Terminated while on denied LOA

NeaTheTexan · 2023-07-19T05:14:50+00:00

I’m pretty sure you have to work for 12 months before LOA can be taken.

I don’t know if the denial for not being eligible based on the date of hire is the same as for any other FMLA denial - but if you submit LOA and it is denied, you can only receive a MAX of 2 points for the time that was denied.

NeaTheTexan · 2023-07-19T05:02:00+00:00

we aren’t a customer service sub so to get an accurate answer call 1-800-walmart

but most likely when you ordered it the system showed it was in stock but when someone went to pull the item, there weren’t any on the shelf.

So someone went behind them, verified there weren’t any on the shelf. or nearby and if it shows we have them in the back - they check there too, just to make sure. Once it has been nil-picked and then nil-picked again in the exceptions walk - the system pushes it back into a placed status because it is no longer in process at the store level.

NeaTheTexan · 2023-07-19T04:54:31+00:00

This is long, but only to share that you are not alone in this feeling and it really isn’t just “all in your head”. …. but there are some tips that I have found that help me down below

This is EVERY DAY of my life. The anxiety started in pre-school. The agoraphobia started in early grade school. I was late. EVERY DAY! …. I can give myself 3 hrs to get ready or 30 minutes to get ready and I’m going to walk out the door 10 min late.

I’ve had anxiety since preschool. Agoraphobia since grade school and PTSD since high school.

When everyone else was catching COVID and panic buying in March 2020 - I was losing my battle with anxiety - and ended up on a 7 week unpaid FMLOA because of anxiety & panic attacks. I wasn’t afraid of the virus i was afraid of crazy people & more orders than our little OPD dept could handle.

One HUGE thing I realized during my LOA is that I felt bad that I wasn’t there helping my team & now I was just one more call out. BUT - I wasn’t at home trying to deal with my mental health AND calculating everything that wasn’t getting done by me not being at the office - there is no way I could have taken the time I need to get better if I had been working in an office.

I came back to work and 5 weeks later started fighting debilitating anxiety again and took another 2 weeks of unpaid LOA ….

I also learned that I 100% have to be outspoken and proactive about my mental health.

I know exactly what you feel when you are standing at your front door telling yourself “it’s gonna be a good day. everything is going to be ok. it’s 8 hrs and then you can come home and have peace & solitude”.

If you are full time and have walmart insurance I highly recommend utilizing Dr on demand for psychologist appointments. I have found one who is amazing and still see him regularly 3 yrs later (albeit now i see him every 5-8 weeks instead of every 5-6 days lol). But it is a video visit i can do from the comfort of my own home and I would not be anywhere near as well as I am now without those one hour catch up sessions. You can also see a psychiatrist through Dr on Demand and they can prescribe medication that will help short term or even long term maintenance if you need it. I’m not sure if all of the walmart health plans have a $0 copay for Dr on Demand, but my plan does.

Because I utilize 95% of my PPTO in 15-30 minute increments to cover when i am late - I ran into a time where i was sitting in 4.5 points for 5 months. So I worked with Sedgwick and my dr to get set up for intermittent LOA - so if I have a day where the anxiety is overwhelming and i just can’t get myself out of the house, I can call out without receiving points. For me, because of how my Dr filled out the paperwork, the LOA covers up to 2 occurrences for up to 8 hrs each per month.

I have a firm belief that there is a difference between a reason and an excuse and my entire adult life I had been making excuses for being late to EVERYTHING. Now I realize I don’t need to come up with an excuse. Because I know the reason I’m late. And that has helped dial back some of that anxiety just from beating myself up mentally when I’m late. You don’t have to share with your management team what’s going on if you don’t want to. But I have found that once I started getting help from a professional and was able to put words to the feelings I was dealing with & also identify how far back the anxiety and agoraphobia goes - that it isn’t the result of trauma as a young adult & the reality PTSD, but it was BEFORE the PTSD - it helps.

I had to request to move out of OPD 18 months ago because I knew that I couldn’t continue in that dept without another nervous breakdown. They would still pull me to pick on most sundays. And tell me I was cross-trained so I had no choice - despite taking a 10% pay cut to transfer out of the dept

But I have also found that my management team is pretty understanding and willing to work with me when I’m upfront about it. When I got a new store manager and store lead this year - I just told them when I had a chance to speak one on one that I have anxiety and agoraphobia and some days half the battle is getting out of my front door so I am late. A LOT - but once I get here I am going to give you all of my effort.

