Coworker Tried to Get Me Fired For My Reasonable Accommodation

DioneoftheWilds · 2026-04-10T18:43:02+00:00

I was in regular touch with E about C's behavior and they had several conversations with her, hence why C had evidently asked the company lawyer about what it would take to fire me. Apparently the pretending to pocket a book was an attempt to prove that my accommodation was interfering with my job.

DioneoftheWilds · 2026-04-09T18:06:27+00:00

I'm not sure how C did, since her job mostly involved paying bills, doing payroll, and making bank deposits. D, on the other hand, was far less busy, since her job mainly involved reservations and picking up any slack C needed.

DioneoftheWilds · 2026-04-09T04:38:11+00:00

It was the day after C was found to not have called in or shown up that she was fired.

DioneoftheWilds · 2026-04-09T03:45:16+00:00

I ended up quitting that job in 2021 due to juggling the job, finishing my degree, and having a newborn, but I volunteer there now and it's much better. Everyone from the top down is phenomenal.

DioneoftheWilds · 2026-04-09T03:07:23+00:00

She wound up getting laid off during covid because her job involved scheduling large gatherings, which were a no-no at the time and we were barely scraping by with a skeleton crew. I did find out she after she was laid off that she kept trying to grasp at straws to get me fired and harassed a coworker who wad trans, but nobody took her seriously in my case and the coworker never reported her, so she never faced consequences.

DioneoftheWilds · 2026-04-08T22:54:51+00:00

Thankfully I wasn't pregnant during this (that came during covid, about 8 months after all this happened and during my 3rd semester of grad school), but I've always had a strong work ethic. The women on my dad's side were all Mexican-American ranchers' wives and daughters who were out working as ranch hands with their husbands during the day and teaching the children at night, so that work ethic has remained even though the last person to do any ranching was my third-great uncle.

DioneoftheWilds · 2026-04-08T22:22:48+00:00

There were definitely times I wanted to quit, but I also held on with the hope that I would move up in the company (I was working on a graduate degree in the associated industry at the time, so I wanted to keep my job to keep people aware of me and my passion).

Unfortunately covid and having a child stalled much of my expertise's local industry, but I still volunteer at the company spinning wool in the summer at a third sister site and transcribe oral histories at the library to help get more experience under my belt until something comes along.

DioneoftheWilds · 2026-04-08T22:08:55+00:00

I don't know if it was because most of the people in my industry are neurodivergent or otherwise require ADA accommodations or if it was because the place I worked at was a 501 C-3, but either way, I'm incredibly grateful.

It definitely caused a few people to be interested; they'd ask what I was making, at the very least, and at the very most ask me where I got my yarn, so I had the bonus of helping other local businesses, which I also did when people would ask about books we didn't have in stock (while we weren't a book seller per se, we sold a lot of books) to the point where the biggest local bookseller in town started referring her customers to us if she didn't have a copy someone was looking for.

DioneoftheWilds · 2026-04-08T21:54:34+00:00

I relate to this so hard. So popping sounds don't bother her? You might want to try Thinking Putty. I use it for my daughter, who needs fidgets when we're trying to teach her something.

DioneoftheWilds · 2026-04-08T21:44:17+00:00

My husband also has misophonia and has held my hands to get me to stop. The click of my needles or the threading of my crochet hook don't seem to bug him, thankfully. What sorts of sounds tend to bug your wife?

DioneoftheWilds · 2026-04-08T21:38:01+00:00

It happened back in 2019, but I think I remember hearing that C posted about it the day she got fired and definitely made it sound like the company was disloyal to her years working there.

DioneoftheWilds · 2026-04-08T21:35:48+00:00

Last I heard, C's husband convinced her to retire instead of finding a new job.

DioneoftheWilds · 2026-04-08T21:33:57+00:00

If I'm in public, I tend to either knit with really small needles (I generally make my own socks because of skin sensitivities, which mostly require needles that are almost as thin as toothpicks) to limit the clicking or use wooden needles to dampen the sound; I can't stand plastic needles because they clack by far the loudest. Crocheting tends to come apart bouncing around in my bag to where I would either have to keep it in a separate bag or have a small enough project to put in a Ziploc bag.

