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uhsirHad "the talk" with my manager about my request to work from home when the PMDD is flaring up.
Short answer:
Short answer:
"No."
She discussed it with her manager (hereinafter called "boss") and the HR manager. They agreed that the "precedent" had been set with a former coworker and it must be maintained. (Note: Said worker left for a different job with more favorable work conditions.) (Additional Note: Said "precedent" is not a company rule, just something for our little group.) Anyhoo, that "precedent" resulted in not being allowed to work remotely from home if you are unable to come to the workplace because you are sick. Unless there's an "emergency" and then if a phone call can't resolve it, working remotely would be okay. I struggled, but was able to keep my laugh suppressed. She sits there thinking I'll bow down at her whim? Let me see, how did Jack say it when Maybourne tried to reason him into giving him his pistol in Paradise Lost? "NO!"
Hmm, I cannot get through to them that I am not "sick" to the point of being unable to work. I simply am unable to manage my working time into the Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. timeframe, at the workplace, amongst a group of people.
So that's it. If I can't drag my ass into work then I do not work. Technically, being salaried, I don't have "sick" days but I'm still paid if I call in sick, just as long as I don't abuse the privilege. Now that is a company rule. The understanding is that I am expected to put in more than my regular eight hours if the occasional need arises so it will all balance out. The company got a good deal with me because my work ethic has me putting in more hours than I "get back" by calling in sick (which I don't do often, heck in 2005 I wasn't sick any days) plus I put over 100% into my job. Well, I used to be that way. I'm afraid I have burned myself out and now I give just what I need to and only when I need to. Okay, I'm not being honest. I still give them more, but only because I pride myself on doing a job better than average. It's my parent's fault, dammit!
As for even being able to work from home in the first place, the reason this is allowed is so, when necessary, overtime can be worked without causing terrible rifts in our family lives, as was happening with my son and a coworker's daughter, resulting in us not putting in the overtime we could have been putting in. Um, I think that works to be for our benefit. Hmmm... The other problem with working overtime is that the building where I work is considered an "office" building and at 5 p.m. weekdays they shut off, yes OFF, the ventilation and air-conditioning, or whatever they call it. Not so tragic on weekday evenings as long as you drag your butt out of here by about 8 p.m. Weekends though, forget it. Imagine wrapping yourself in a heavy, see-through blanket on a humid, cloudless summer day. That's what it's like trying to breathe in here on a weekend. So they allowed us to work from home in order to get any weekend overtime out of us (spelled M-E because I'm a stubborn, spoiled bit.. brat).
The boss feels that if I'm unable to come to the workplace then I'm not well enough to work efficiently from home and I should rest in order to get healthy sooner and then return to work. This is based on the "precedent" which was set due to serious illness that periodically and temporarily disabled the individual. I pointed out that my situation is different in that I wake up in the middle of the night and then am not able to go back to sleep. So I lay there thinking about needing to get to sleep because I have to get up and go to work very soon, TICK-TOCK! TICK-TOCK! I end up getting upset which keeps me awake even more. Were they to honor my request, I would simply get up at these times and log in to work from home since my brain is racing like an IndyCar anyway, then spend X number of hours working until I get tired, go take a nap and follow that cycle for the one or two days it seems to run. Not tabulating hours worked. Not charging overtime hours. Simply doing work. Even if I'm not having sleeping trouble, my mood can get very VERY touchy and I am not a nice person to be around, (gasp!) which is not a good thing to bring to work as I fear I could set off on someone, with great regret, and cause big trouble. I try to control it, but it is not so easy, especially when a coworker gets into completely-intolerable-idiot mode. The other real biggy that would keep me home is when I'm bleeding so heavily that... well, it's very disabling.
Since working from home is not going to be possible, I am going to be forced to call in sick on these occasions and when I do, I will not work. Trust me, I WILL NOT work. I will not answer the phone. I will not check email. Them telling me that I will have to come in to work is not going to prevent me from calling in sick any less than I feel I would do had they accepted my proposal.
If the PMDD gets worse and causes me to call in sick more frequently than I presently anticipate, I will consult with my doctor about getting my medication increased (which she said "there's room to increase") which I don't want to do because I don't want to be taking this stuff at all. Or see if maybe I should get a sleep aid. I considered setting up FMLA, however that requires either a specific set of dates when I would be unable to work or, for it to be on and off as I will be needing, then I would need to be off for a minimum of four days per occurence. Neither of these fit my situation. Besides, in our discussion, my manager informed me that I would be required to use my vacation time first and then invoke FMLA time. I don't think so Scooter! So I won't be doing the FMLA thing.
I hate to put this burden onto my coworkers, as I know they will be the ones to suffer most, but I tried to work this out with management. "Please direct all complaints to the management. This is a recording. Thank you."
The irony of all this is that our division touts itself as having "the most advanced, forward-looking technologies" with which to serve its customers. What a crock o'sh...!
