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Got fired because i was too anxious????

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Posted 1/22/2009 2:37 AM (GMT 0)
Has this ever happened to anyone? Am i just seriously losing it? I didnt feel anxious, is it something other people can see except for me? I can never tell if someone is anxious other than if they are in an obvious situation, like about to get on a rollercoaster! Im so mad right now i feel like I will never be able to work again. What if this is some kind of thing that people notice and i dont and i keep getting fired from places? Ive never been fired in my life. I can keep a job. Ive kept a job for over 3 years before. I hate anxiety! Now im not going to be able to get a reference from that job. Ive been on Zoloft for a while now 150mg and i feel like its not doing what its supposed to. Ive had to take more xanax than i have ever had to before almost everyday for the past month. Is it me or is Zoloft for depression more so than anxiety? eyes
Posted 1/22/2009 2:41 AM (GMT 0)
Sorry to hear you lost your job. Im on Zoloft 150mgs and im on it for Anxiety/Panic, NOT for depression. Im also on Xanax. did your employer tell you why they were firing you?

Maz XX

Posted 1/22/2009 2:47 AM (GMT 0)
They just said i seemed too anxious! But i didnt feel anxious i was just concentrated on doing a good job and making sure i didnt do anything wrong. Maybe it shows without me knowing. but i dont get how.

Posted 1/22/2009 2:49 AM (GMT 0)

may i ask what kind of work you were doing? was it stressful?

Maz XX

Posted 1/22/2009 2:54 AM (GMT 0)
Im a medical assistant. I didnt find it to be too stressful but the idea of getting a new job is stressfull enough for me anyway and on top of that ive never been able to drive because of my A/P so i was making myself drive because i had to. so maybe it was just all a mixture of everything. Not only that but i was working at a group clinic with a lot of different doctors so maybe with there being so many people i got overwhelmed. But there were times when i didnt feel anxious at all so i dont know what they were talking about.
Posted 1/22/2009 2:57 AM (GMT 0)

if your anxiety wasnt interfering with your work and your performance, it seems unfair to fire you just like that. did you feel confident you were doing a good job?

also, it does sound overwhelming- stay with us here, we will support and encourage you.

Maz XX

Posted 1/22/2009 3:03 AM (GMT 0)
Thanks. I do feel it was unfair because it wasnt interfering with my work at all i was very confident i was doing a good job because thats what one usualy wants to do when they get a new job is make sure they are doing everything correctly. But i mean theres nothing i can do now. I just feel so discouraged i dont even want to look for another job because now im more concentrated thinking about my anxiety and that i show it a lot so i shoudnt even work until im 100% cured of it and that will never happen so for now im screwed!
Posted 1/22/2009 3:16 AM (GMT 0)

Have you considered Unfair Dismissal? it doesnt sound like you were treated fairly- almost like you were discriminated against because of your sickness- unless you werent doing the job right, but you said you think you were doing good.

It WILL get better, start looking online for jobs, or even local newspapers etc- maybe you should discuss all this with your therapist?

Maz XX

Posted 1/22/2009 3:26 AM (GMT 0)
I thought it was discrimination and i even wrote an email to the CEO but he never replied. I dont know it was just all unfair. If i thought maybe for a little bit that they could be right or that my work wasnt good i would have just left it at that and accepted it but i was so shocked and angry because it was just so not fair but unfortunatley they have this AT Will policy where they can fire you for no reason and i can quit for no reason without giving two weeks notice. So I dont know I think ill just never be good enough to work as long as i have this stupid disorder. shakehead
Posted 1/22/2009 4:06 AM (GMT 0)
Gingee,
They can fire for just about any reason if you work in an at will state, but no matter what they cannot fire you for a protected disability. However, you do have some responsibility. You must have let your employer know ahead of time that you have the disability & it needs to be documented (e.g., your doc sent them a letter or even an email from a meeting where you discussed what accommodations were needed for you to be able to do your job). You need to have reviews that demonstrated that you were meeting the job requirements and you must be able to show that other employees performing the same caliber of work and people skills, just without the disability, were kept on or have been kept on in the past.

