Everyone is saying I should sue my former employer...do I have a case?

[GaiaGoddess]

And he still hasn't indicated when he asked for an accommodation, or provided the necessary medical documentation to back it up.

I'm betting he's one of the ones who thinks that telling the employer he has x condition is the equivalent of asking for an accommodation. He's wrong, if so.

Are you talking about me? I'm female. And I did provide the necessary medical documentation, my doctor wrote a note for my employer last year when this first happened. My manager told me the night I got fired that she faxed the doctors note to the vice president and he said it doesn't matter.

 

[GaiaGoddess]

What did you specifically ask for?

There's a reason for that question.

There is nothing to ask for, I wasn't given a choice to make demands or barter with them, it was simply leave right now or get fired. It wasn't up to my managers anyway, and the vice president wasn't there and was off work by that time (7pm).

 

[justalayman]

You just keep making more and more excuses of why you can't do something. If you didn't want to go to Texas, fine but quit making excuses of why you couldn't go because those are just excuses. You could get there in time if you wanted to

But anyway that's water under the bridge. Time to start looking for a new job.

 

[GaiaGoddess]

so you are where you are. Since you didn't even know what shift you would work in Texas, you do not have a claim they did not provide an ADA accommodation.

If you couldn't work the day shift, would you uproot your life and go through hell to go across the country NOT knowing what shift you were going to be made to work? If it had been days, I would have had to quit anyway, since they obviously weren't accepting my doctors note. And even if it was nights, I still would have had to drive there unsafely and spend a week not getting any sleep, so that much torture wasn't worth it to me. Sleep deprivation is not something to mess with, its so frustrating it makes you want to scream and cry. It causes depression and a whole bunch of other physical issues. I'm sorry but putting my health at risk was not worth this. You gotta look out for yourself when others don't.

As you were told, they would not have to provide training during the night to accommodate you as that would be unreasonable. Firing you for refusing to fly down there is not illegal. Firing you for taking a week to put in 24 hours of driving is not illegal.

I know it was perfectly legal for them to fire me, I am not disputing that. I didnt even consider asking for legal advice until all my coworkers kept telling me to. I even asked for advice in the DSPS support group i'm in, one person said, "Start with unjustifiable termination based on a medical condition that is documented. then see if you can find a disability rights attorney and go after them on an ADA violation. don't put it off and don't take no for an answer." Another person said this, "Get legal counsel and sue your ex-employer. When you gave the note from your doctor, you and your employer agreed you couldn't work/do days, as such gave accommodations. The fact they tried to stick you in a day training program, knowing you couldn't do days, knowing this would be the result, is malicious. You should be able to get 3 to 6 months worth of pay. The fire "at will" doesn't include illegal reasons ie. disabilities. Depending what state your in, contracts have different powers, and sometimes power can be nullified. People write things in contracts that can't actually be enforced, and sometimes laws change.'

but hey, there's a good side to all of this:

You can stay up as late as you want to and you can sleep in as long as you want to.

lol Yes...if I can ever find another job again. I worked for 18 years at a job where I was able to work afternoons and overnights, then they laid off half their employees. I couldn't find anything for 9 months then all I could get was a part time job working overnights but part time didn't pay the bills. I was still getting unemployment so it was still enough. Then I found a job with more hours but I had to start at 9 am. I reluctantly took it and thought maybe I could get used to it but I couldn't so after a few months I quit. I found a job working part time evenings which was ok but then my unemployment ran out and that money wasn't enough so I lost my apartment and had to move back in with my mom. Finally I found this job which was a godsend because it was overnight hours and paid twice as much as my 18-year job. So i'm not real hopeful I will find another full time job working nights that will pay me enough to get my own place again.

 

[GaiaGoddess]

You just keep making more and more excuses of why you can't do something. If you didn't want to go to Texas, fine but quit making excuses of why you couldn't go because those are just excuses. You could get there in time if you wanted to

How are they excuses when they are valid reasons? There is a huge difference between the two. Yes I could have gotten there in time if I didn't have a carfull of my stuff with me and I could have flown there, but that still leaves the week long training part.

But anyway that's water under the bridge. Time to start looking for a new job.

It's all water under the bridge now, I made my choice, and I started looking for a new job months ago when this all started.

 

[GaiaGoddess]

Just checked my unemployment status...I was approved for $428 a week for a year! That's $11,000 total! That makes me feel better because that's about how much more I wanted to save before quitting. And now I won't have to cut into my savings so i'll still have that. I should be able to buy a house after all!

 

[justalayman]

In life you either make excuses for not doing things or you find solutions. You tend to make excuses.


By the way; the "I worked a day job for 9 months" proves every claim you made about your malady a fabrication. Either you actually can't work days or you can although it is not the best situstion. So not only is your claim you can't work days suspect, your claim doing it for one week would be life threatening becomes nothing more than a a claim lacking support.

