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This is an e-mail I just sent to a lawyer my fellow instructor/friend knows well and recommended highly. I'm including it because it's a really LONG story (even by my standards!) and I figured this was the best way to tell the whole thing.
I've just never felt so awful in my life. I've tried everything to avoid legal measures, being direct and straightforward, following the books, doing what is asked of me, making emotional appeals (like my last e-mail to my manager, he came up and was buddy buddy to me in a meeting and I thought if he actually understood how I felt, after months of professional contact, he might have a change of heart... no luck), etc. etc. Is it wrong of me to look at legal avenues?
"Hi S-
First off, I'd like to thank you for your time. S spoke very highly of you when I told her about my work problems.
I thought I'd tell you a little bit about my situation. I worked last year for ******** in the 7-14 Alpine and adaptive programs as an instructor. I was offered my job back in the Spring and submitted my re-hire signature. After this I unfortunately got sick while I was in Australia with a disease called transverse myelitis that left me with spinal cord damage and incomplete paralysis from my hips down. However I am very mobile (except for stairs), I can open doors, carry fairly heavy and or fragile things, get down stairs, etc. I'm in good shape and capable of FAR more than just sitting in a chair. Actually the one thing that is medically inappropriate for me is just sitting for extended periods of time. As soon as I was out of the hospital in June and returned home to Colorado, I e-mailed K the adaptive supervisor and C one of the 7-14 Alpine supervisors telling them about my situation and letting them know I would need some sort of modified employment. C never responded to any of my e-mails but K did saying not to worry and she would work something out where I would work in the adaptive office with her while she tried to get me on the snow as much as possible be it in my chair helping coordinate instructors or in a mono-ski. At the end of the summer I e-mailed K for confirmation about the work possibility. She said that she actually was unable to make this decision and she was now involving the manager of all of children's ski school, G.
This is where the problems began.
He told me "It sounds like you want to stay a part of the team and by the looks of your note below it appears that you won’t quite be ready to ski in time for the season. We are happy to get you out on the monoski and I am sure K is more than willing to work with you there, but if you are looking for full time work I am wondering if we should look to see what other job options within the school or the resort may interest you." He then said if I found a job on the website he would make some calls and make something happen. I applied for a full time position as a ski shop manager because I have years of experience managing a restaurant and years of experience working in a ski retail shop. When I told G that I applied he said that was great and if anyone called he's give a good reference. This was very different than what he originally told me and at my first phone interview in October they told me they did not believe I had that experience. G never contacted them and they never contacted me back. I immediately contacted G and said the other jobs would not work and I wanted to remain in ski school. I offered him a comprehensive plan that would allow me to do part-time office work as needed like other instructors had done in the past, while I trained for my level 1 instructor's certification on the mono-ski so I could return to teaching. He said it was a good plan but I needed to speak to Human Resources about the newly implemented "Fit to Ride" program that tested physical fitness for instructors. Despite my paralysis I was able to perform all but 2 tasks. When I spoke with HR I told them numerous alternative exercises that I could do to replace the two leg related ones (box jumps and side stepping) that would test the fitness skills I would need in the mono ski and remain true to the program. T, the HR representative, told me not to worry and they were working on making a Fit to Ride program for next season that accommodated employees with disabilities. I called G that day and said that HR gave me the okay. He responded saying that I had to wait as he, K and T were having a meeting on Friday (two days later) to discuss my situation.
After this meeting my plan for employment that G and T had okayed was no longer valid and I was told to search the website for a new position. This was late October and very few positions were available, much fewer than when I contacted my supervisors in the summer and much fewer than when G first contacted me. There were a few ski school counselor positions available but I did not think these would be suitable as they require going on snow with children and G seemed opposed to me doing anything but sitting at a desk somewhere. G kept trying to say I could sell tickets, a position very different than working in ski school.
T from HR told me that HR wanted to help me find a position that was a good fit, and I thought this meant finding something a little more in line with my fairly extensive work experience and my education. I have a bachelor's degree in hydrology, college experience for special education and I began law school this year and am currently on hiatus from that. Anyway, after waiting for responses to phone calls and e-mails from T for over a week, rolling into the beginning of November, she then suddenly said we could not do anything until I completed corporate accommodation request paperwork that outlined my disability and also included medical paperwork from my doctor. This is paperwork that should have been presented to me when I first notified management of my situation. Instead they waited almost 4 months to do this and then told me to "Hurry as the season is starting soon". I had my portion of the paperwork faxed in the following day and my doctor's office finished the paperwork by the end of the week. I saw T that weekend and she said she hadn't received the fax. I called every day the following week leaving messages and she finally responded to an e-mail a few days later saying she hadn't received it. I called my doctor's office and they said they faxed it multiple times to the correct number that I verified and it went through. They tried again and after a few days T said they never got it (only after I called numerous times to check). I finally drove to Denver, picked up the paperwork and submitted it myself. I then waited for HR to "process it". I was finally cleared... by the beginning of December.
I waited all this time for HR and G to meet to help me with options. I was hoping to be an assistant supervisor to K, a MUCH needed position. She is the only adaptive supervisor for adult and children's adaptive and she is in charge of all on mountain accessibility issues. The days she is out of her office there is no one there and often times clients get lost because she never receives their messages. I would be getting paid $9 an hour At this time I was told my only options were to pick jobs from the website.... and not a single ski school job remained. When I asked about the ski school office work, telling them I understood that it was not guaranteed I was told that the only people who were allowed to do it were people on worker's comp. I said this was not true that another instructor, JJ, broke her foot in Australia and was not on worker's comp, was allowed to this. They seemed stumped about this at first (during the phone call there was a long "ummmmmm") but didn't budge. The only positons I could even do were part time phone reservations for Beano's and a 6 hour a week greeting position. Greeters are the (generally older women) people who stand in the ski school lobby and help people fill out paperwork. I took the greeting position because I desperately needed a ski pass to train on the mono ski and since it was already December I was behind.
I went home crying everyday. I literally sat in the lobby, talking to a handful of families. People either ignored me or worse, spoke to me like I was mentally handicapped. I've never been so humiliated in my life. After my first two days of greeting G said he had a data entry position for me. It involved going up to the top of the kid's gondola and getting all the class lists from instructors and typing them in. I also was assisting the lunchmeister, the woman who schedules lunches and gives out vouchers. I did this from mid December until Thursday the 5th. It became more of a full time position (WITHOUT the full time benefits might I add) and I excelled. I was told I was needed more here than greeting and thought I was forever over with that hellish position.
I had worked extremely hard at this position and one supervior even thanked me for my hardwork and ownership of the job. However, G came upstairs to meet with me that day, saying his labor budget came through and my hours needed severely cut. I walked him through my day and explained the work I did. The manager of the Ranch has been thrilled with my work and spoken to G about it, as has ES the lunchmeister. Multiple ski and snowboard school supervisors have spoken with him about the quality of my work. However all of this was mute, he said I had to go back to the two days a week greeting. I'd be allowed to do an hour to two hours at most a day of data entry despite the necessity of being there for at least 5 hours to make sure all the lists are posted as soon as possible and in the most correct way possible. He said that he had people on worker's comp who needed work and they'd be getting my position.
I finally e-mailed him today saying this;
"Hey G-
Sorry I didn't bring this up when we met the other day, but I was working on how to best say it. I really don't think greeting is a good option right now. I know you've presented it as an option because you want to help me get hours and work and I want you to know I really do appreciate it. However the week I did it, I've never felt so humiliated in my life. People came in and either 1) avoided me by going to the other people in the lobby or 2) spoke to me like I was retarded. I honestly felt like a Wal-Mart greeter, put in a position because of my inability to do anything else. I want you to know I really am not just trying to blame this on my disability, I never even think about any issues I have as because of my being in a wheelchair, but after two days I couldn't deny it anymore. On top of that, it's such an unchallenging position, it furthers the idea that I'm just there to sit and not contribute anything. When I was there only a handful of families came in but the other older women said it was a rush they couldn't handle.
It seems silly, but I can't even explain how much I've enjoyed the data entry and helping with the lunchmeisters because I feel like I'm actually doing something and am still part of ski school. It's been incredibly difficult seeing my all my kids with different instructors and watching everyone out teaching and skiing, but the position did make me feel better than anything else has since I've been paralyzed. Is there anyway the worker comp people could help fill the greeting positions? This would allow them to be doing something that needs done during their time off and it's also a good fit for someone who is injured. I also was hoping that when J leaves and the lunchmeisters need help, I'd be solid enough on the mono-ski that that would be an option because right now the only thing I can't do is make it to split and I could then. Even after rehab I'm hoping to be able to ski with the use of outriggers. I know teaching isn't an option with either of those, but making it to split definitely is. I completely understand the issues with budgeting and was planning on scaling back hours up at the Ranch (instead of 9-2 or 3 definitely from like 10-1 ish) while things slow down and then when they get busy again returning to the slightly longer hours when the cost can be justified like you had mentioned.
Thanks so much for your understanding, I really appreciate it."
I was hoping that he thought that I was okay with greeting and he was giving everyone a solution instead of just cutting me for worker's comp people. I was wrong.
"
Kaile –
Unfortunately, the fact that I now only have a greeter position available to you was solidified today as I now have 2 employees on modified duty with restrictions that apply to the data entry position. The list typing duties that usually fall on the Product Sales to do list and that you helped us out with will now be covered indefinitely by employees that I have to put to work because of injury.
I am sorry if the greeter position isn’t working out. We can reach out to T to see if anything else has become available that may be more suitable. I want to help however I can to find something that fits, but unfortunately the position that I originally hired you into (greeter) is all that I have. Let me know how you would like to proceed. I will keep my eye on the jobs posting."
I am back to where I was before, being treated than every other employee. I'm being cut, after doing an exceptional job at my position for "money reasons". Meanwhile ski school hired numerous people as instructors this year who have violated major safety codes with their kids. The supervisors and G just say, "Oh maybe they'll eventually get it." They get paid more than me. One instructor losing their job for doing inappropriate tasks with their students as is mandated, would cover me. One greeter could do the greeting work, maximum, most of the season but instead they employee multiple greeters at a time. The 12 weekend a year BEAVO program for local kids skiing has up to 5 supervisors at a time. Beaver Creek ski school is not running a tight budget and firing a 9$ an hour employee from their position won't make a difference for money. It's clear they are getting rid of me to put able bodied instructors on workers comp something to do. All this after not giving me appropriate and adequate employment after treating me unfairly and poorly in an effort to get me to quit on my own, is just adding insult to injury. Since the greeting position doesn't work for me, I'm told what I was told months ago to "look for another job". I was in absolutely agony after one day of greeting because of the monotonous position of just sitting there. I can't just get fired from that too, can I? Or could I even file for worker's comp based on how physically and emotionally excruciating the position was. Normally I'd never be that petty but in this case would it be a valid option?
I'm not a person who makes excuses or who will blame things that have happened in my life on my disability. But I know what is going on here is wrong. I should have been treated differently from the start. I should have been given the appropriate paperwork, not the run around and I should have not been confined to jobs that involved my sitting there. I presented a number of different employment plans that would involve me maximizing my capabilities at a very minimal if at all expense for accommodation, all pursuant to the ADA, to management and was completely written off for no apparent reason. I was constantly told that they could not "create a job for me", but they were not willing to give me existing positions as I was pushed away when they were available and by the time I finished the run around from HR, to G and back, they were all "gone". Not a single attempt was made to allow me, an existing, returning ski school employee, to get into one of these positions. I was treated as an outside person who had never even applied. This is all after I saw numerous other employees the past few years be treated entirely differently than me.
This ordeal has consumed my life the past 6 months. I've never felt so horrible. I've tried to reach out and rationalize with G and HR but they continue to give me the worst possible options. The worst part is they act like they've done me a favour and I should thank them. G said he was in a wheelchair for a short time after an accident which is somehow allowing him to say he understands what I'm going through and then make these decisions.
Is there anyway you can help? I've tried everything and now even the one measly position I was given is being taken from me to be given to "able bodied" worker's comp people.
Thank you so much, for your time and your understanding. You're my last hope and I appreciate everything.
Kaile"
I just got the e-mail from G, my manager, confirming the little work I had left is being cut for the second worker's comp person. And the tone was heartless. Everytime he meets with you in person, he's really nice and I had a good chat showing him my chair. I thought he understood the importance of the work I was doing and how well I was doing. I mean, I really really worked hard for a fairly menial position and went above and beyond with the quality of my own job and by doing extra work.
I'm at Craig all week for rehab but when I go back to town, I hope I've figured out some sort of avenue I can pursue.
Edited by KayDub, 08 January 2012 - 02:22 AM.
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