That said, if you have all that evidence & your workplace still refused to try to help you out with any accommodations at all, I would hope you bring a case against them. People with anxiety disorders should not be terminated just b/c of other people's prejudices.

Otherwise, maybe try to think about what kinds of accommodations could be helpful to you in the future to limit the amount of visible anxiety you experience in your job. Anxiety by itself is considered a personality trait & employees can be legally fired for anxiety, but diagnosed anxiety disorders are protected by the ADA. As long as there are reasonable accommodations that can be made to help you limit/disguise your p/a and you are otherwise good at your job and able to get along with your clients & co-workers, they cannot terminate you.

I don't imagine you will get a response back from the CEO, at least not until your legal department has a chance to review the response. You might be better off asking either your former supervisor or HR rep. for specific examples of how they felt your anxiety interfered with your work (for me it was a surprising one -- my boss felt I was asking for feedback about my work too often - usually once a month - & one day when I didn't get it I made an off-hand comment to a co-worker that I was worried my boss was unhappy with me. i had had glowing reviews & had even been highlighted in the previous quarterly company newsletter as being exceptionally innovative, but since I didn't have anything documented b/c I thought things were under control I didn't have a leg to stand on to contest my dismissal. my boss was in a lot of hot water herself & felt in spite of my contributions she couldn't support what she felt was me trying to undermine her). Hopefully things will turn out better for you, but if not try to take it as a learning experience. Now I make sure from the get-go to let my bosses know that I get really nervous when I don't hear any feedback from them for weeks at a time. I tell them that I am really a reasonable person & promise to be a hardworking employee, but if they could just make a point to meet with me once a month for 5-10 minutes, it would go a long way. Maybe you can work something out to manage your own stressors. I will hope for that.

Let us know how it all turns out.
Posted 1/22/2009 4:11 AM (GMT 0)

  Hi gingee,

  One thing I do know that in the US that employers do have the right to let anyone go at anytime. But there are still some rules that they can not get by with like that of a doctors note for time off do to medical reasons or light duty from doc other then that I don't think you may have a case for unlawful firing.

  I had gone though this myself when I went out on medical leave and my employer tried to say that my chemical exposure was not from work (I worked as an auto body painter) with all kinds of chemicals, after that I had to call OSHA to prove that the conditions were poor for proper ventilation and the dumb a## manager said (I know who called and he will never work here again) BINGO unlawful firing as OSHA wrote it all down, Word for word on that and my lawyer had a field day with that lol

  But I'm real sorry for you losing your job, but they do have the right to let anyone go at anytime with out a doc's note

  Cowboy up

Posted 1/22/2009 4:13 AM (GMT 0)

Gingee,

Welcome to HealingWell and the A & P Forum. I am Kitt.  It would really help if you started your story re this job in the beginning and gave us the info chronoligically.

How long did you work there, your job duties, did you have evaluations during your orientation or probation period if there was one?  Is this a company can let you go at will?  Who talked to you and why did they say they were letting you go?

I am truly sorry this has happened to you but perhaps we could help you identify what happened with the above info if you would like to share with us.

Thank you

Kitt

Posted 1/22/2009 4:18 AM (GMT 0)
Are you sure you can't get a reference?

Usually employers will still provide a reference even if they terminated the employee for cause. Unless you were only there for a very short time, or they don't ever provide references, I would think it would be worth it to ask. One thing you could hold over their heads (assuming you don't actually want to sue) is to say that you have a disability & you'd like to put this all in the past, but really need a decent reference in order to get another job.
Posted 1/22/2009 6:32 AM (GMT 0)
Hello Gingee,

Welcome to HW. I don't have much to add to the great advice given to you. I just wanted to say hi and I hope you keep us posted.

