Location: Pennsylvania
a couple months ago I started working at a fast food place I won’t name. I quickly became their go-to for covering shifts, coming in early, staying late, and all sorts of other things. I worked my ass off to the point of the franchise owner pointing me out as a valuable asset. problem is, a little bit before starting this job I have had my antidepressant dose raised improperly and I got serotonin syndrome, which is a potentially lethal condition if not caught which comes with a whole host of nasty symptoms! for me one of said symptoms was loss of consciousness; which happened pretty often a little bit into starting this job. a couple weeks ago me and my doctor finally figured out what was wrong and I’m getting better and coming down from it, but I still have some episodes here and there because it hasn’t been long enough for me to fully level out. last night I had to leave work by ambulance again, and this morning I got a call that I wasn’t meeting performance standards and they were letting me go. now, I am in my 90 day probation period still, so they may fully be in the right with this, but isn’t it illegal to fire someone for a temporary health issue that they’re doing their best to manage? am I overreacting?
Comments
what they are doing is morally wrong but perfectly legal. As an hourly worker in the US, you have virtually no rights. what rights you do have are likely out of your reach because they would require lawyers and lawsuits to enforce.
FMLA could protect your job, but as you’ve said you’ve worked less than 90 days you definitely do not qualify for it. I’m sorry they did that to you. File for unemployment.
Missing work is still missing work outside state level protected sick leave or if you’ve been there a year plus and it’s a significant illness that requires doctor monitoring fmla.
State wide there’s no sick leave in pa. Philly and possibly other cities require it. Many states don’t.
Ask the unemployment office, they know the laws.