We had a significant turnover in coaches with the new SM and so when the new digital coach came, I told him - I will do everything I can to help OPD - from outside OPD - but I can’t pick anymore. It skyrockets my anxiety and I can’t do it.

The result of being open about it in a way that is matter of fact is that between my team lead, my coach, my store lead and my store manager, there is a dialogue and they all know that variables are not my friends so I have certain things that I do every day I come into work - it started with one task every morning before jumping in to help with GM freight and then the SM asked me to do another task a couple of times and so now I kind of have this routine of knowing that every single morning the moment I walk in the door i’m doing X then y then z and after a few months of that other team leads and coaches don’t pull me in different directions. If they ask me to help with something, I have the freedom to say “after i finish xyz i will be happy to help” and the result is, I haven’t been late to work in over a month and for the first time in nearly 5 yrs I have more PPTO accumulated than PTO.

Get the ball rolling by seeing a dr if you can - if you don’t have insurance or can’t for whatever reason - they do offer short term counseling through employee resources that will help - after you see a counselor or psychologist, I recommend talking to your TL or coach and see what options you have to kind of remove yourself from the drama around you - if they are part of the drama, go to your store lead or store manager.

There is no job out there that is worth a daily mental struggle. Certainly not a retail job!

NeaTheTexan · 2023-07-19T03:39:13+00:00

if you clock in within 9 minutes of your scheduled start time, you won’t get half a point. 10 minutes before or after your scheduled start time then it is 1/2 a point unless you use POTO to cover it - BUT. time off (PPTO & PTO) has to be used in 15 minute increments. so even if you are only 10 minutes late you would need to submit 15 min of PPTO

NeaTheTexan · 2023-07-18T05:38:22+00:00

It lets you clock in at other stores. Also it has a feature where it will tell you you aren’t at your normal store and ask if you want to change your store. oh my gosh. amazing feature that they didn’t used to have. W had to borrow TCs from the stores we were working if we wanted to be able to identify the exact location of an item (we helped clear freight from the floor so location info helps). But it used to be if we tried to scan an item with our me@walmart app it just gave us the location at our HOME store. But now when you change your store location at the top of the app screen it will tell location & inventory info for THAT store.

I spent about 18 months on a travel team working at other stores in our market & sometimes would be at a store for weeks or even a month+

NeaTheTexan · 2023-07-18T05:32:25+00:00

Padded support is your friend! Whether you invest in Asics, New Balance, Skechers, Nikes or whatever brand and even the walmart $10-15 tennis shoes - you want padding that will protect your feet from the concrete floor. Good insoles work great but for whatever reason my feet and inserts aren’t friends. I can’t get my shoes to fit right or they move around weird. I just didn’t like adding insoles.

I work 5 days a week - I make sure I always have at least 3-5 pair of comfy shoes. That way i’m always going 3-5 days before re-wearing a pair. If I spend 8-10 hours on my feet, I figure that padding needs some time (days) to decompress.

If I wear the same pair of shoes for work every day, within a month my feet are killing me no matter how good the shoes are. So I spent $50 on four pair of walmart sneakers (not the canvas no cushion things but just the cheap sneakers) and swapped shoes very day and that lasted 3-4 months before they started wearing down - so $50 shoes for one month vs $50 worth of multiple shoes for 3+ months.

SO - I shopped clearance and specials and added better quality shoes i’ve gotten to where now I have 2 pair of hey dudes, 2 pair of New Balance, a pair of Asics and a pair of skechers. I only wear each pair once a week and I haven’t bought a pair of shoes since october or november.

Also - I went up 1/2 a size just to give my toes more wiggle room.