Take care :)
Posted 1/22/2009 10:31 PM (GMT 0)
Thank you all for your wonderful advice it really helped me out a lot. I know im young and i will take this as a learning experience. i just wanted to know what others knew about this whole wrongful termination. For one ive never worked at a place where things are done in the way they were done there and i wasnt familiar with the whole at will thing and probation period and orientation. because my previous job was a dental assistant with a private dentist so there was none of this orientaion and probation he was really cool and just not all into that whole thing he just trained me himself and that was it end of story no manager no supervisor he was the manager and supervisor and everything else. When i first started working at this place I had a supervisor which was a LVN then the center manager and over that the operations manager. so the supervisor was supposed to be in charge of telling me what to do and how things ran and so on. there was 2 other M.A.'s one main one and another that was semi new as well (two weeks before me). So i show up for work the first day and introduce myself and they are very short and dont make eye contact with me at all they just say hey. I thought ok whatever im new theyre probably just annoyed then the LVN shows me around the office a bit. Then she just leaves me to fend for myself I have no idea what im supposed to do the other main M.A is training the other new girl and im left alone then I just do as i see everyone else doing and start prossessing patients and so on then the manager comes and says you really dont need to be doing that right now just write notes so she gives me a big notebook and pen.Then she says im going to show you how to clock in for your shift. so i go and she somewhat shows me but its all very confusing and when i asked more questions she just said ill show you more later. which she never did. Since it was around christamas time and everyone is all thinking about gifts and such and parties i was not properly trained. people were taking days off for vacation. the LVN was never there it was so unorganized, but i dealt with it. So i was asked by some of the doctors to do things but since i wasnt "allowed" to i  had to tell them i couldnt yet. So heres where the stupid part comes in i was told from the vrey begining that i would work mondays and thursdays 11:30a.m to 8:00pm and all other days 9:00am to 5:30pm so since everyone was giving me the cold shouldeer for i dont know what reason. there was 2 mondays where the previous friday everyone was so anxious to leave and everone left that day there was no supervisor no manager no schedule posted no nothing so i come in on monday as usual at 11:30am and they all look at me like im some freak and the supervisor says you had to be here at 9  and i says well nobody told me, you werent here the manager wasnt here and there was no schedule posted. and she says yeah the girls told you and i said no they didnt and she says yes they did. OMG I was soooooo MAD it was so not true. I dont mean to bragg but i have EXCELLENT memory and i would of came in earlier if i had the chance because that means i would get out earlier. So that was one of there reasons for firing me because my punctuality was not ok. Theres WAY more to this whole story and if i would write the whole thing it would take me forever but it was very unfair and im sure you would all agree. I was only there for a month and they didnt send me to orientation until the day before they fired me how stupid is that? And they knew they were going to fire me already because when i got to the corporate office for orientaio they almost sent me back to my home site because supposedly they were short staffed? B/S they just felt like it was pointless to send me to orientation if they knew they were going to fire me but i since i was already there and its far from my home site they just kept me there like an idiot. mad Long story short they are retaded and i hate them and i got along really well wit one of the doctors and later i called to speak to him to see if i could put him down as a reference and i found out he quit the same day i got fired. He knew it was B/S there.
Posted 1/23/2009 9:54 PM (GMT 0)
OMG! The same thing happened to me! I am also an MA at a doctors office. One of the doctors was treating me and was fully aware of my anxiety and depression. I had gone through medication changes to see what could work better and i went from effexor to pristiq to lexapro within a four month period. There was an obvious change in my mood and personality- some days were good, some were not good. I spoke with my doctor at least every 2 weeks or so to follow up. There were also other staff members (nurses, office manager) that were aware of my med and personality changes, yet i was still fired because of my "attitude". I did not think that was fair. I became even more anxious and depressed and its been hard to find a new job, especially in this economy. I recently applied for unemployment to help pay rent until I found a new job, but this office is denying coverage. This is making my symptoms worsen, I feel so betrayed by a company that I worked for loyally for 2 years, and NEVER had a problem with my job performance, whereas other employees have and yet they are still employed. I feel like I have a reasonable case for wrongfull termination or discrimination or mental disability dismissal. Any advice? I feel completely hopeless, and scared to start another job for fear that this will happen again.
Posted 1/23/2009 10:14 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Sullengirl and Welcome!

