work not letting me drop a shift so i can look after new baby

rozmister

CornishWildFlower wrote: »

You can jump up and down about it all you like. If the company are requested (nicely, of course) to ease up on the pressure temporarily so that she doesn't feel 'stuck' then that is what they should do.

SHOULD is the main word here. It doesn't mean they will in the slightest.

I really couldn't cope last year with the pressure of work, breaking up with my boyfriend and him moving out and starting my final year of uni. It got to the point where sometimes at work customers would shout at me and I'd just go and curl up in a ball on the cubicle floor in the customer toilets and cry. I've suffered mental health issues in the past (and was still a mental health outpatient at the time) which my employer knew but all I got from my boss was a lecture about being professional in the workplace.

I could have had a GP's note in a second (but didn't because I couldn't think of anything worse than slowing down and facing up to not being able to cope) and according to you my employer would have had to bow to my needs. It wouldn't have happened; they could clearly see my welfare was suffering but they only cared about the business. It's not a legal obligation you are helped it's just something your employer should do for best practice. Best practice and legislation are two very different things.

Oh and I worked for a top 3 supermarket at the time. I don't anymore.

GlasweJen

If any person for any reason asked to change a regular shift and for whatever reason I couldnt get it covered then they would be told that I had tried everything to no avail. If they then went and got a doctors line that said working said day made them stressed then they would find themself at the end of a capability question. It is not my job or the job of any manager to magic a new employee out of thin air to accommodate someone who is being paid to work x hours and can't because they took over 18 months to find a child minder.

princessdon

TBH this is a prime example of why MH issues are trivialised, how can we distinguish between Stress and Stress?

skibadee

Well in the face of the fact that the OP has not posted again to update....I don't see the point in everyone getting a little bit 'picky' with one another over this.
The OP knows her options, now its up to her.

Dunroamin

skibadee wrote: »

Well in the face of the fact that the OP has not posted again to update....I don't see the point in everyone getting a little bit 'picky' with one another over this.
The OP knows her options, now its up to her.

Personally, I feel that the issues raised during the discussion are far more important than the original question.

princessdon

Dunroamin wrote: »

Personally, I feel that the issues raised during the discussion are far more important than the original question.

You mean the fact that someone can't find childcare = severe mental health that equates to a disability and requiring employers to act under the relevant legislation?

Dunroamin

princessdon wrote: »

You mean the fact that someone can't find childcare = severe mental health that equates to a disability and requiring employers to act under the relevant legislation?

More like, life's little upsets are impossible to deal without making somebody mentally ill and eligible for benefits!

Anubis_2

Dunroamin wrote: »

More like, life's little upsets are impossible to deal without making somebody mentally ill and eligible for benefits!

Which does those who suffer from real MI no favours at all. It is little wonder why people deem "depression" and similar lightly when you read things like this, as it can have a real devastating effect on someone's life.

I think people use the word depression/stress far to easily which devalues the condition - if they had true depression/stress they would know about it (or not know about it and be in their own world.)

Pollycat

skibadee wrote: »

Well in the face of the fact that the OP has not posted again to update....I don't see the point in everyone getting a little bit 'picky' with one another over this.
The OP knows her options, now its up to her.

The OP may not have posted but was online at 19:24 yesterday.

I've just reread her first post and I do think the OP (who is 27 BTW) would have had more supportive replies if she'd asked about employment law relating to flexible working and for advice on the best way of approaching her employer for a shift swop instead of asking about getting her money 'made up' after giving up her job or being sacked.

heartbreak_star

I also think she'd have had more constructive replies if she'd been able to construct a paragraph correctly.

*HBS tough-love hat on*

IMO, as a happily childless thirtysomething, I get REALLY annoyed when parents assume I'll work all the time so they can swan off to be with their little darlings whenever they like. And it does happen. I know it's a minority who do this, and I APPLAUD all sensible working parents.

I can't remember the last time I had Christmas off (parents were favoured even when my father was dying) and I worked all the crap shifts when I still did shift work.

Dropping a sprog is YOUR choice, YOUR responsibility, and this should have been sorted months ago. Work the shift and use the money to pay a babysitter, OP!

*removes hat*

Good luck though and congratulations on a healthy sprog.

HBS x