Who can relate? Jobs don't care about your health

WARNING! This might be more like a venting post, but bare with me I think many people may agree with me on this. Who can relate with the sentiment, companies don't care about their employees health as much as they state they do? If you're raising your hand or even nodded to that I will say you are truly not the only one. Personally speaking as someone with a disability of my own. I can honestly say that my experience with companies that I have worked for in the past and even currently. That though they may say that they care about our health and offer benefits that indicates they do. The fact that human touch is missing in most cases isn't just a dream but a reality. 

Trusting companies and the cost:

Companies have made it harder to trust them when it comes to this specifically speaking. Yes, there are other reasons why we do not trust companies. But for people that have health issues that do lead to issues in the workplace. Making it harder for us with health issues and disabilities to feel like our jobs are secured is a different beast within itself. In most cases here in the U.S if you work for a major company more than likely to get an accomodation you have to go through some HR hoops. The company works with a third party company that you practically have to reach out to, to actually start the process of a claim for such accommodations.

But that isn't the worst part, the part that comes in is the documentation part. Having a doctor fill out a form for you. That within itself can be a hurdle; how you may ask? Well it starts with the doctors willingness to fill the form out. If they are willing to that's great but, in most cases may bring an additional charge just for filling that form. After that form is filled out and you have paid for the form being filled out. They then send it to that third party for review, and that is only if your primary doctor decides to fill it out. If they don't and give the excuse of "Oh, a specialist has to fill that out for you." that leaves you with not only having to pay to have seen your primary doctor. But now you have to schedule an appointment to see a specialist. The worst part is if you haven't seen a specialist for a while due to the PCP taking care of your refills without any issues. Leading to your need to see the specialist as a last resort in most cases. 

Now after making that appointment and spending more at a specialist, they may also charge for the form to be filled. And while all of this is happening your job is still technically not protected if you were to have some sort of episode of your disability. After the forms are reviewed then that third party company can now send that information over to your company. Stating if you are approved and whether it follows their guidelines in certain ways. Now this is specifically for a LOA or intermittent LOA. But if we are talking about just a federal accomodation, there is a different structure to it. To start the very beginning of the process is the same with forms and doctors and so on. The difference here now is that the company has more say on whether they are willing to work with you. Which if you ask me personally, at that point HR or whoever is in charge of the decision should be talking to the person directly. And truly make it more humanizing and actually tolerable... Amazing how they chose to do Zoom or Teams to feel more humanly connected, but with this it's just tossed out of the window. 

More steps and hope:

After HR receives it and management reviews it they can determine if they need more information. Which is mind boggling as if a form filled out by a doctor just wasn't enough. Which delays the process even more and may cost the employee more financial burden before a decision is made. The crazy part about all of this is that the company can still turn around and deny the accommodation. They do have to have actual valid reasons for doing so. Meaning it has to effect the employer in a massive way to be very simple about it. Still the process is lengthy and can still be denied and leave you unsecure at your company. How is this okay? 

Personally as someone who is epileptic it is hard for me to stick around a job or to find a place that can truly accommodate me. Now I'm not saying I want the world or even need the world. But being that when I have an episode it can take 2 to even 3 days to fully recover is something that shouldn't be dismissed. Yet, any time I've taken the steps for an accomodation I've never requested more than 4 days a month. Which if I'm being honest normally isn't even enough. I know there maybe people saying. Well you're a liability why don't you apply for disability. To you I say this, a disability check isn't enough to survive. Most part time jobs pay more a month than a disability check. On top of that to fight and get disability isn't easy either. Most times a judge will tell you that based off of your past work experience that you can find a job to actually do. 

Again making it difficult to find the right solution for a person like myself and others with disabilities that truly limit what they are capable of doing. See if jobs cared about employees health in general, and care about their security in their company. Wouldn't you think there would be an easier process than the process I stated above? Not everyone have the financial stability or the finances at all to be able to see doctors all the time, pay for forms to be filled out, see specialists. Especially when they are missing work due to the disability that one is fighting to get an accomodation for. There's a fine line here. I can understand the company's side of things, as someone that dreams to have his own business one day I can't be oblivious to this. However, there are better ways to do it. 

The legal part:

Legally speaking an accommodation can be done by good faith. Between management, HR, whoever the head honcho is and yourself. Yet, they play this in a political way. They care more about their protection than their employees. And truthfully speaking there are stats that back up that the way they do things now really isn't the best way. Now I know some people are going to sit there and give a thousand reasons to back up the companies. As well as state that if you're a good employee they will work with you. The reasons maybe valid, but keep in mind there's two sides to a coin. And the good employee conversation means nothing to a big company with a high turnover rate. They are willing to fill that spot and not worry about the person that needed true help even if you're on the top of whatever department or position you are in. 

I'm saying these things based on experience and also research. And honestly I will more than likely do a video on this topic that might go deeper into this particular subject. So with that said I'm going to leave here. Now tell me in the comments below do you agree with the sentiment from the very beginning of this post? If so or if not, tell me in the comments why. And remember we can agree to disagree respectfully.