[Jen]

I promise I won't be upset if you have a different opinion, I feel like I need some perspective on this.

I hurt my shoulder at work in mid December. Some of you may know that I am a RN, I hurt my shoulder lifting a patient. I was off work for about 3 weeks and then came back to work full-time hours but not doing anything. By that I mean it was cheaper for my employer for me to be actually at work doing nothing than sitting at home collecting insurance. So as I am not supposed to do any lifting, overhead work or repatative work I am relegated to doing a bit of this and a bit of that, really it doesn't matter one way or the other if I am there or not because I don't have a patient assignment. Okay so now I am also pregnant about 9 weeks now and I started having terrible nausea and dizziness a few weeks ago so I had a few days where I phoned in sick. Hey really it made no difference to the ward if I was there or not, they didn't have to replace me, actually I get paid less when I call in sick. One night I was there for 2 hours, felt so terrible I really couldn't do anything and went home but was back the next night and sick the night after that. Now I am in trouble because of my sick time and have to have my doctor to fill out a form. The thing is they call in an outside company for when people have more than 5 sick days in a row which I have not so I don't know why I am in trouble. I feel like since I had this injury I've done nothing but fill in forms and go to meetings and I am very frustrated. I don't like being at work for 12 hours when I know I have precious little to do. If I am being completely honest if I had a patient assignment there are some days that I probably would have pushed myself to go in even if I wasn't feeling 100% because I knew there were people relying on me but as it is right now with me just being somewhat useless it didn't make a lot of sense to push myself. It isn't like I'm in a huge amount of trouble or anything, certainly I'm not going to get fired or anything. My doctor will fill in the form and that will be that and this morning sickness will clear up soon. Hopefully soon I will be buddied with someone that I can work with and I won't feel so totally useless at work. I'm just feeling really down in the dumps because it all seemed to hit today. I worked last night and had a terrible migraine around 11 and didn't get any sleep so I'm going on 2 hours of sleep, my head is still killing me (sorry if this sounds a bit disjointed, I'm not altogether making my brain work properly) and I get hit with a couple of e-mails from work that I know better than to respond to in my current frame of mind.

Anyway please give me some feedback, I don't care what way, I just need some perspective!

[bigtxmomma]

Good lord, you poor thing!! That's just awful. Don't feel useless. You're doing the best you can. You're pregnant, for crying out loud, you just had a shoulder injury (and those are awful to begin with and the pain can last forever). I have no idea why they're hassling you at all when you're still recovering.

Honestly, I would think that with the nursing crisis (I don't know how it is in Canada, but in the U.S. there is a huge shortage of nurses), they would be treating you like a queen.

[JayEll]

Gosh that's a tough row to hoe. But look at it this way--by them keeping you on with reduced duties, you get to keep your job. They are probably hoping that your shoulder will heal enough that they can give you more to do later on--but you shouldn't be using it much at all until it heals. I know because I have a chronic shoulder problem.

Go in and do your job to the best of your ability, when you are not sick. Your doctor will do what needs to be done. I hear you that you want a patient assignment, but that seems not to be in the cards right now, and that would probably be true regardless of where you were working, with your shoulder injury. Don't think of yourself as doing nothing while you're there--THEY want you there and will pay you! This is a good thing.

Jay

[blueyedlvrgirl]

You are doing them the favor of coming in to save them money, even though you shouldn't be there at all! I hurt my shoulder at work a while back, it needed surgery, that I fought for for a year. Hang in there and know you are doing the best you can. Shoot, you could stop being so nice and go back on workers comp insurance! Hang in there!

[kappy]

Jen, you really need somebody who is familiar with the Canadian labor laws. Because it can be really, really complicated. Do yourself a favor for now, and just document. Hours you worked feeling ill, hours worked but left early because you felt ill, hours worked with no problem. Make sure you document the "ill" -- morning sickness or overuse of your shoulder. If you use a calendar to keep track use different color ink for shoulder vs morning sickness.

I have to tell you, I'm in California. And we are a bit odd here. Long story short, for every innocent employee like yourself who is caught between two medical issues we have 10-20 who are out to take advantage of the laws. Including the gal who was claiming Family Medical Leave time for "migranes" (she had gotten a doctor to sign off on the condition, something like up to 20 hours a month without further medical documentation) so she could go to pole dancing competitions. Which the moron would post -- dates, times, locations -- on her myspace page. She was one of the more blantant and easier to fire ones, but it's the folks like her that make it so much harder on the folks like you.

This is just a minor blip on your employment record, don't get too worked up about it!

[suzie76]

Hi Jen,

No more advice, but just wanted to send hugs! Congrats on your pregnancy, and I hope you feel better soon.

Sherry

[soon to be slim]

Hi jen..i'm new here but you are so right to be mad, those people are a bunch of rats if i were you i would look like this feel better. Linda

[kaplods]

Keeping you on with reduced duties, is no "favor" to you. Companies do it so they can later claim (if it becomes a workman's comp injury) that they have proof you can work - because you did. In a courtroom "we wouldn't have paid her, if there wasn't work for her to do, or if she couldn't do it." They then may look for another reason to fire you, and attendance might be it.