Anyway, best of luck to you, seriously.

 

[cbg]

There is a lot of grave misunderstanding about what an employer is and is not required to do under the ADA. They are NOT blindly required to follow a doctor's note, no matter how many people told you they did. They are NOT required to continue an accommodation that is no longer working for them when business conditions change.

But you've already acknowledged that the termination was legal. So there's nothing to sue them for. Right?

 

[Zigner]

Just checked my unemployment status...I was approved for $428 a week for a year! That's $11,000 total! That makes me feel better because that's about how much more I wanted to save before quitting. And now I won't have to cut into my savings so i'll still have that. I should be able to buy a house after all!

But, you WILL be actively seeking new employment, right? You were approved for up to a year. You need to be able to work and actively seeking work.

 

[You Are Guilty]

What bank hands out mortgages to borrowers whose sole source of income is unemployment? (Please respond quickly as I need to sell their stock immediately.)

 

[commentator]

Just checked my unemployment status...I was approved for $428 a week for a year! That's $11,000 total! That makes me feel better because that's about how much more I wanted to save before quitting. And now I won't have to cut into my savings so i'll still have that. I should be able to buy a house after all!

NO you were NOT approved for $428 for a year. You received a monetary determination which says that if you are approved, you will qualify for 26 weeks at $428 a week, to be drawn out over the year ending (xx-xx-2016) which will be roughly a year from the date you applied for unemployment benefits this year. There is no extension. You will never get more than 26 weeks of unemployment insurance in any state unless there is a federal extension (EUC) in effect, and there is not at this time.

 

[Just Blue]

I guess that's just the way it is, and it sucks. You uproot your life (in this case, since we lived at our jobs), we worked 84 hours a week, with no days off for 6 weeks, giving up a social life while you're there...and this is what they do to me! It makes me want to go into business for myself, at least I wouldn't get treated like crap.



Didn't that lady win who sued McD's because she spilled hot coffee on herself? If she can win, anything less should be a piece of cake. I saw a few cases yesterday on that site of people who had very common issues who got compensated, for example one lady had anxiety and was shy and couldn't talk very loud because of it. One guy had ADHD, another had restless leg syndrome. And they were able to keep their jobs and/or get compensated money for this.



There were others, so I wasn't the only one. However, they hand picked who they wanted to go. They didn't do it to "get rid of" anyone though, because even people they were good friends with got picked, and good employees who had been there longer than me. Even the head chef of the entire kitchen got picked. He didn't want to go, so he quit. Another manager quit too who got picked to go there. I was going to quit too but I needed to buy a house first, which I was going to do 2 weeks from now. So that was horrible timing, just another few weeks and I would have owned a house and now i'm screwed.



I wasn't going to apply for unemployment but everyone told me I will get it, especially one coworker who got it even though he quit! He just got fed up with the place and walked out and still got unemployment, AND even got hired back a year later! He told me this company fires so many people and the state always sides with the employee, so everyone always gets it. He knew other people that got it too and they got fired for actually doing stuff wrong like coming in to work drunk or sleeping on the job.



There was no guarantee I would still be on the night shift though, in fact one of my old coworkers who was on nights with me got sent down there and he's on the day shift now, so there's a good chance I would have been too. But even if I knew I would be on nights, the trouble of driving on little sleep and then getting little sleep for a class where i'm supposed to be alert enough to learn things and take a test, there's no way I would have made it through. My brain was mush after 2 days last time this happened. You are legally equal to being drunk once you've been awake for 16 hours, and I had been awake for 24 after my first day then I only slept one hour then I was awake for another 12 then only slept 2 hours and so on...2 hours was all I got every night for the rest of that week. I think the problem is nobody knows what this disorder is so they think it's just insomnia, and most people have that at some point. The issue with this disorder is there is nothing that helps, sleeping pills don't help, in fact for me sedatives like that have the opposite effect, I might get knocked out for an hour but then I wake right up and i'm jittery and feel like hell. I also can't take caffeine to wake up during the day, it doesn't wake me up and only gives me heart palpitations so I have to avoid that.

Please look up the FULL CASE LAW for that situation before you fall on that legal sword.

 

[Just Blue]

Nobody knows everything about everything, so I guess nobody should say anything then.

So the McDonalds case aside, i'm sure somebody somewhere sued someone for something completely ridiculous and won. The justice system is not perfect...if people can walk away with murder, i'm sure a person who got fired can get a little compensation.

I never 100% believed I deserved something for this, I just asked just in case because literally ALL my coworkers said others have sued our company and others for similar reasons so I should be able to, too.

Wow. I guess you have been up for 16 hours.