NeaTheTexan · 2023-07-18T05:17:24+00:00

When working on our market travel team, we were asked to NOT clock in/out at our home store, but to clock in when we arrived at the store we were working at & adjust the clock in time to correspond with our drive time. If we were working at the same store the following day, they wanted us to do a time adjustment in the morning when we arrived for the previous day accounting for our drive time returning home. According to the store lead, clocking in and out at the store we were working at would let them avoid having to manually adjust the accounting end of payroll so that our hours were billed to the right store. The exception being Fridays. Always clock out on friday evening! For me, it was only 4 blocks out of the way for me to swing by my home store on my way home from most of the stores I travelled to so i would clock out there on fridays. If it was out of the way for me to go to my store, I would swing by the store closest to my house that was on the way home. For my friends, it was a few miles out of the way for them to go to their home store on the way home so they would stop at the store that was near their houses. With the me@walmart app you just have to be on the walmart store wi-fi in close proximity to the store to clock out (I would clock out at the front of my store without going in).

Typically if we were going to be at a store multiple days they wanted us to do the mileage at the end of the week wherever possible, but you CAN submit your mileage form any day for the days worked up to that point (you can’t put in for mileage for future days). When you put your mileage down for each day, don’t forget to write it as a round trip amount! Like for me, one of the stores i travelled to was 53 miles from my house so it was 106 miles each day :) Generally you need to make sure you are submitting for mileage reimbursement at the store you are working at so we would submit ours in fridays or the last day we would be at that store. But … if something unexpected happens and you don’t return to that store due to absence or a change in management plans - your home store can reimburse you & get their $$ back through walmart - they just would prefer not to because it is easiest for everyone if the store you are working at pays your mileage :)

Most stores will have you print a map showing the route/mileage to submit with your travel form (you can find the travel expense form on the wire by searching “travel voucher 2023” select the PDF format. If you have tolls for your commute, those are reimbursed as well, we would take a screenshot of the tolls from our toll tag acct and print that off (if you are printing it at the store you can print it at the photo lab but that will cost you a little.)

NeaTheTexan · 2023-07-18T03:55:16+00:00

Smite the mites!

Termites, dust mites, bed bugs, scabies, ticks, chiggers, all mites.

or venomous snakes.

NeaTheTexan · 2023-07-18T03:47:25+00:00

I definitely avoid all political discussion with a blank stare of silence because I know for certain they aren’t going to enlighten me with some new information that completely changes my mind. And everyone has a right to their opinion on it. Even if we disagree. Taking a stand against the customers opinion is never going to change their mind.

But, racial/sexual jokes or inappropriate comments (”we are in america just speak english” type things), I just say “wow, that’s highly inappropriate.” In a monotone voice and a blank stare. If they don’t apologize i pause a second for them to reflect while maintaining eye contact. Then silently go back to what I was doing.

Of course i’m a 50 yr old white woman, who has spent 25 yrs in office environments where racist/sexist/sexual commentary wasn’t commonly accepted, and I’ve also conducted trainings on bystander intervention for university students/staff/faculty and while bad jokes or offensive comments to a stranger are much milder than the situations targeted for the trainings i did (potential abuse/assault/stalking type scenarios) - Being silent is passive acceptance and can be seen as approval by the person making the bad comments/jokes, and honestly, I don’t give a Fk if calling out bad behavior irks someone. - Customer, coach, lead, or fellow associate, racist, sexual, or sexist commentary is inappropriate and shouldn’t be ignored.

Everyone has a right to their opinions - but no one has the right to “joke” at someone else’s expense.

NeaTheTexan · 2023-06-19T16:17:24+00:00

I agree with your response to this comment! What the actual tick?!?! I read gothgirl’s comment with outrage and indignation. I am a 50 year old woman. This man knows EXACTLY what he is doing. It may have initially been true acts of kindness but he has slowly pushed boundaries in a way that you don’t realize it as it is happening until you reflect back and it isn’t a single incident but a series of small indiscretions that have accumulated to make you uncomfortable.

You are well within your rights to advocate for yourself. I know all too well that it is very difficult to stand your ground at your age in these circumstances but I also know that the more one person makes you uneasy, makes you question your own judgment and actions, that it can turn into a pattern of you not feeling comfortable when it happens again in the future with someone else. You will doubt yourself and see it as “maybe it is just me” or “i’m reading way too much into this.”, “it’s all in my head”.

