Sherril

01:40 pm: How I Spent My Summer, 2006 OR The Story Behind my Forced Resignation from the DJJ
Many heartfelt thanks to Jennifer C. Jaff, Esq. of Advocacy for Patients with Chronic Illness, Inc., http://www.advocacyforpatients.org/ for her help throughout this ordeal so far, and for her major contribution to this document which started out as her letter to the bigwigs of DJJ in Atlanta then morphed into my application for Unemployment Compensation and will next find its way into my Employment Discrimination Complaint, all free of charge to me. Thanks also to Jennifer for suggesting that I apply for unemployment--I would have assumed I was not eligible simply because of the way DJJ phrased the reason for my termination ("... a presumptive resignation after her failure to return to work or to provide documentation supporting her absence from work".)

Also thanks to Rosalind Joffe of Chronic Illness Coach.com at http://.cicoach.com
for insisting that I organize all of the documentation of what happened, before DJJ shut my email off. Which they did as soon as they realized what I was using it for. But I had it all by then.

Last but not least, I have my mom to thank for keeping a roof over my head, food in my belly and so much more that I can't even name it all here, when I'm between jobs or too sick to work, thereby enabling me to continue to fight the good fight.

Beginning on May 19, 2006, I repeatedly requested reasonable accommodation for work that I was being required to do on loan from the DJJ office to the Department of Family and Children's Services (DFCS) office in the same building, that was triggering my chronic illnesses: IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) and FM (fibromyalgia). All of the requests were ignored, in violation of law. Eventually, my condition got so bad that I could not work at the DFCS job. I offered to get medical documentation of this fact and my boss said I should do so as soon as possible. Unfortunately, my General Practitioner felt that the documentation should come from specialists, which resulted in a delay in obtaining the documentation. (The GP referred me to a gastroenterologist and a psychiatrist.)

I kept my supervisor informed at all times in great detail about my health status. I have documentation of all that occurred, mostly in the form of emails. If one of my superiors had asked for documentation from the doctor(s) of the delay I would have been happy to provide it. But no one asked or gave me any idea that that would have helped. One specialist, the gastroenterologist, would not provide documentation without performing a colonoscopy and I informed my supervisor that the earliest possible date for scheduling this was August 10, 2006.

I was informed in a letter dated July 17 that I was “absent without authorization . . . ,” and needed either to return to work or provide the necessary medical documentation. I was unable to do either, largely because my requests for accommodation – i.e., placement in my regular job, without spending two hours a day at DFCS – were ignored. I made this entirely clear to my supervisor. Had I been allowed to perform my usual job even temporarily, until I obtained medical documentation, I would not have had to miss a single day of work. By July 26, DJJ had some medical documentation in the form of a letter from Dr. Grundfast, the gastroenterologist, dated July 21. It was DJJ that would not allow me to work while awaiting the results of the August 10 colonoscopy. At no time did I voluntarily take leave; I was absent solely because my requests for accommodation were ignored.

In a letter dated July 25, 2006, I formally requested leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act, supported by a letter from my doctor indicating that I was suffering from chronic constipation, nausea and diarrhea. This letter, dated July 21, confirmed that a colonoscopy was scheduled for August 10. Dr. Grundfast offered to speak with a representative of DJJ if DJJ wished more information, yet nobody from DJJ contacted him to obtain further information.

The Human Resources Guide for the Georgia State Personnel Board at 18.111.1 provides that a medical certification “shall indicate the extent to which the employee is able to perform the essential functions of the employee’s position. . . .” Not once did anybody tell me that this was what I needed from my doctor. Any of my doctors could have written a letter saying that irritable bowel syndrome and fibromyalgia are stress-induced. I provided my supervisor with an article about fibromyalgia explaining the relation between it and stress (http://www.fms-help.com/nervous.htm), and additional information along these lines could have been provided. All I was told on August 16, 2006, at the same time as I was fired, was that the medical certification was insufficient. If there was a specific requirement, a specific rule regarding the content of a medical certification, what possible explanation can DJJ provide for its failure to inform me of this fact?

There was good cause for the fact that I could not provide anything more than the July 21 note from my physician, and the DJJ knew it. Not only did I tell my supervisor that my doctor would not provide a more detailed account of my illness until after the August 10 colonoscopy, but my doctor also included this fact in his July 21 note.

