TopShelf's Journal: Depression is hell, crappy employers stoke the flames

Depression is hell enough as it is, but ignorant and insensitive employers only aggravate the situation. My wife has been struggling with depression and anxiety for about a year now, and it has gotten to the point where a leave of absence is required to participate in a daily, intensive program. This is a run-of-the-mill FMLA leave, but we won't be surprised if her employer (a school system*) gives her grief about it.

These are the folks that put pressure on her before for missing time for doctor appointments while pregnant with our twins.

When our twins were only 4 months old and we got pregnant again, one principal joked that "if that was me, I'd get a vacuum cleaner and a wire hanger."

When our 2 year-old daughter was in the hospital with pneumonia earlier this year and my wife took some days (FMLA) to be with her, upon returning another principal called her into a meeting with her supervisor and complained that while she does outstanding work, "she can't be counted on" to be there when needed. (I dare say my daughter disagrees with that assertion)

And now, as things have reached a boiling point and she can no longer go to work on a daily basis, she's left with a) the feeling that they'll try to fire her, and b) the realization that she can't realistically go back and work with these people anyway once her situation improves.

Those bastards need to be held accountable.

*I guess this isn't so surprising, but it's the same school system that tried to expel Ryan White for being a kid with AIDS.

That's what FMLA is for.

[TechnoLust]

Let them fire her, then she can sue them. FMLA is to protect people from uncaring bastards like her employers apparently are. And I wouldn't call that wire hanger and vacuum statement a joke... jokes are supposed to be funny.