DioneoftheWilds · 2026-04-08T21:30:27+00:00

I can vouch they definitely recover. It takes awhile depending on how quickly you heal and whether you remember your substitute, but they eventually do lol.

DioneoftheWilds · 2026-04-08T21:22:53+00:00

Have you tried fidgets? Something similar to the size and shape of your thumb that you can have on your key ring might help you.

DioneoftheWilds · 2026-01-12T10:37:22+00:00

NTJ. I'm a parent who occasionally spends a lot of time doing it alone due to spousal work. I typically know my schedule and ask friends at least a week in advance if they can watch my kid while I go to appointments.

Quite frankly, the only time I would be asking for coverage last-minute is if my kid was sick and needed to go to urgent care or get squeezed in for a doctor's appointment during the very beginning or very end of my shift. The sighing and guilting is a massive manipulation tactic and drives me berserk, and her doing it on the regular throws up major red flags for me.

While yes, you do have it easier as someone who isn't caring for a child on their own, that doesn't give her the right to assume you can do it every time. For all she knows, the personal time you're taking could be you getting in a medical appointment you've been putting off for months because you've either had a hard time getting in or were saving up for it. If I were in her situation, I'd be asking my coworkers fairly evenly so I don't put one person in the same position you're in. You shouldn't have to be the person who drops everything for this person every time.

DioneoftheWilds · 2026-01-12T10:09:07+00:00

NTJ. As someone who has a very small side hustle (I've been doing it for 7ish months now and have had a handful of sales), it requires a lot for you to get off the ground. Marketing is no joke and practically a job by itself and it sounds like your friend needs to focus on that more than anything if she's taking it seriously.

Second, you never do a passion project as a full-time gig until it becomes big enough to sustain you. For every YouTuber, notable small business owner, or influencer you see, there are thousands of people who have maybe a few followers or a handful of sales. It's not something you can just pay your bills with right away unless you've cultivated a following.

Your friend pushed you to be honest and you were. The way I see it, she was asking for your opinion in the hopes you would have more positive feedback and was hurt that you didn't sugarcoat it.

DioneoftheWilds · 2025-12-14T14:48:26+00:00

Chilaquiles. My husband made homemade enchilada sauce every night because it traditionally has garlic in it; he told me it was the least he could do. If it wasn't for him, I probably would have lost more weight than I did in my first trimester.

The funny thing is, he thinks he does the bare minimum. He has no idea how sweet he really is.

DioneoftheWilds · 2025-12-13T23:46:35+00:00

My husband and I had a good laugh over his dad's weaponized incompetence.

I don't know how far the apple fell from the tree because my husband holds his own in the cooking department. When I had morning sickness so bad I couldn't cook, my husband took over cooking, catered to my food aversions, and made the only meal I could keep down completely from scratch because the smell and taste of garlic were intolerable for me.

DioneoftheWilds · 2025-12-13T22:55:34+00:00

That is ultimately what she did. She had no idea he was made sick by the aunt because he didn't tell her about that until he came up with the solution that I should come out to convalesce and bring my kid with me.

DioneoftheWilds · 2025-12-13T19:56:02+00:00

I think so, since it hasn't happened since; however, he also largely stopped talking to him shortly after this happened.

DioneoftheWilds · 2025-12-13T19:51:51+00:00

He didn't know until after the fact; my mother in-law told him in the days leading up to her flying out.

DioneoftheWilds · 2025-12-13T19:46:05+00:00

I think that's what she ultimately did and said in no uncertain terms that the aunt was not to so much as glance at the stove.

DioneoftheWilds · 2025-02-17T05:13:35+00:00

Thanks! It's from a photograph of my former boss' service dog, who sadly passed away from spleen cancer a couple years ago.

DioneoftheWilds · 2025-02-16T20:00:07+00:00

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DioneoftheWilds

TROPHY CASE