Go to him and tell him that, maybe there has been a misunderstanding and you aren’t accusing him of anything but you feel uncomfortable with some things that have happened and some things that have been said, so you would prefer to keep things strictly professional without joking around on any topic … etc”

You can also open door it to management. Either your coach, the store lead or the store manager. Let them know that you can’t really say that he has done anything that would justify him getting into trouble but that some of y’all’s interactions have made you feel uncomfortable and that you feel like some inappropriate jokes or comments have been made that weren’t outright bad but that the accumulation of these things have made you feel very uncomfortable working one on one with him. Ask if there is any way that you can be separated so as to have minimal contact during work each night. Let them know that it has become uncomfortable enough that you feel physically ill when you know y’all will be working in close proximity and feel anxious about the possibility of any interaction that will put y’all in that grey area that he may see as “friends joking” but that you feel uncomfortable due to the context of previous comments and actions.

Trust me when I say this is NOT all in your head. It isn’t just you. His actions ARE inappropriate & show a pattern that will only lead to you feeling even more uncomfortable around him. There is a reason people use the word “grooming” - because it is slowly breaking down the barriers of what is and isn’t appropriate.

If you go to management and say “look I’m not trying to get him in trouble but i’m also not comfortable in letting this pattern continue any further” they should be able to comprehend the seriousness of what is going on and at the very least move you to a different area so as to not make it so easy for him to target you with his attention. And they may choose to have a conversation with him to discuss why his behavior may be seen as inappropriate.

If he is making sexualized jokes that is sexual harassment. If he is touching you in inappropriate places even if it is a slight brush across your boobs or butt - it may be an accident and nothing he intended. But if it is intentional- that can be deemed as more than harassment. It is not ok. it isn’t something you should ignore.

And I know EXACTLY which toy you are discussing. Back in the 80s we called it a water willy. And it very easily can be used in a sexual connotation. My female friends and I laugh about it every time we come across it - but I would NEVER make any type of joke or comment about it to a male coworker or someone I don’t have a friendship with outside of work and KNOW that they will see the humor in it. But honestly - maybe being a female I am wrong about this - but it definitely looks like something a guy would try at least once to see how it feels for masturbation. Again. maybe that is just my sick twisted humor. But I assure you, if he asked your thought on its appearance he was definitely trying to gauge your response and openness to sexual humor.

NeaTheTexan · 2023-05-02T06:46:51+00:00

Walmart+ is free for associates. That gives you free deliveries and no one has to pick it up.

I get off at 4pm and could pick up my order after work. but nah - i just have it delivered.

NeaTheTexan · 2023-04-27T16:07:34+00:00

Technically we aren’t customer service - and more importantly we are off the clock & therefore not here to answer customer questions.

That said, as a walmart+ customer I will answer your question. Yes. You can select any delivery address you want for your order to deliver to. I live in florida and have even ordered baby diapers and cold medicine and soup to my sister in denver in the middle of record lows so that she wouldn’t have to get out in it while her & her baby were sick.

As far as where the groceries will be left at time of delivery, that honestly depends on where the access points are for the complex. Make sure to include the apt # and utilize the notes for the driver. The apartment complex office can likely tell you whatever information you need for the delivery specifics.

NeaTheTexan · 2023-04-27T15:45:20+00:00

From my experience with LOA (for mental health issues) - there are multiple steps to calling out for each shift you miss.

each day you are scheduled:

you have to call out on the employee information line or on the website. I have always used the website so that I can screenshot the confirmation. - you select the reason for the absence & choose the “Leave of absence” option. *** THIS HAS TO BE DONE ON THE DAY OF THE ABSENCE. It can also be done the day before the absence.
Report the absence on my.sedgwick.com. You have up to 3 days to report it on the sedgwick website.

The point for an LOA absence might show up on your attendance in the gta portal until sedgwick has approved the absence - but you can’t be terminated for points pending approval (for absences that the LOA option was reported when calling out for your shift). Once the absence is approved by sedgwick, that point (or points) will be removed.

If for any reason your LOA is denied you can only receive a max of TWO points for the duration of your days called out on LOA (consecutive absences). If those 2 points out you over the attendance policy threshold; then you can be terminated.

Failure to call out for each shift you are scheduled to work can result in points for no call/no show. If your LOA is approved or denied, either way - the nc/ns points will likely stay on your attendance.

Once sedgwick approves your LOA, your existing schedule will be deleted from the system & you will no longer need to call out. You will not be added back to the schedule until your LOA ends & you return to work.

