OT: Workman's Comp - LONG

OMG, Linda. I can't believe this descent into hell with the OM. What a total imbecile! (THE doctor not being much better.) What I want to know most of all is this: How is your back pain now? Are you feeling the least bit decent? :-(

~~snipped horror story 4 BW~~ ~~ Sooz

------- ESBC Dr. Sooz's Bead Links

of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly makingexciting discoveries. ~ A. A. Milne

Ice seems to help but I can't sit for too long without discomfort.

The OM "apologized" to me today, saying he thought I was "joking" when I asked for the incident form. I reminded him that I asked FOUR times and then left a note for THE doctor, which he removed.

Moron.

Long weekend and that makes me feel better even though my activities will be limited.

Thanks for asking, Soozella!

Love,

Linda2

It hurts to laugh, dammit! And ditto the sentiment.

Love,

Linda2

That's what I was thinking, too. This is actually a serious situation. He cause you to injure yourself by insisting you do something that was completely out of your job description, even after you warned him that you could not physically do it. Then he tried to cover his butt by preventing you from reporting the incident and getting treatment. You need to dig into your position well, before he tries to deal with his embarrassment by removing you from the situation.

• TL *

This job has been chewing you up in one way after another for a long time, chica. Isn't it time to plan your escape?

Deirdre

Believe me, I've been looking. The want ads have been pitifully thin lately. Only 4 ads last weekend. I faxed my resume out and only got one response, from a place 45 minutes away.

I wish I had some other experience so I could get completely away from medical billing, and greedy doctors.

Linda2

Linda, I didn't get your original post and finally figured out what was going on when Deirdre replied!

My hubby has several herniated discs and I have a bulging one, so I can really feel for you! I hope you are feeling better, and I'm really hoping you decked one or both of those two with your (hopefully good and frozen) ice packs!

No kidding. Please do not let these people continue to treat you like this Linda! You deserve better. But you need to get yourself out of this situation - I don't think the people you work for are going to change their ways. (((((hugs))))) Make them pay for their mistakes (legally and financially) and then get out. You deserve a much less stressful environment to work in.

On to the soapbox......People are always telling me that every job is stressful and that all managers and supervisors are crappy, and you just have to deal with it. I don't believe that for a second. Sure, some people suck. But there are jobs out there where people are happy in general (everyone has bad days, of course). My husband has a wonderful job with a great company that treats him well, and wonderful co-workers and a boss that's fantastic. Jobs like that do exist. You do not HAVE to stay at a place that you are unhappy with. Stress kills, people. Especially the kind of extreme stress that I see with Linda and a few others who post here. My mother worked for a company for 15 years where they treated her like shit every single day. The president of the company was a psychotic old bitch from hell. My mother finally quit her job, after having seceral nervous breakdowns in one week and ending up in the hospital. One year later the company went under and does not exist today. She is much happier and a whole lot healthier now.

Okay, off my soap box now. ((((((Linda))))))

Yes, precisely. There's a HUGE difference between the everyday irritations common to any job, and a job where your boss or co-workers (or the company's policies!) are downright toxic. I've had both kinds, so I know from personal experience -- my Job From Hell nearly put me into a psych ward in the space of a mere 6 months! I was coming home from work and *trivial* things -- dinner got burned, a rude telephone call -- would send me into screaming hysteria, because I simply had NOTHING LEFT to deal with it. Once into another job... less than a month later, I was back to normal.

Celine

I'm so glad you got out of it! :)

Not half as glad as I was! And the job I went into from that one turned out to be the best "first career" position I ever had, with a boss who I still remember fondly. I used to invite him and his wife to my annual Chocolate Decadence party.

Celine

I think it's because it happens gradually -- it's like being trapped in an abusive relationship. At first you don't realize what's going on, and by the time it becomes obvious, inertia has taken over. It took a couple of incidents like what I described, where I found myself *freaking out* over trivial shit that I would normally have brushed off, for me to realize that Something Was Seriously Wrong. After that, it was a race to see if I could line up something else and quit before they used me up and fired me. I won.

