So my awful call center job has just added to my stress load, AGAIN... As a bit of a background for those who missed it or don't know, my job causes me no end of stress and it makes me sick. I have been working for 10 years of my life, I've lost count of how many different jobs i've held, and NOT ONE caused me more stress and anguish as this one does.
The start of this stress happened last year. I spent the ENTIRE YEAR stressed out of my bloody mind because they kept trying to fire me for attendance. They changed the attendance policy, so that you can't call out more than 3 times a year or else they'll start trying to fire you. Well, that was also the year we had -40 windchills and crazy amounts of snow, so I missed work twice because we couldn't get the car out of our parking spot. Then, I had to run FI to the ER one day early in the year, so that was number three. After that, they started writing me up and threatening me with termination the whole rest of the year. And they weren't kidding; they fired a friend of mine because he got in a car accident on the way to work and had to take an ambulance ride to the hospital, and they said that wasn't a valid excuse for missing work. Another friend was put on a final warning because she was pregnant and went into false labor on a workday.
I'm no slouch either, I exceed all expectations on my performance reviews. I have been honoured by my job repeatedly for excellent customer service, and for saving customers who otherwise would have cancelled their service. I've even been personally thanked by the Vice President of our multinational company, because a customer was SO PLEASED with my service that he wasn't satisfied with merely telling a supervisor about it. He personally contacted this VP, and raved about me. So I have a nice letter from her thanking me, and got an award, mention in our work newsletter, etc.
But ever since working at this job, I have had severe panic and anxiety attacks, completely crippling in their intensity. Customers are allowed to talk to us however they please, and most of them are ignorant and downright cruel, just because they can be. I've had to get FMLA to protect my job, because without it they would fire me for having a panic attack on the floor. I'm on antidepressants for the first time in my life, and having to pop 3 or 4 different kinds of pills during the day, and then another to be able to sleep at night because all the medicine keeps me awake. Now, they're messing with my FMLA, they got a new management company for the claims, and they aren't doing what they're supposed to. So I watch my attendance monitor in the system go from okay, to "Recommended for Termination" every other day.
Now, because of the FMLA usage, they're taking away ALL of my paid time off, my vacation time, my floating holidays, EVERYTHING, to pay me for FMLA usage. And now i'm out of accrued time, so every time I call out for FMLA I'm not getting paid at all. And they've cancelled my requested days for my wedding. I've talked to my manager, my manager's boss, the HR department, the director of the call center, ANYONE who will listen to me for 5 minutes. They've all told me I'm SOL. My only options are to call out on those days and risk more writeups or potential termination, or to get someone to switch their shift with me for that day so I can have their day off, and work on one of mine for them. Only problem is, very few people have weekends off, and the ones that have Sundays off (the day of my wedding) won't give it up. I mean, why would they want to work on a weekend if they don't have to? I've already talked to everyone with a Sunday off, and nobody will do it.
So here I am, 3 and a half months before my wedding, unable to pay for it because I'm not getting paid much because my job makes me sick. My job is driving me to insanity because they keep telling me that i'm not allowed to attend my own wedding. I'm sicker than I ever have been in my entire life. The only option I can think of is to find a job, ANY job, to replace it. But I'm concerned about our money situation too, I'd almost definitely take at least a 2 dollar an hour paycut. I'm just at my wit's end with all of this. FI wants me to try and stay until after the wedding, but what if I can't? What if I end up fired and have to find a job only a month away from the wedding? How can I be sure the job will let me have it off with so little notice? It's all really frustrating...