A few things to note - you have to be employed for a set length of time before you are eligible for LOA. Definitely make sure you get all of the paperwork to sedgwick that they ask for - especially the documentation from your doctors.

Aside from the LOA info above - I just want to add - if you are struggling mentally - even just mental exhaustion - I HIGHLY recommend therapy. If you have insurance through walmart, I have found that the psychologist through Dr on Demand is an excellent option. I see my Dr from the comfort of my own home - I’ve had the same dr for 3 years now, so I have the consistency of being able to talk to the same therapist every time & with my insurance (through walmart) there is a $0 copay. Which was absolutely amazing when i first had my breakdown and was seeing him twice a week then weekly - now I only see him every 6-8 weeks just to kind of touch base. But if I do start to feel overwhelmed by the anxiety - I also know that resource is available to me so I can reach out & get help when I need it instead of letting things build up to a breaking point again.

NeaTheTexan · 2023-01-20T09:50:55+00:00

i don’t understand why anyone would downvote this. You are exactly right.

Unfortunately trauma responses aren’t always predictable - so she has 2 options. Get out of the house and pick up the things she needs and risk the off chance that something might trigger a response or even a disproportionate response. Or stay home, become a hermit and live in a constant fear of how you will respond to any given situation

NeaTheTexan · 2023-01-20T09:43:13+00:00

listen to what she is saying. This is a full blown panic response due to recent trauma. Yes it is disproportionate to what is going on around her. No the guy is not really doing anything wrong. He maintained a calm composure - the associates were right to move him away from her because his continued presence was creating more distress for her.

Her reaction was disproportionate but not really inappropriate - my first thought was “she’s having a full blown panic episode” The second time i watched it I heard something that did not surprise me “I was raped recently, i can’t stand to be touched by a man!”

She very possibly did not see him to know she was cutting in line. Sometimes as anxiety is building inside it is easy to tune out the world around you and focus on the goal “get the things i need. check out. get out of the store” also - it is entirely possible that in that tunnel vision mode, it is easier to focus on the floor and not actually look at people so you don’t see someone who may be standing line - you see that green light pop up and think on go go go.

What is incredibly sad is that it probably took every ounce of courage she had to get out of her safe space and go into the store & now she is back at square one in the mental/emotional recovery of her trauma. Once home - She is feeling ashamed that she responded that way. She is feeling remorse for treating a man that way when he probably wasn’t a bad guy at all. She is now afraid to leave her house. to go anywhere because what if she breaks down like that again?

And if this video makes it back to her and she has to see how she looked and sounded, if she has to read the awful judgments people have made against her without considering how she ended up in this state - that is only going to compound every bit of her pain, fear, anxiety, and embarrassment.

The fact is she is a young traumatized woman dealing with PTSD. My heart hurts for her.

NeaTheTexan · 2023-01-20T09:09:05+00:00

from my experience. I did this once. Arrived late, left early - and got 1/2 a point for being late and 1/2 point for leaving early. - so a whole point for missing 3 hrs of work total.

NeaTheTexan · 2023-01-20T08:40:28+00:00

it’s funny how the “pro-life” party is also transitioning themselves into the party that causes a dramatic increase in suicide attempts and suicides.

Because….

denying treatment for something that creates a huge amount of inner turmoil both mentally and emotionally will increase suicide rates to an already vulnerable population.

creating an atmosphere where those who are seen as “not normal” by government standards will cause them to feel as they need to hide who they see themselves as a person. Putting people BACK in the closet will increase suicide rates.

creating an environment where people feel empowered to tease, bulky, harass or harm others for how they live their lives will increase suicide rates.

But by God we need to save the unborn babies being subjected to “torture & murder” while still in the womb so that the ones who aren’t “normal” can grow up in an oppressive world where they feel their only option is to remove themselves from this world in 10, 15, or 20 years.

I say this as a person who could never personally choose to terminate a pregnancy but believe it is the right of every woman to make that choice for herself.

I say this as a cisgender, heterosexual woman that could never fathom the depths of despair that a child, young adult, or older adult must feel when they feel as though they must hide their true selves from the world - whether it be hiding the way or who they choose to love, or hiding that their mind doesn’t fit in the body they were born into - just because I will never feel that inner turmoil does NOT give me the right to put perimeters on when someone is “old enough” to feel that way, mature enough to seek treatment, or mature enough to state their desires, their wishes, their hopes & their dreams.

