Unfair write up leading to termination

[JAYE79]

I have been working at a private business since April 2007. Upon being hired I was told "If you are going to be late, let someone know. If you oversleep call as soon you wake up and let someone know you will be late or you won't be in." So in the past 3 years I have been late on numerous occasions and have called in to let them know I would be late. There was never a problem. The whole year of 2008 was a bad one for me and seems like I was almost never at work due to car problems and deaths in the family. I never got wrote up or given a verbal warning. In January of this year I started graduate school (online) and am taking 2 classes that last 8 weeks. My supervisors are aware of this. I even told them that until I got settled I may be late but my education is important to me. They told me "everything will be fine." I believed them. Until....I got wrote up for "not calling in until 6:30." and then for "tardy, didn't call in." and today "didn't call in until 6:30 a.m." My supervisor was aware of the circumstances in every situation... one being that I could not get out of my parking lot due to weather and I did call in but noone told her....one was due to oversleeping because of school work and my staying up late to complete it(my fault)...and the last one, today, was because I overslept due to having a seizure at some point on Monday night while sleeping (I have seizures that cause me to have extreme migraine headaches, make me sick, and really incapable of doing anything except being still and sometimes that doesn't help. They also leave me with no energy for 2 to 3 days.) I called in at 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday and let them know I would not be at work for this reason. On Wednesday I slept through the alarm clocks (all 4 of them) as a result of having the seizure on Monday night/Tuesday morning. I called in as soon as I woke up and let the supervisor know that I still was not feeling well due to having the seizure and that I overslept because of this, as she well knew because I have called in several times in the past 3 years for the same reason and always later in the morning. She told me that she hopes I get to feeling better and that she would see me on Thursday. So today (Thursday) she calls me in her office and tells me she is writing me up for not calling in until 8:30 a.m. (and that isn't the correct time, I called really close to 9 a.m.) She also made me aware that the next write up could result in suspension and/or dismissal. So I feel like there is something wrong with this situation and that something isn't right given the fact that other employee's have been late, not called and came in, and overslept and called in but were never written up. I've done in myself and was never written up. I asked her about this and her only response was "It's been more frequent here lately and I can't discuss other employee's with you." She didn't have to discuss other employee's because the place where I work is so small and has a family environment that nothing is done or said there that everyone won't know about within 15 to 30 mins after it happens. It is also rumored that the business may be losing money. There is another employee that works there that called in due to being in jail for a DUI and nothing has been done to her (she had one of these last year as well). But she has 2 small children and is neighbors with the owner of the company. Go figure?
So my question is this....is there anything I can do about the situation I am in? Am I being discriminated against? And if so, how? Because I sure do feel like I am being discriminated against and treated unfairly.

Thanks,
Jaye

 

[cbg]

Just because they told you to call someone if you were going to be late, and you always did, doesn't mean that they are required to allow excessive tardies. And they are correct; they do not need to discuss other employee's situation with you.

The law does not require that all employees be treated identically, only that any difference in treatment not be based in a characteristic protected by law. Nothing you have posted suggests illegal discrimination.

Buy an alarm clock and look for another job.

 

[theretoo]

I find CBG to be extremely discriminitory towards employees with disabilities.

To the OP, file a complaint with the EEOC for disability discrimination. Obviously you have medical issues that most likely fall under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Oversleeping/sleep disorders are covered under the ADA and apparently your seizure condition may also create these concerns as well. Did your employer know about your seizure condition? If so, they are bound to try to accomodate your disability. CBG has zero tolerance for disabled workers, so take her comments with a grain of salt and contact the EEOC.

 

[cbg]

I figured you'd show up sooner or later.

Theretoo has the incorrect idea that anyone with any kind of medical condition whatsoever is covered under the ADA, and that the employer is required to allow the employee to do anything he wants as an accomodation. Theretoo has evidently not read the ADA or, at the very least, has only read the parts that say something he likes to hear.

Theretoo is also making assumptions about me that are not at all true. He assumes that unless I support his theories, that means I am prejudiced against disabled workers. If he really knew anything about me, he would know that I have made plenty of ADA accomodations for employees working for me, including some that exceeded what I needed to do under the law, and in at least one to the point where the accomodation ended up causing hardship to the employer. But he won't count that, because I don't tell employees with excessive absences that they're allowed to be late whenever they want to and that the employer can't do anything about it. Which is not in the least true.