Well, things have taken an unusual turn. My husband is a lawyer. He said, why take this lying down? He thinks that either they were going to try to pressure me to work in the office or resign and if I refuse to resign they fire me. They wanted me to go there on Monday with my tail between my legs and just take it.

There were some other suspicious things going on. If month end falls on a weekend, we get paid on Friday, ALWAYS first thing in the morning. The direct deposit is always in my account when I get up and check. Maybe they were thinking of paying my salary along with whatever they paid me for resigning/being fired on Monday as a lump sum. Then, the editor sent me some corrections and said they needed to be turned in the same day, urgently. Usually we have a few days and this wasn’t something time-sensitive like a client question. So, I guess they wanted me to wrap up my work before firing me.

So, my husband convinced me to send an email to boss’ boss that I didn’t feel well and I was going to the doctor. My husband saw that I was a wreck in the morning even before I got the email. My husband gets off work early on Fridays, so I took the bus to his work and he took me to a clinic where the ER is always staffed with psychiatrists. He’s gone there before for work stress issues; he went through a similar situation with a boss that wanted him gone and made his life hell.

The doctor said it was a good thing I came in. He diagnosed me with adjustment order with anxiety and said that he sees a lot of people who are going through the sort of stress I have been through and wait too long to be seen; to the point they are spiraling into depression.

He gave me 10 days off work and sleep meds since I haven’t been sleeping well. I’m up a lot at night dreading the next work day. I have to make an appointment to go back this week to see if I get more time. Interestingly, right around when they would have been notified of my leave, my pay was deposited.

I am quite sure work is shocked that I did that. But, in this country I have the right to leave for mental and physical health reasons and the pdoc agreed that I was not in good shape and needed it. Interestingly, one of the problems this disorder causes, is lack of concentration and reduced work performance. Basically our boss pushed me to the limit stress-wise and is now criticizing me for lower performance caused by this.

Well, after talking more with my husband over the weekend, we decided on a scorched earth strategy, since they are going to fire me anyways. I have nothing to lose. He’s a good lawyer and he knows all the tools I have at my disposal to make life complicated for my employer.

First, I can probably get some more paid leave when I go back to the pdoc this week. It’s common to get it extended. Then, I will go to the workmen’s comp insurance provider to be evaluated for an “occupational illness” in this case work-induced stress and anxiety. My employer will be investigated and while this goes on I will continue on leave and they can’t fire me. They will interview my boss. That will not go well. She can’t handle the pressure of someone questioning her actions. Her behavior in the interview will likely help my case. And, it is not going to look good to her higher-ups. I hope at least this wakes others in the company up to how she is the problem in the department. The decision may come out in my favor, in which case I will get more paid leave. If it doesn’t, at least I get paid for this time and the time of the investigation and my boss suffers.

My husband also said that by doing that they may fear I am preparing to sue. There’s the possibility they could offer to let me go with some sort of settlement (more than usual severance) if I sign something saying I won’t sue. I really think they won’t know what hit them when they are notified about the investigation.

My boss is such an HR nightmare. She has contacted people on doctor mandated sick leave to try to get them to come back to work before it is up (and this is the woman that is constantly on sick leave herself!). That is a labor law violation. She’s done other shady things too. While I am out, work is not supposed to contact me about any outstanding work of mine, to ask why I am on leave (strictly prohibited to ask that) or to ask me to come back early. I would not be surprised if she tried to contact me about something. She has shown to just be that stupid. I blocked calls from all but a few select people, so she can’t call me. She’ll have to contact me in writing, which would help my workmen’s comp case.

This weekend I felt weird, lightheaded, sort of tired, even before I took the sleep prescription. I guess my body is sort of relieved that I didn’t have the shadow of having to go to work today hanging over me all weekend.

Well this ended up being a novel, but there was a lot to tell.