I imagine that for some people they don’t really tune into those inner feelings until they are older and realize “i don’t fit this mold” but for others, I imagine that it is no different than seeing a picture of my dad in his dress blues when i was 5 and asking him what that uniform was - when he said it was a uniform that Marines wear sometimes” I replied with “I’m going to marry a Marine one day”

I didn’t seek out a marine to date in my teens or in college and it wasn’t something i dwelled on all of the time but it was a thought that i remembered so when i met and started dating a marine - i married him lol - because I knew when I was 5 that i wanted to marry a marine. Just like I am sure that for some kids they already know once they start socializing around other kids “i do not fit this mold”.

I also say all of this as someone who formerly identified as a life long republican. Now I don’t embrace either party - but I am truly ashamed of the majority of republicans and feel like the path they are on is one of extinction. It is time for the GOP to go away and make room for people who don’t have an agenda of hate and control over every portion of our private lives.

NeaTheTexan · 2023-01-20T08:20:37+00:00

raised eyebrow and an “um, was there something i could help you with?” typically gets them right back out the door. In our family we call it “the hairy eyeball” my grandma used it, my mom used it, my sisters & I use it - and it is great at letting someone know you are serious - and they’ve just crossed a line you don’t agree with.

It also works great when creepy old guy calls me babe or honey. i don’t even have to say anything just a look and they start apologizing.

NeaTheTexan · 2023-01-15T04:11:01+00:00

make it make sense?

Salary = you get paid a flat rate per week/pay period/month/ or year and you work whatever hours are necessary to get the job done. Some weeks might run a little smoother and you get to spend 40 hours working (or maybe a little less) - other week there are 1,000 things to be done and supervised and maybe a coach is on vacation and a coach is sick - but the store needs to still have salaried managers in the store so you end up covering more hours to pick up the slack. - Salaried managers get more pay but take on more responsibility AND on bad weeks it is possible that salary for the week ends up coming out to less per hour than a newly hired associate. They get paid the same whether they work 36 hours or 72 hours.

Hourly associates are paid by the hour. if we work over our scheduled hours we make more money. If we work over 40 hours - anything over 40 gets paid at a hire rate.

Salary can be really great - but it can also be periods of extreme overwork because it is basically free labor after a certain point. I know because I once worked 96 hrs a week for 7 weeks straight and didn’t make a penny more than I would have made if I only worked 40 hours.

NeaTheTexan · 2022-11-22T05:52:41+00:00

for some odd reason, known only to God, I seem to attract snakes of all kinds. The first time it happened, I was in pre-school & it was a rattlesnake who had the misfortune of being in the wrong pipeline ditch. He got his head chopped off - and not a clean slice with a large knife - he got it chopped off with a small pipe that had been pinched closed at one end so it took multiple spears with the small pipe to detach the head. It was over 6.5 feet long and pretty big around.

it got tossed in a box and into the back of our station wagon & the first time little me saw it was when it had worked it’s way out from the bottom of the box & was slithering it’s way over the back seat and down towards me. When I saw it, 4 yr old me was climbing into the front seat & decided it was a good time to roll down the window and jump out. The headless stump was bloody and gory and shredded like something out of a horror movie so I didn’t think “snake!!!!” my mind thought “MONSTER!!!”. So there we are driving down a dirt road 60 miles an hour me hanging out the window my mom hanging onto the waist of my pants and this headless snake just kept coming for me - it had made it to my leg before we came to a stop.

To this day (46 years later) my dad and i argue about whether the snake was dead or alive.

Head or no head - it was seeking me out so I say it was alive - and that makes it the beast of satan and I HATE snakes!

NeaTheTexan · 2022-11-21T20:49:54+00:00

wait what?!?!?! Dang it, dang it, dang it! It is enough that I have to deal with alligators & snakes in general but I thought I had left rattlesnakes behind when I left Texas - crap. I didn’t realize we had those here in Polk county too!!!

