Quitting Job / Finding New Job

Anonymous

Quitting Job / Finding New Job

KARW41

I decided to resign from my job.

My overall question, based on my narrative below, is: how does one find a job that is not something different from what they say it is, especially in light of having cancer/surgery.

The job I am resigning from turned out to entail work totally different from that described in the job announcement and in the interview.

It also involved night time hours, unpredictably (or as they say "flexible), which they did not disclose as well.

The situation is:

I'm already on leave without pay with a doctor's note, since mid-July, recovering from the bilateral mastectomy with some swelling and fatigue.

The doctor also said that I should not be working both night and day, and this job requires unpredictable evening hours.

After a month of the job, not having had a computer for the first three weeks, a "deputy coordinator" and a coworker started calling me after dinner time at home (the job is temporarily telework) and insisting that I get online and learn a twice-weekly, 96-page PowerPoint and how to prepare it with color coding and inputting 15 employees' input.

My home Internet is very bad here (another reason for deciding to also move back to my former city) and so everything took hours to edit and compile.

Once I realized this was going to be what the hours were, I tried calling and getting help from the EEO/ disability contact, since I'm a disabled combat vet, still recovering from bilateral mastectomy, and he said just don't answer the phone after 6 p.m.

However, he also said talk with the supervisor on what the "essential functions" of the job are, since the position description I got from HR was almost blank.

The supervisor ignored my emails asking about this, until I called HR, who provided the copy of the position description, and then she answered back, that I do need to be available into the evenings.

She also sent out an email to everyone in the office, saying do not contact other offices (like HR and EEO) without talking with her first.

I know the supervisor is breaking the rules by requiring me to be available into the evening hours, since the EEO guy said the duty day for "Flexi 40" is up to 6 p.m. and after that, just don't answer the phone.

HR said it is up to the supervisor what hours I am required to work and be available.

I just don't have the energy to deal with conflict like this now, or in having to be available late into the evening after an entire day of work.

I'm also in grad school which requires being online, some, in the evenings and I literally, even without the surgery, could not work at night. It would entail the bit of grad school work (which is not hours of work, but maybe an hour a night), and then staying up and getting less sleep to do this work on top of the 8-hour work day.

They won't tell me ahead of time what days to be available at night, so that I could start working later in the day, to compensate.

Instead, it is a lady calling me at home, after she has completed her 8 hours of work, and then she wanted to train me and have me work on the 96 pages of PowerPoint slides after dinner time, after I also worked a full day..

I talked with a lawyer who said it should be in the position description if the job requires irregular hours (it is a government agency) and it is not.

I also got advice from a counselor who said that it is reasonable to have a boss let the employee know what a predictable work schedule would be, so they know when to be available. Instead, it is unpredictable.

It is going to be very tough, I would think in the pandemic now, to get another job.

However, I literally cannot continue on with the current situation.

I have the ability to move back to my former city, where my grad school is physically located, and try to find work there.

I realize, however, that I don't want to make the same mistake(s) again: how do you extract from the people in the job interview what the job actually is, and so that they don't have you working nights or unexpected hours????

This place did not reveal these facts about the job at all ahead of time.

I don't mind telling people I have had cancer, but I one time told people in an interview that I had PTSD and that scared them off from hiring me, as the entire tone of the interview changed.

However, I would rather tell them I've had cancer, am not able to work late into the night, especially recovering, and be honest, than to end up in a situation like this again.

Before this job, I had another job in which they said you cannot take more than 36 hours off in the first six months of the job, and so I had to leave that job also, since I needed to get surgery (turned out to be two surgeries, not one, with lumpectomy and then bilateral mastectomy).

With that job, I knew it was "probationary" but when I took the job, I did not yet have the cancer diagnosis.

I am curious how you all find a suitable, straightforward job after having cancer and still recovering from surgery (not even chemo or radiation, which I know my mother had a couple of times and did not work outside her home after all of that).

Cowgirl13

I sent you a private message. Take care.