Supervisor has no compassion

[u/sews4dogs]

I work as a paraprofessional in an autism classroom. I am thankful I feel well enough to work. My job is stressful and exhausting but it is oh so good for my mental health. Each school year I am given 10 sick days and 2 personal days. As many of you can probably relate, 12 days in 9 months is not enough time to cover all of the appointments MBC patients have. I see my oncologist once a month and get faslodex injections at that appointment. So that is 9 appointments during the school year. My oncologist office gives me the last appointment of the day so I can stay at work as long as possible. My past supervisors (2 of them) always let me leave early and make up the time whenever I could. And my team is fine with that. But now I have a new supervisor. I asked her if I could do the same again this year. She told me she would think about it. I had a conversation with her 2 weeks later. She said she was still thinking about it. Week 3, I sent her an email letting her know my next appointment was 3 working days away. I needed to know how to move forward. She responds to the email telling me unfortunately I will have to take sick days. Great. Thanks. Even if I take half days for the oncology appointments, I still have all my days used up for other doctor appointments, scans every 3 months, OT appointments for lymphedema. And because chemo wrecked my teeth, I also need to go to the dentist. And I better not get sick at all. I just hope I am around to see Karma take care of her for me.

[u/unlikeycookie]

Are you in the US? Your leave should be protected by FMLA. If you have HR contact them for the form and then your doctor fills it out

[u/Particular-League902]

In case you don’t already know this:

https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fmla/faq

[u/sews4dogs → u/Particular-League902]

Thank you

[u/MichElegance]

What a horrible person. I hope to God she never gets breast cancer.

[u/Financial-Adagio-183]

Wow - she sounds like a skank. I hope she doesn’t last long and is replaced by a person with some humanity ❤️

[u/Bohemian_sage]

I am a principal and I would NEVER do this to one of my staff (even before I had cancer). How is your union? Our paras have hours especially for appointments. They get 24 per school year. I would either talk to your union or HR to see if they will work with you. Booo for supervisors lacking common sense and empathy!!

[u/sews4dogs → u/Bohemian_sage]

My union is very strong. There is a sick bank that I can use. But was hoping to use my own sick/personal day and not have to depend on the sick bank. I feel guilty taking days from sick bank every year. I will also be looking into FLMA to cover any days I will need beyond what I am given.

[u/Old-Run-9523]

I used to be a manager, so I understand that she likely made the decision because she has to be fair to all employees, not because she lacks empathy. Once one person is allowed to do something, everyone else will be asking to do it and if she says no to them she's opening herself up to claims of favoritism (or, worst case scenario: discrimination).

Hopefully you will be able to get all your appointments late enough in the day so that you don't have to take a full day of leave.

[u/imnothere_o → u/Old-Run-9523]

There is reasonable accommodation for a disability and MBC is considered a disability in most cases.

Leave early for life-saving treatments and make up the hours elsewhere seems like a reasonable accommodation for someone who has no choice. We need these appointments to survive our disability.

OP, does your oncologist’s office do video visits? These have been more helpful for me now that I’m back to working full-time since I work about an hour away from my cancer center.

That doesn’t help with the injections but I’ve been able to do some check-ins that way to review results and most of my injections are done by either a technician or a nurse, depending on what it is, which opens up some additional scheduling flexibility since my clinic is open 8 am to 9 pm, even if the oncologist doesn’t work those hours.

[u/Old-Run-9523 → u/imnothere_o]

An employer may allow an employee to take additional unpaid leave as an accommodation, but there is no requirement under the ADA that an employer provide additional paid leave due to a disability. And if the additional leave creates an "undue hardship" for the employer (staff shortage, expenses for temp fill-in workers, impact on coworkers, etc) even unpaid leave can be denied. If OP is working FT as a classroom paraprofessional, I'm not sure how she could "make up" time, unless she has job duties apart from direct student care (like writing reports or communicating with parents) that can be performed outside of class time.

[u/imnothere_o → u/Old-Run-9523]

Taking her at her word, the original post said past supervisors “always let me leave early and make up the time whenever I could. And my team is fine with that.”

(I’m a manager, too, but not of a classroom and it’s easy to make up time in my industry, so I do appreciate the differences.)

[u/sews4dogs → u/Old-Run-9523]

Previously when I made time up for leaving early, I would enter billing into the computer, disinfected toys and classroom items, laminate for the teacher, online modules we must complete. Lots to do that doesn’t have to do with direct care of the students.