Hello everyone,
This post is to encourage everyone who is fearful they will not be able to get a medical exception to keep pursuing this option, even if you've initially received a rejection from your doctor.
Did you know that a legitimate, ADA qualified reason for certain medical diagnoses can be triggered by the stresses brought on by your workplace?!?! YES!!! FACT!!! Check out this one, for example - "Adjustment Disorder" - "An adjustment disorder is an emotional or behavioral reaction to a stressful event or change in a person's life. The reaction is considered an unhealthy or excessive response to the event or change within three months of it happening." And for all you naysayers out there, it IS covered by the Americans with Disability Act and IS considered a qualifying disability for a medical accommodation! Fact check me!!! So, are you crazy-stressed because now you will have a two hour commute? Are you crazy stressed because you now will have to spend more money on gas, daycare, before/after school care, new clothing, a reliable vehicle? And you know there is no way our 2% raises will cover the new additional expense of returning to the office, so worried about the financial hit to your family? That's STRESSFUL! Stressed about going into a filthy, decaying city with unstable, dangerous homeless people all around? Talk about stressful!!! Worried about how you're going to go from being able to supervise your kids all the time to worried about whether they can cross that busy street all by themselves to get to and from school with dangerous traffic? Stressed about your child being at home alone for three hours by themselves with sketchy people in your neighborhood? Worried that your parent has been diagnosed with a terminal illness and has only months to live, and now you can't get an accommodation to help them if they live with you, because the accommodation is only for "personal medical", not a family medical? Stressed that your employer is not supporting you through a major life event of watching a parent go through the end of life? THAT'S HORRIBLY STRESSFUL! Worried that going into the office to "fix our eroding culture" will cause YOUR OWN family to erode? Sc--w that! Raising kids is hard enough in this culture, but without you as their parent around? Forget it, you're screwed - and you will have to live with that guilt of betraying your child for your job for the rest of your life! That's a lot to carry around with you - sc--w that! No company and no job is worth that! The company won't be there when you have to deal with your kids that could potentially get into major trouble without being properly supervised by their parents. Dr-gs. Bad friends. Bad things. Leave our families to nurture our "company culture" so we can sit on a zoom call in a cube all by ourselves with none of our co-workers in the same location? Why should we put our families in jeopardy to fix our "company culture" when our company doesn't care at all about us? I mean, the psychological torture of RTO and then layoffs - it's been so anxiety inducing for everyone. The horrible communication and outright lies by Walt, Katie, and our EC? Shame on them as they sit in their ivory towers. That's emotional abuse on their part, and it certainly creates emotional duress on our parts. Oh, that's right. Schwab is special, and Schwab is different from all other Wall Street Firms! Schwab cares! Uh. NO THEY DON'T - it's all BS and outright lies. And now the EC has ripped the ugly veneer of their faces and showed us that they really don't give a damn about us at all. They're not even trying to pretend anymore! They never did care, but at least they acted like they did before. That's a horrible feeling to feel so betrayed and lied to by your employer, right? Well, guess what, these upsetting feelings and anxiety induced by this company will actually HELP you get a medical accommodation!!!!! Get an appointment with a psychologist and get your paper signed. Make that appointment TODAY! DO IT!
When you look at the paper that you have to fill out, do you realize that you do not have to name the disability that your doctor is signing off on? Request a copy for yourself. The actual wording of the document you have to fill out (in case you haven't seen it) is "Does your patient have a physical or mental impairment that requires an accommodation?" All your doctor has to say is "yes". Here are my practical tips: Google search things like anxiety,depression, adjustment disorder, and other ADA qualified disabilities and specifically what the functional limitations are since you will have to be filling out the functional limitations of your "impairment". A good Google search will help you fill out the form. My plan was to line up three different doctors to help. The first one said "Well, I don't normally sign these." I explained that she is just attesting that I have something that calls for an accommodation - they don't even ask you to name it and they will never call you to verify it - truly not a big deal!. She then said "I don't normally do this, but since you have it all filled out and I just have to sign, I will". She told me that people bring them blank to her and she NEVER signs because she doesn't have time to fill them out, so she appreciated me doing it for her. VICTORY #1. I then decided to go to my second doctor just to experiment with how easy it would be. It was my primary care doctor. I explained the problem to him, and the stress of being away from the children and the psychological torture and horrible behavior on part of the company, and HE TOLD ME that I have "Adjustment Disorder", and that it is covered by the ADA! VICTORY 2! He happily signed it, and even helped me improve my original answers in case the company called and wanted more information from him. My third plan, and thankfully I don't need to do this, was to get an appointment with ANY psychologist or psychiatrist, explain my situation, and tell them that you need their help because the psychological torture is causing you to break down and become anxious, depressed, and not function normally, and that there is no way you can properly do your job or even manage to keep your job under these circumstances that are being mandated when you've been doing it perfectly great for the past three and a half years.
Tip: As you know, if you have a sick relative that you're caring for, the personal medical accommodation HAS to be something for YOU, not your relative. It will get rejected it you make it about the "stress of caring for your sick mother". So when you fill out your form, make sure that you write about YOU, not your family. IT'S ALL ABOUT YOU!!! Make sure that you say that you are unable to complete tasks with noisy background or unable to function in small crowded work space. Make it about YOU! You are stressed about a relative? YOU have a functional limitation that makes it difficult to concentrate. Don't make it about them. That's the ticket!!!
My advice for those that have asked on this forum is don't quit for another job yet. Get those accommodations! You still have PLENTY of time to do it, so don't stress. If Schwab is going to treat us like dirt and dehumanize us and treat us like third class diseased garbage, let's give it right back at them! Let's show them that they can't treat their people like this and get away with it! I personally am very satisfied that my director, who has truly been an a-s about this whole thing (no compassion, no empathy, no understanding, no family/corporate boot li---r) will have to be by herself in an office for four days a week with no one else from her team in her location while I happily work from home! Ha!
Make your appointments right away and have your backup plans. Don't be discouraged if the first doctor turns you down, but reason with your doctor and try to explain that they are simply signing a form that allows you to work from home because of all the stress in your life, that's it - not a big deal! But have the psych appointment all lined up, because that second line of defense is going to be foolproof - no psychologist can argue with this once they understand the duress, anxiety, and stress and ripple effect problems that this has caused in your life. Good luck, and be sure to report back on your stories of encouragement for others!
Oh, and one more message to Walt and the EC members. We all know we're an "Employer at Will" and that means that you can do anything you want. But you, of all people, should know that just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. Have you not been learning from the other big corporate sc--w ups out there costing companies billions? Do you really think this can't happen to you? There will be a lot of collateral damage from the way you have communicated this to employees and squeezed the corporate vice-grips around our necks. We will never forget and will never forgive. Has this really been worth destroying the trust of thousands of your loyal employees forever? You are penny wise but pound foolish.
And for the jerks out there that are going to troll, karma's a bi--h, so be careful.
Good luck peeps! I'm cheering you on from afar!