Posted by Bob on September 14, 1999, at 16:04:15
In reply to Re: obsessions & concessions..., posted by dj on September 14, 1999, at 14:52:42
"Cogwheeling" is the term my girlfriend/psych-intern/ex-psych-halfway-house-counselor gave for it, tho I guess its common enough. It has nothing to do with the tension/rage/psychosis the WB brought on for me. I could hardly tell it was happening myself, but from the observations of others: I was hunching my shoulders up into my neck and head, and bending over forward somewhat. My range of motion in my head was limited side to side, and I would have to twist from the waist to see. I had some Parkinson's-like hand tremors. I also walked a bit stiff legged. From what was described to me afterward, I imagine I must have looked like a 36yr old man imitating an 80yr old with osteoporosis and Parkinson's.
As for the more-cryptic-than-I-imagined "ADA and Job Action": over the last year, my supervisor has been engaging in discriminatory job actions against me, increasing in seriousness over the past year. As soon as I mentioned "reasonable accommodations" to start taking some initiative on my own, she took actions that are blatantly discriminatory and go against everything that's related to this topic in our employee's handbook. To make matters worse, our company's HR director is coming down on the company's side, which ain't mine. Anyway, I do have evidence to both contradict statements made against me and to identify my supervisor's behavior as inappropriate. I'm just jumping my way through all the official hoops -- I need to file a written rebuttal to her statements, and when she and the HR person don't respond favorably, then I take it to the CEO (small organization, thankfully!, or I'd have a few more steps to go). If the CEO doesn't respond, then I file with the EEOC for a "right to sue" paper of some sort ... then I get a lawyer and see who can intimidate whom. If it does go that far, my employer is a non-profit who cannot afford the publicity that a statement from the EEOC questioning its non-discrimination statements would bring.
The best thing about it is I already have a better job offer -- soon as some grant money comes in, I'm gone. But given that 1 in 20 Americans is supposed to be suffereing from some mental illness at any given time, that means I have 3-4 other colleagues in the same position as me. For them, and for anyone who comes after me, I am not going to let the management of my organization pull this sort of BS on again.
It's really nice to be able to fight on a matter of principle.
Fight the good fight, folks
Bob
poster:Bob
thread:11448
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/19990914/msgs/11568.html