[I was going to megathread this but after a moment’s thought I guess it’s substantial enough to be a post.]
I’m sort of a smol scared and alone type of creature right now so I’m nervous about asserting it… I have a lot of questions.
Long winded unhappy story
I’m not doing so great financially, and part of what’s going on is I keep calling out from work with muscle strains and stuff. Here’s a story: During our rush season this last December, my DSP was pushed out the parking lot at the warehouse to an off-site location. This meant that in addition to all of the other things we did in the morning, we also had to drive 10 minutes between places. THIS WAS NOT ACCOMMODATED BY CLOCKING IN 10 MINUTES EARLIER. And this compounded with a long running beef I’ve had with the ‘actual’ amazon employees just ignoring our wave times and pulling us in as much as 15 minutes early. The latter has been going on for the last year at least and has made it so I could only sometimes stretch out before a shift. With the off-site parking, I literally haven’t been able to in over a month.
So let me complain about this incident really quickly to add context to my situation now. I work Christmas Eve and I really skid over the finish line. My shoulder is sore enough that by the time my next shift rolls around on new year’s eve it still doesn’t feel good enough to use. HOWEVER my DSP pushes a notification to everyone that they’re going to retaliate with suspension/firing anyone who calls out that day, because no hookie. So I work injured. I basically try to not use that arm as much as possible. Regardless it got fucked up pretty bad. Bad enough that I called out for (fri-sat) the last two days I worked that week at the same time. WELL THEY DECIDED TO JUST TAKE ME OFF THE SCHEDULE FOR THE ENTIRE WEEK AFTER THAT WITHOUT ASKING ME OR SAYING ANYTHING. So basically they did textbook retaliation on me? (truth be told I probably needed the time to mend properly…) (I guess I should clarify to people with real jobs that I get my schedule for the week starting Sunday the Xth on Friday the (X-2)nd)
So, my patient reader, that brings you current with last week; me sitting on my ass at home for 9 consecutive days. This probably contributed (or caused…) my hip being sore on this week’s Sunday when I went in for my first shift in a WHILE. So again I’m trying to avoid using the body part that hurts. I fail. As is my custom, I take my second 15 minute break at the end of my shift to change into clean clothes, and as I reach down to change my sock BIG UGLY PAIN in my side happens. I have thrown out my hip. I barely get myself home before the true ordeal begins.
So I come to you now having spent the last 4 days practically bedridden, needing to take breaks from strenuous activities such as not being prone in bed by laying prone in bed for hours at a time. The first night I could barely drag my dead weight ass into position and not without an 8 or a 9 on the pain face diagram. Every day has been better but on today, my first shift scheduled since the injury, I still feel the mild tingling soreness. And I know it’s only going to get worse over the course of the day so I can’t work.
[end of spoiler]
So I already texted the call-in number for work with a vague “I’m not feeling well enough to do my shift” message. I’m hesitating before I pull the trigger on asking the HR Manager/Owner for the worker’s comp form. If you skipped the tl;dr spoiler, I missed over a week of wages this month already so I feel financially pressured into doing SOMETHING so I’m not the one holding the bag here. But can you do worker’s comp if you’re (hoping) not to miss a significant amount of work? SHOULD I just take another whole week-ass period off, weighing the ‘of course you idiot’ of my health with the ‘these are monsters you’re dealing with’ of my life in capitalist hell?
It might be worth looking into Short Term Disability as well
Sounds like you’re in a horrible catch-22 where you’re not in bad enough condition to qualify for worker’s comp, but at this rate you’re gonna injure something severely enough that you will qualify. I would just document as much as you can that makes them look bad vis a vis retaliation or making you work injured in case you need to request workers comp and/or sue them.
Well I guess the one thing I have going for me is that they mainly communicate with text messages
Had a partner that briefly did seasonal stuff for a brown flavored competitor of that company.
They fell on some ice and got a medium-level ouchie, and the deal they got for workers comp was basically about 5k, with part of the agreement being they could never work for that company ever again. So depending on if you feel capable of finding another employer after the fact, and if that kind of amount would be worth going through it, they might be willing to do a settlement.
(Said partner then went on to use nearly the whole settlement to buy themselves a new gaming rig and fancy chair while I was otherwise sole-providing for us and we were drowning in debt, but that’s a story for another thread.)
Look up constructive dismissal and maybe reach out to unemployment. Worth a shot.
I wouldn’t want to do that because my full wages are just kinda enough as is. I appreciate the humor of describing my regular work conditions and it being read as constructive dismissal though.
Also, I just wanted to say I’m sorry you’re going through all of this and I really do wish you the best.
They just start constructing the moment they draft the offer letter it seems. In reality Amazon does rely on high turnover. It’s built into their MO.
oh definitely. Every once in a while I’ll get a formal write up for something like “you didn’t properly inspect the van” or “you were detected doing a u-turn against a sign” which the camera ai didn’t previously detect. And the field for ‘verbal warning’ is always just “We have always prioritized safety from training onward” just to put in a file