Celine

So true. You sit there and try to ignore all this shit people dish out and I got caught in this trap a well. I was already looking for a job becaus i knew the next thing would be firing me. I broke apart bfore they and split. I had been coming hme every day in a terrible mess. Somehow, becase my sister was there also, we began comparing notes and have discovered that it wasn't just us. Some of the clients have been treated pretty poorly. I know it has put me in a world of trouble, but how much more could I take. The last week was the worst. And here's the thing, all of the OLDER women there have been "discarded". Everyone left is young. I am not saying tis was intentional, but it looks like it to me. I keep hearing all this stuff in the media about people dissatisfied in their obs. Your situation seems to be like all the other stuff I have heard. I waited too long to complain at my old job, becuse it was a small family operation and I mistkenly thought that if I complained about the supervisor, I would not be believed or it would be ignored or I'd get fired for trying to railroad her. Little did I know that she was going to be the first one out the door when the sale of the buiness went to the son. And that no one in the family even likes her. They put up a very united front and we never knew till close to the end of her employment that she was going down. There was also alot of game playing involved with all the family members as well. I do not think I will ever become involved in a small place or family owned business again. I think I want to becoame a number insode a much larger place and get lost in it before I would take shit like this again. Rainbow

Sounds like a bad marriage. Becki "In between the moon and you, the angels have a better view of the crumbling difference between wrong and right.." -- Counting Crows

I've worked for Rejuvenation for three years and I love it there. GOOD people, and respect is one of their biggest goals, along with fairness. I worked for the Kobos Company quite happily for five years before I moved to California, too, and I worked there again part-time before I had my first daughter. Good companies are out there! All jobs do come with some amount of bullshit, true, but if you think about it, so do all friendships. The good ones allow you to call bullshit, and open a dialogue to resolve it.

Don't be discouraged, Linda, you WILL find a better situation.

I've been there, done that. I worked for Evil Mega-Corporation for three solid years, and it was SO HARD to leave because I had started to believe the bullshit. "All jobs are like this" "It won't be any different somewhere else" "You won't find benefits this good anywhere else" "You can leave, but you'd just be starting over with a new company. You'd be in a worse position" "This is just the way things are. It's a tough job market. Things have changed. Wages are low. Nobody's paying any more than this."

Of course, I left, and all of the things I had come to believe were BULL PATTIES. My next job paid better and was more fun, had better benefits, and furthered my career. The job after that was even BETTER. Everyone's situation is different, but it's important to not believe the untruths you hear, especially if they lead you to stay in an unhappy situation.

May I suggest that, rather than look for a help wanted ad, you seek out companies you would like to work for, and ask them if they would be interested in a resume? That approach has always worked for me, and also, the companies I have worked for rarely had to advertise, because we usually hired one of the several people who had approached us in this manner. We just saved up the best resumes until a position was open. Dropping off a resume in person also makes a HUGE difference, if it's doable.

You hit on 2 things, dear, 1) every relationship or business has it's BS factor. Mostly, you look the other way or walk away. 2) I know it's over used, nut the respect factor cannot be ignored. The best companies motivate everyone from the cleaning people to the CEO & respect is expected by every player. The best jobs and places to work and supervisors to work for all know that acknowledgement of good work and progression toward goals of the company & respecting the players goes far to create loyalty and continued good work. There is a natural breakdown of this factor when one or more people don't really buy in to this thought and try to institute their own one-sided beliefs and self-serving attitudes. This is what happened to my job. Because I have mostly been self employed til a few years ago, I never had to play all this office politics and BS. I've always heard other people complaining about work place issues but never knew it would suck THIS bad. I am obviously going to be a different kind of employee now, when I finally go back to work. i kinda have this other issue I don't want to admit because it is a pain in the butt issue ... I just never believed that being 53 yrs old would matter so much to an employer ! I have heard stories about how hard it is to find work and now I know ! I thank the Higher Power alot for my bead obsession and every hour I spend at my desk. Without beads and without jewelry, I would already be totally broke and out on the street. Unless, of course a miracle happens and I win powerball or some other cash .... I am going to have to find a job, sooner or later. Rainbow