Despite that, DJJ then simultaneously both denied my request for FMLA leave (I've talked to two lawyers who deal with these kinds of cases only, and both said they had never heard of a request for FMLA leave being denied) and fired me with the sole explanation that the July 21 doctor’s note was insufficiently detailed, something that I and my doctor both told DJJ would be provided after the August 10 colonoscopy. Due to the fact that a colonoscopy report cannot be concluded until samples of tissue have been biopsied, there was every reason for DJJ to expect that I would not be able to provide additional medical documentation by the date on which I was terminated, but that such documentation would be forthcoming.

I repeatedly sought job restructuring as a reasonable accommodation of my disability. At no time was my request for accommodation ever responded to in any way. The Americans with Disabilities Act does not require medical documentation or condition accommodation on anything other than information from any source regarding the nature and extent of the disability. I have long-standing chronic illnesses and was very frank with my supervisor about them. Further, the information I provided to my supervisor was confirmed by the July 21 doctor’s note.

DJJ has punished me severely for my doctors’ failure to provide documentation. First, my general practitioner felt that specialists should be consulted. Then the consulting psychiatrist indicated that he could not write a letter because the problem wasn’t psychiatric. Then the gastroenterologist refused to provide more than the July 21 note until after the colonoscopy, and the results of the biopsies and, thus, the report of the colonoscopy simply was not available before I was fired. DJJ personnel knew all of that and still fired me on three days’ notice, without any meaningful opportunity to appeal.

Although the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) does not protect an employee from being fired due to absenteeism that is not what happened here. I requested accommodation, and in retaliation for that request, there was no accommodation or interactive process, as required by the ADA. I was prepared to come to work every day and do the job that I was hired to do; my only request was that someone other than I be posted at DFCS because that posting aggravated my chronic illnesses, irritable bowel syndrome and fibromyalgia. To deny this request without treating it as a result for accommodation is in violation of law. One cannot tacitly deny a request for accommodation, require an employee to work without that accommodation, then fire her because she is physically unable to do so. Viewed this way, the actions of DJJ quite clearly violate the ADA.

I am a qualified person with a disability and although I function at a fairly high level, I am substantially limited in the major life activity of managing a stressful, busy and distracting workspace. Although I can work well without constant distraction, and I understand that some distraction exists in every workplace, the DFCS workplace involved four telephone lines; many clients coming to the window in person; reviewing, accepting and logging appointments and documentation such as applications for food stamps, Medicare, and child care on a computer, etc.; all at the same time. I did my best at this position until I became symptomatic. At that point, I initiated an interactive process, as required by the ADA; I was not met with the same spirit of cooperation that the law requires.

The results of the colonoscopy show that I had diverticulitis as well as ongoing and painful irritable bowel syndrome. Based on this report, which now is available, my disability should have been accommodated. I now can show that I am substantially limited in the major life activity of disposal of bodily waste and managing stress. Based on this showing, it would have been appropriate for the DJJ to approve my request for reasonable accommodation and job restructuring. Unfortunately, they never even saw the report because they fired me immediately before it was available.

I'm just tired of being walked on by Georgia employers. I had two part time jobs before this job at DJJ, and both of them ended for similar reasons: the employer refused to comply with the ADA reasonable accommodation process. I was even told by a state vocational rehabilitation counselor that there was simply no one to enforce the law. The fact of the matter is that I have to step up and take responsibility for what happened by filing a Discrimination Complaint, and that is how the law is enforced. I hope. If you care to follow me through this process, sign up to be notified whenever I post a new entry to this journal.

I'm also angry because I am a person with chronic illnesses who wants to work and who is trying to work, instead of filing for Social Security Disability and living off of the government for the rest of my life, and I'm being beat down every way I turn. It's like it's not bad enough that I have to live with several concealed illnesses where everyone wonders what's REALLY wrong with me since I look Just Fine (http://www.writefaceforward.com/), but I have to keep fighting for what's right and what's the law also. So. Nobody ever said life was fair.

Stay tuned for future exciting episodes in the Saga of Sherril's Life and Career. And don't worry about this being an angry tirade throughout--I'm channeling my anger into this writing and I usually stay pretty upbeat.

:~*~:. .:~*~:. .:~*~:. .:~*~:. .:~*~:. .:~*~:

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."

-Plato (c. 427-347 BC)

:~*~:. .:~*~:. .:~*~:. .:~*~:. .:~*~:. .:~*~: