Hello, everyone. It's been a while. A lot of personal stuff has been happening in my life, and I've been a little bit stressed out. I'm currently on FMLA again, because my boss is a super crazy psychopath (I am almost certain this is the case), and I haven't been coping with it very well. Then, there has been the holiday season to keep me and my family busy. As you can imagine, I have used all of the information on this website (before this website has existed), and it has made my life a whole lot more complicated.
I guess that brings us to today's topic for equal access issues, which is namely mental health and burnout. For some reason, whenever a situation similar to mine happens, people always assume that we're trying to do this to get a major settlement out of our company or institution. Very rarely is this the case, however, as the saying goes, "money talks". Whether money says the right thing, it is often the loudest voice in the room.
As a result, we can only hide our situation for so long before someone or multiple people from our workplace/institution finds out about it, and our stress levels begin to skyrocket. This is compounded on the fact that we have to resort on systems like the federal government to have our voices heard. The government moves slow, and it is easy for the company to retaliate against us in the meantime. In the beginning, it's easy to keep the reporting up with the federal agencies, because we know that our workplace is willfully breaking the law, and this will strengthen our case whenever a determination has been made. However, until a determination has been made, the stress continues to build and accumulate.
It quickly becomes siege warfare. Who will be the first to crack? Out of the principle of the matter, we want to hold on for as long as humanly possible, so that justice can be finally served. However, our body has a breaking point, the more the stress continues to break up. We end up making more silly mistakes, possibly missing deadlines, or arguing against our oppressors less and less. It's what they call in the psychology world "learned helplessness". We keep taking on more and more stress well beyond what we thought we were capable of taking, which causes us to break down internally and self-destruct.
The only thing that keeps us going at the end of the day is we want to fight back against the "I told you so" crowd. We are one voice being drowned out in a sea of many. The crimes that our company/institution commit against us are far outweighed by the few good deeds that they do here and there, and it quickly becomes a utilitarian argument. By making one person suffer, we can benefit the greater majority of mankind, which is the better outcome. Still, we want to fight back with every ounce of our being, only to find out that we're already running out of steam.
I think what I'm trying to say at this point is that if you do want to eventually hold your institution or company accountable for your actions, there are four things you should do:
Develop your case/evidence well before you're already burnt out.
Have a considerable amount of patience.
No matter how tempting it may seem, do not tell anyone at your school what is happening, for as long as humanly possible.
Try to keep things as close to normal in your workplace as possible.
Failure to do any of these 4 things will make your life become a whole lot more difficult. A lot of these things also build on each other. If you're already burnt out for example, you won't have patience. You'll also want to tell as many people as possible about your situation, and you'll be ready to turn your workplace upside down. This will take you down a vicious cycle that is not good for your mental health or for your case. As I'm now looking at over half a year of having my case reviewed by the federal government, I am quickly finding out more and more that I've run out of steam weeks ago, and somehow, I have to keep going, just to see what happens in the end.
Don't be like me. If you feel like things are quickly turning ugly and hostile, report your case as early as possible for the sake of your mental health. Either that, or just don't do it at all. You won't gain anything by delaying the process.
I also wanted to take some time to wish my readers a happy holiday season. 2021 has been an absolute disaster for me in a lot of ways, but I'm still hanging in there. I hope all of you can do the same as well. Better yet, I hope your 2021 has been much better than mine was, and that your year has been good for the most part. I have a feeling that as 2022 rolls around, my case will finally have to be coming close to an end, and a determination will have to be made. I would be extremely surprised if I manage to reach the end of 2022, and there is still no resolution to my case.
Stay strong and hope for the best. Continue to fight the good fight, and something good will come out of it in the end.
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