I am sorry to see things like this happening to people and I know anxiety has held me back from jobs throughout my life.  On top of the meds you might also consider going through some therapy called CBT.  It really helps with the moods and coping with our disorder.  Here is a link to a free CBT online program called MoodGYM that has helped many of us on here :)

http://moodgym.anu.edu.au/welcome

I wish you the best of luck!

Posted 1/23/2009 10:56 PM (GMT 0)
Omg! Im so sorry to hear that happened to you, thats dumb! especially if youve been there for 2 years! I think you have a good case against them. But then again finding a lawyer and paying for all that is going to cost money. You also need whitnesses or somebody on your side that you worked with that was aware of these things and feels the same way you do.Thats why i havent sued my company otherwise i would. Dont get discouraged, although i shouldnt be one to talk as im soooo beyond discouraged i dont ever want to work again. I feel like im worthless. Can they deny paying for unemployment? That doesnt seem right if youve been there 2 years. I was SOOOOO mad i wanted to like go egg the office and paint graffiti on every wall, key everyones car, and collect all the money i could from whatever government disability thing i could, welfare, everything! Because i felt like i worked and put in to this economy as much as anybody else AND while dealing with this stupid disorder and i wasnt getting any help in return. devil But of course i didnt do anything like that. haha Im still here with no income and more anxiety than before! Just keep looking for work I know its hard I cant find ANYTHING but one day someone will leave their job just like us and there will be an opening for us. just keep looking and when you do find something just think to yourself that you are the best of the best and truly put your heart into it and hopefully they will see that it truly means a lot to you. If we keep thinking it will happen to us again, more than likely it will. Just like when we think that were going to have a Panic Attack we do. So we just have to stay positive and think that they are the ones who lost a good employee and theyre stupid and they can all go suck a big fat one. Then we will feel better. If you dont find a job anytime soon and time is running out because you have to pay rent just let it be. what else are we going to do were just going to stress ourselves out more and then we will be in a worse state to even begin a new job. I dont know how old you are or what ur situation is like but as for me Im married so im ok if i lose my job i dont NEED it to survive. But if i was young and single i would move back in with my parents or with a friend that understands Anxiety and Panic disorder ( which nobody relly seems to) and just take it easy try and get myself together get on the right meds and do all the therapy that I need to get back to normal. because if you are stressed and with anxiety and you go looking for a job all anxious and distressed its going to show and you might not get hired and if you do it might affect your job performance then you will be back at square one. thats what im doing right now im focusing on getting back to normal calm and confident and just overall better THEN i will look for a job.
Posted 9/14/2012 2:13 PM (GMT 0)
i recently started to have panic attacks at work and have had 3 in the past week and has made it difficult to stay at work. also my employer just fired me for having them. is there anything i can do about them firing me(in the legal sense)?
Posted 9/14/2012 2:29 PM (GMT 0)
Hi and welcome!

First of all, read through this thread if you haven't already...lots of good info here.

Aslo, since laws vary by state, you will have to check what rights you have according to yours.

Here is a sited that might help you:



http://www.womenshealth.gov/mental-health/your-rights/americans-disability-act.cfm  (your gender doesn't matter, this is just general info)

Good luck and post anytime.

S.C.

Posted 9/14/2012 2:39 PM (GMT 0)
can i get anything like disability for having this? because they seem to always happen at work?
Posted 9/14/2012 4:04 PM (GMT 0)
jrasch,

Good Morning.  You may want to visit with your Dr. about your anxiety issues.  Without a medical record of your problems including dx and treatment I do not think you would be able to file for disability.

Good luck,

Kitt

Posted 9/14/2012 4:05 PM (GMT 0)
People have received disability for mental health issues. You need to see a doctor for a diagnoses of course...but I don't know whether you can get it after the fact, so to speak. Since you were already let go, I don't know the specifics on this, and of course what your state laws are.

It is worth looking into, so start doing your 'homework' on this. Check your state laws. Get in writing from your former employer why you were let go, and make an appointment with your doctor to get everything started.

Best wishes with this.:)

S.C.
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