1 year, 5 months, 2 hours until Quittin' Time.
She discussed it with her manager (hereinafter called "boss") and the HR manager. They agreed that the "precedent" had been set with a former coworker and it must be maintained. (Note: Said worker left for a different job with more favorable work conditions.) (Additional Note: Said "precedent" is not a company rule, just something for our little group.) Anyhoo, that "precedent" resulted in not being allowed to work remotely from home if you are unable to come to the workplace because you are sick. Unless there's an "emergency" and then if a phone call can't resolve it, working remotely would be okay. I struggled, but was able to keep my laugh suppressed. She sits there thinking I'll bow down at her whim? Let me see, how did Jack say it when Maybourne tried to reason him into giving him his pistol in Paradise Lost? "NO!"
Hmm, I cannot get through to them that I am not "sick" to the point of being unable to work. I simply am unable to manage my working time into the Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. timeframe, at the workplace, amongst a group of people.
So that's it. If I can't drag my ass into work then I do not work. Technically, being salaried, I don't have "sick" days but I'm still paid if I call in sick, just as long as I don't abuse the privilege. Now that is a company rule. The understanding is that I am expected to put in more than my regular eight hours if the occasional need arises so it will all balance out. The company got a good deal with me because my work ethic has me putting in more hours than I "get back" by calling in sick (which I don't do often, heck in 2005 I wasn't sick any days) plus I put over 100% into my job. Well, I used to be that way. I'm afraid I have burned myself out and now I give just what I need to and only when I need to. Okay, I'm not being honest. I still give them more, but only because I pride myself on doing a job better than average. It's my parent's fault, dammit!
As for even being able to work from home in the first place, the reason this is allowed is so, when necessary, overtime can be worked without causing terrible rifts in our family lives, as was happening with my son and a coworker's daughter, resulting in us not putting in the overtime we could have been putting in. Um, I think that works to be for our benefit. Hmmm... The other problem with working overtime is that the building where I work is considered an "office" building and at 5 p.m. weekdays they shut off, yes OFF, the ventilation and air-conditioning, or whatever they call it. Not so tragic on weekday evenings as long as you drag your butt out of here by about 8 p.m. Weekends though, forget it. Imagine wrapping yourself in a heavy, see-through blanket on a humid, cloudless summer day. That's what it's like trying to breathe in here on a weekend. So they allowed us to work from home in order to get any weekend overtime out of us (spelled M-E because I'm a stubborn, spoiled bit.. brat).
The boss feels that if I'm unable to come to the workplace then I'm not well enough to work efficiently from home and I should rest in order to get healthy sooner and then return to work. This is based on the "precedent" which was set due to serious illness that periodically and temporarily disabled the individual. I pointed out that my situation is different in that I wake up in the middle of the night and then am not able to go back to sleep. So I lay there thinking about needing to get to sleep because I have to get up and go to work very soon, TICK-TOCK! TICK-TOCK! I end up getting upset which keeps me awake even more. Were they to honor my request, I would simply get up at these times and log in to work from home since my brain is racing like an IndyCar anyway, then spend X number of hours working until I get tired, go take a nap and follow that cycle for the one or two days it seems to run. Not tabulating hours worked. Not charging overtime hours. Simply doing work. Even if I'm not having sleeping trouble, my mood can get very VERY touchy and I am not a nice person to be around, (gasp!) which is not a good thing to bring to work as I fear I could set off on someone, with great regret, and cause big trouble. I try to control it, but it is not so easy, especially when a coworker gets into completely-intolerable-idiot mode. The other real biggy that would keep me home is when I'm bleeding so heavily that... well, it's very disabling.
Since working from home is not going to be possible, I am going to be forced to call in sick on these occasions and when I do, I will not work. Trust me, I WILL NOT work. I will not answer the phone. I will not check email. Them telling me that I will have to come in to work is not going to prevent me from calling in sick any less than I feel I would do had they accepted my proposal.
If the PMDD gets worse and causes me to call in sick more frequently than I presently anticipate, I will consult with my doctor about getting my medication increased (which she said "there's room to increase") which I don't want to do because I don't want to be taking this stuff at all. Or see if maybe I should get a sleep aid. I considered setting up FMLA, however that requires either a specific set of dates when I would be unable to work or, for it to be on and off as I will be needing, then I would need to be off for a minimum of four days per occurence. Neither of these fit my situation. Besides, in our discussion, my manager informed me that I would be required to use my vacation time first and then invoke FMLA time. I don't think so Scooter! So I won't be doing the FMLA thing.
I hate to put this burden onto my coworkers, as I know they will be the ones to suffer most, but I tried to work this out with management. "Please direct all complaints to the management. This is a recording. Thank you."
The irony of all this is that our division touts itself as having "the most advanced, forward-looking technologies" with which to serve its customers. What a crock o'sh...!
1 year, 5 months, 2 hours until Quittin' Time.
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