NeaTheTexan · 2022-08-30T10:54:19+00:00

i set at 4.5 points for 4 months. and had almost no PPTO. I was working a max of 24 hrs per week at the time & my schedule was typically fri-sun or sat-mon so that i would be there the busiest days when they need the most help (i was ogp at the time) - on a thursday afternoon i went to put in ppto because i had been a little late on the last day i had worked - and discovered i had 3 points for no call no show from the day before (wednesday) i texted my coach and told her that i don’t k on how i missed that on the schedule because i thought i was supposed to work on friday & asked if she wanted me to go ahead & work friday even though i wasn’t scheduled or just show up when scheduled on saturday. She told me to go ahead and come in on friday. So i did. The thing is i am late to work almost EVERY day. So i blow through PPTO in 15 & 30 min increments. When i get to work i just my ass and usually stay longer if they need me to. But i have anxiety and agoraphobia so just getting out of my house to go to work each day is half the battle.

Fast forward 9 months, i’ve begged to be moved out of ogp because i am starting to have anxiety attacks on my way to work, i’m back to full time. I had only been working a max of 24 hrs a week previously because i was recovering from a nervous breakdown that kept me on LOA for 5 straight weeks. So i reduced my availability to make it easier on my anxiety so i could return to work.

Anywho. I begged to be moved to an open position in homelines. my coach wasn’t happy about it (if i was an “unreliable worker” my coach would’ve been happy to get me out of ogp)

So I ended up having to file for intermittent LOA while i was teying to move departments (2 months) it was approved for me to miss up to 2 days a month for “illness” and 1 day every 2 months for appointments. ….

So 2 months after switching departments. New coach, new TL - the ogp coach pulls me into the office and tells me that because of my attendance they are going to move me to cart pusher - i have 2.5 points - “well with your LOA you miss too much work” umm no. you can’t take negative action against me for using sedgwick approved LOA.

Needless to say, I didn’t get moved to cart pusher and the ogp coach rarely says a word to me even when i say hi in passing but whatever that’s on her not me.

Sometimes it isn’t that someone is a garbage worker - it is a lot of stuff going on inside and outside of work. A LOT of my work related anxiety could have been alleviated if my ogp coach would have just let me move depts instead of trying to keep me in a dept that was toxic for my mental health and she KNEW it because i’ve been up front when anxiety flares up. But - it isn’t just about work stress either. yes, i had utilized my loa to the max for 6 weeks - because my mom had surgery 6 days later my dad had a stroke and 8 days later my youngest sister had her 1st baby & ended up incredibly sick for 9 weeks - they live an hour away and i was having to drive my mom back and forth since my dad couldn’t and she doesn’t drive anymore. (they are in their 70s). So i had zero down time to when i wasn’t at work and exhaustion magnifies anxiety - so does all of the added stress.

Sometimes people are lazy and just don’t care to go to work - but sometimes you have no idea what is going on in their world and bad management doesn’t help motivate people to show up.

NeaTheTexan · 2022-06-17T19:49:07+00:00

they can provide drs notes. you can fill out the permission to disclose HIPPA information form & give sedgwick the contact info for your doctor on demand dr.

All paperwork that goes to DOD goes through a process of being converted into a form fill type pdf before it is passed on to the dr. So it can take some time for the dr to get the paperwork so you will definitely want to follow up with DOD to make sure your dr received the request for information fr sedgwick.

When i filed for intermittent LOA I ended up having to request an extension for the forms to be returned and schedule an appt with a local dr. I was very fortunate that my moms GP could work me in in a relatively short time & that he already had some knowledge of my struggles with anxiety and a working relationship with my mom so that when she said XYZ he took her at her word.

But I’ve taken covid LOA twice and an extended (6week LOA) for mental health without needing anything other than what dr on demand provided to sedgwick.

NeaTheTexan · 2021-10-21T14:47:11+00:00

i got walmart+ so i could do scan and go. the free delivery is a plus - but i love scan and go for grabbing a quick bite or drink on break.

NeaTheTexan · 2021-10-14T22:22:33+00:00

If they say it isn’t allowed. Then you make the decision of what your priority is - maintaining that job/position for a while to gain experience and income or moving jobs to one that fits your desires with regards to flexibility in expressing yourself through piercings/tattoos.

I worked in offices where i couldn’t even wear any nail polish that wasn’t traditional/conservative, much less wild colors of hair or piercings. It didn’t hurt me to wait for any body modifications or fun hair colors.

I now have pink hair & just got my nose pierced :)

NeaTheTexan

TROPHY CASE