim to gang up on seems a popular way to do this. A victim whom no-one else connects with is always the ideal.
Bullying is endemic to humans and also many other species, interestingly enough.

 

[Levitat0r]

People think that The Walking Dead is a hellish horror story, but to me it's a fairy tale. You know why? Because those people live and die for each other. That's fiction. Your real friend would sell you for a sandwich, and then throw in his mother for some ketchup.

 

[Boogs]

That's 'friends' for you!
I've never had many friends, and fewer acquaintances (much worst than friends!), but even those few who I've learnt to trust to a degree I can accept them, so often, eventually, they'll let me down by making a mess of something trivial (like being unable to pay back a small loan at agreed time), and instead of just telling me "Sorry guy, I really messed up on this" they ruddy well lie to me, and I suddenly loose all connection with them now I know they can never be trusted to be honest, and so often over such trivia it hurts! Maybe 10 years or more knowing them, gone in a flash!
They really think I'd think more of them for being dishonest? Is that really how the rest of the world works?
Give me zombies, at least you know where you stand with them!
I mean, who doesn't want more brains?