Disability and retaliation

I work in a specialty level sales job for a large company. In May of 2009 I took the first of a series of FMLA and company approved short term medical leaves for a chronic disease and resulting disability which becane apparent when my territory was changed to include significantly more travel time. At the time, I did not even realize that I was a member of a protected class and that I even had a disabilty because I had always been able to work around it and not let it affect my work until my work changed. I disclosed in May 09 after it was brought to my attention that I had not completed several expense reports although I thought I had completed them by submitting the expenses but just not sent in the receipts. My company does not reimburse until the receipts are sent in so I had not received any reimbursement. I knew I was behind but could not fix the problem because of the disability and when I realized that I could not complete other tasks I knew I had to disclose At this time I was only reprimanded and it was verbally demanded that I complete these tasks. I made the decision to disclose to my manager and go out on leave to see my Dr and find out what was going on because no matter how hard I tried I just could not complete these simple tasks. I returned to work a few weeks later to be immediately handed a 30 day warning letter to improve performance listing of course, the deliquent expense reports but they (and I am not sure who they is my manager, his manager, HR?) also listed a bunch of trumped of deficiencies that were taken from previous field travel reports and email communications, clearly taken out of context to make it look like there was a problem where none existed and I have proof. I was unable to do the expense reports on time as they took 3 weeks to get me back into the system into a 30 day improvement plan. My disability and travel schedule did not allow for me to stay up all night catching up on these the last week of the plan because of their deliquency. To my surprise, they then escalated it to a 60 day performance improvement plan. Shorly after that I needed leave again.I returned to work again asking my manager for some accommodation like travel by plane vs car , he agreed and said it was no problem (other reps from other companies do it all the time) but then complained several times about my plane travel saying things like I could have beem there faster if I drove and thats why my company gave me a car. Obviously he had no understanding of the disability and never told HR I had asked for an accommodation. After 2 more leaves I finally have some official accommodations in place but they will not let the PIP go. I think it should have never escalated past the warning letter and I have fixed all of the expense reports long ago and any other reports and am never ever late again (they have made some changes in their process that actually helped me). I am constantly reprimanded for my territory's low market share but it was given to me very very low (I gave away all the customers I developed to someone else when they changed the territory and I have hardly worked in a lttle over a year to compare me to anyone else and was on approved, job protected leave, I was out 4 months this last time. I am constantly compared to another coworker who has improved their market share a little but they have not had any absences nor have had to deal with an illnes, disability and obtaining accommodations. it is now fall 2010 and I am exhausted and they continue to scrutinize me and make me do extra reports others are not doing because they will not let the PIP go manager also started an argument with me recently in the field saying it was always about poor me and how much he had personally lost financially and how much extra work this (meaning my disability and leaves) has cost him
I want to file a complaint, I do not trust HR at all as the first conversations with them I realized they were definitely not on my side. Corporately, they say they want to accommodate me but my department and manager's attitude do not reflect this. I feel retaliated against and that my work environment has now become hostile.
What should be my next move and would I have a case?

0 answers  |  asked Oct 10, 2010 01:12 AM [EST]  |  applies to Washington

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