My husband faced this when he tore his rotator cuff last February falling on the ice outside our apartment coming home from work. After his surgery, they had him on "light duty," basically doing nothing. Then one day, they decided they had no more work for him to do. My husband had good disability insurance, so we took it at face value until a close friend of my husbands who is also a close friend of someone working in human resources told us the "true story." Apparently there was initially some concern that my husband could have filed for workman's compensation (either they thought he had fallen in the employee parking lot, or they were just being paranoid and checking with the lawyers to make sure it couldn't be a wc case). Once they determined it wasn't a wc case, then his working actually became a liability, because if he was injured or reinjured at work, and it would become a wc case.

Shortly after my husband's injury, a man he worked with was injured on the job. They "generously" offered him a desk job at the same pay rate. He accepted, and his first performance review was excellent, but then they started finding fault and fired him. He is hiring a lawyer, but his working for the company months after the injury and his first performance review are being used as proof against the workman's comp injury case. His disability insurance is not paying either, because he was fired.

Just be careful, and make sure you know what your rights are, and what might be happening behind the scenes.

[timkerbelle]

I have to echo the ones who say 1. document and 2. find someone who knows about the law.
I think its terrible that they treat you like that when you are in fact suffering from a WORK RELATED INJURY! You weren't off skydiving and banged your shoulder on a cliff after all.
I know many women are so nice - in particular ones that chose a caring profession like yourself, and they have a hard time putting their foot down. Please make sure that your rights arent being compromised by you going in to work. You are doing them a favour, not the other way around.

On a different note, congratulations on your pregnancy

[Jen]

Thanks everyone so much for their supportive comments. I feel much better now than I did last night and this really boosted my spirits even more. I know I can always count on 3FC to raise me up when I am down!

What is upsetting me in a way is that generally the sh!t hits the fan if an employee has been off for 5 consecutive days which I have not. I was off 4 days, came back for 1 shift, came in for the shift after that and went home after 2 hours because I was so nauseated I couldn't do anything. I worked the next night and was off the night after that. All of these were morning sickness related. So I had 5 shifts plus 9 hours off sick but they were not consecutive so I don't know why I am now required to jump through hoops to fix this. I think someone in payroll has made a mistake and now it'll take forever to fix.

Yes I definately agree that there are a ton of people who take advantage of the situation if they can. Most of the time I'd say, just don't pay me then, I am sick, I am staying home, pay me or don't pay me, I just don't care.

The funny bit with my shoulder is that I have been dying to get back to work for ages, there are tons of stuff I could do if I had a health care aide to help me, it isn't that difficult to arrange but they are just so dragging their feet. Believe you me I have kept every piece of paper, every e-mail etc as a way of documenting what is going on.

Thanks again everyone, you guys rock!

[JayEll]

kaplods, I hadn't thought of it that way--but you're right. They could be planning to make a case for letting the OP go. Jen, be very careful!

Jay

[nylisa]

In addition to the documentation advice, I have a suggestion for the boredom of not being able to do much because of the physical limitations. Can you catch up on professional reading or something like that? That would be useful to the dept & help fight boredom.

[Sandi]

Jen!

I didn't know you were pregnant! Congratulations!!!!

[Robin41]

So your work hours have been a bit hit and miss lately (for good reason) and the company wants to make sure that there's a medical reason for it besides the original injury. That doesn't really sound like outrageous behavior on their part, to me. They are just doing the same thing that everybody here is telling you to do, documenting everything.

Truthfully, if you weren't tired, injured, sick and probably tremendously hormonal because of the pregnancy, would this seem like such a big deal? I'm not saying you shouldn't feel the way you do, but I know that there are times when I need to stand back and look at some things objectively and not through my own weary, sleep-deprived and hormonal eyes.

Get the form signed by your doctor and relax. There is NO way they are going to fire somebody who was injured at work and who is now pregnant. It would be cheaper to pay you for life to never come in than deal with the lawsuit that would result from that, and they already know it.

[Jen]

Sandi - thanks very much for your congratulations! I haven't really been making a big to do about it, we are being really low key about it because it is still early days yet, I'll feel better once I am past the first 3 months.

Robin41 - I understand what you are saying and this is part of why I posted to get some fresh perspective. Also I had a meeting today (part of the shoulder thing) and asked about this issue. Apparently they do this when anyone has several days off in a short period of time regardless of whether it is 5 work days off in a row or not which is what I had thought. Absenteeism is a big problem with the company I work for as everyone is terribly burned out and stressed so they do this to try and combat the problem. In the 9 years I've been working for this place I've never had this many days off in such a short time frame. I kind of wish though that they could call me or whatever first before I have to drag another form to my doctor. Morning sickness is supposed to be considered a chronic illness and I shouldn't have to go through all of this but I have mailed off the form to my doctor and that should be the end of it.

Thanks again everyone for all the fabulous comments and suggestions!