Loosing Job

I'm still off today from the Effexor. I talked to my boss, and he said I'd loose my job over this. I told him I had notes from the hospital and my psychiatrist and my general practitioner. He said Tennessee is a 'right to work" state and they can fire me for no reason at all. I've only been there about 6-7 weeks. Any advice? I know there's nothing I can do about this job, but what about the next? Why can I not keep a job? Before my depression, I had the same job 14 years. I've gone through probably 15 in the past 3 years. I'm so embarrassed. J

This sounds like discrimination.

Does anyone reading this have any info on how the Americans With Disabilities Act treats mental illness?

Wherever you go, there you are

Mental Illness is considered a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act. This is a federal law, so it should usurp anything that the employer says about state law.

JWriter, you may want to look this up on the web, and inform your boss that he is violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by not providing you reasonable accomodations for your disability.

I'll try to find more info later, but wanted to pass along what I already know.

Good luck.
mj

The way I understand it is that even if they can fire you for no reason, that is different from discriminating against you because of a disability. If it keeps you from being able to do the job that may be another story, as they do have to be able to get employees who can do the job. You may want to talk to someone about it. I don't have any legal background.

<font color=purple>"The real problem of mental life is not why some people become insane, but rather why most avoid insanity." -Erich Fromm</font color=purple>

i'm not sure what kind of job it is you're doing right now, or what your skills are, but have you considered trying some freelance work? i'm in publishing and we use all freelance copyeditors, proofreaders, and indexers. i've had more than one freelancer beg off a job she had started for me because she realized it was a little too much for her (these people happened to be women). we still gave them work when they felt able to handle it. the only thing we ever ask is that they don't accept work they're not reasonable sure they can complete on our schedule. obviously everyone overestimates their ability/availability from time to time, but as long as it wasn't a consistent problem (ie--returning work because they weren't able to complete it) we'd never stop offering them work if they did a good job.

my examples are related to publishing because that's what i do, but there are lots of other freelance-type jobs out there.

i guess what i'm saying is maybe you need something a little more flexible right now.

Penna,
Your post comes with a great deal of synchronicity and it's kind of weird, but good. All of a sudden a whole new direction is opening up for me, with incidences, or maybe coincidences in a lot of different forms happening.
I dream of someday being a writer. I've only admitted that to others recently. Any ideas you have on how I could go about getting freelance work in any type of publishing field, I'd love to hear. Copyediting, proofreading, indexing, anything at all. I'd make coffee or pick up dry cleaning just to be around the publishing environment, but that would be kind of hard to do freelance from home. The express mail bill would kill me!
In spite of my low self-esteem right now, I believe I have a lot of the skills I would need to do some entry level work. I have a bachelor's degree but not in journalism.
Anyway, I'd appreciate any feedback and ideas you'd share with me. Of course, you as well as everyone here, are welcome to email me. My email is JWriter2004@aol.com.