Background

On Sunday, March 30, I was working in the dairy cooler at work. I had a pallet in front of me and a pallet in back of me to the side. I picked up a box from the front pallet turned around, forgetting the other pallet was behind me, tripped over it and fell flat on my back, but didn’t hit my head (thankfully!). I laid on the floor for a couple minutes. I got up and went to look for my Coach (manager). I found him and reported my injury. He said, “You’ll be fine in a couple of days”. Technically he should of had me fill out a report but didn’t even ask.

On April 2nd, I called sick into work because I couldn’t walk. I was having shooting pain on my ride side from my toes to my hip. On April 3th and April 4th, I went to work but was limping badly. On April 5th, I went to the Quick Care clinic who then sent me to the emergency room. All the emergency room did was take a x-ray and diagnosed me with arthritis in my right knee and hip. They prescribed arthritis medication to help with the pain. I did not tell them it was a work injury (my stupid).

Followed up with primary care provider who agreed with diagnosis. She prescribed two other meds to help with the pain. No other follow up was scheduled.

Today was bad..and got worse

So for three months I’ve been dealing with the shooting pain in my right leg. The primary found the right meds and dosage for me. I was doing fine. This morning at work, I bent down to do something but when I came up, there was shooting pain again. Moments later, I could hardly walk at all. I had to grab on to shelves for balance. Periodically, I couldn’t walk. I continued to work through the night.

Before our last break at 5am, my team lead (supervisor) said that my Coach (manager) wanted to speak with me. In a nutshell, I was asked to change to another position in the store because my productivity as a stocker had decreased dramatically. She told me that she spoke to the store manager about this and they were willing to work with me. There were some suggestions that I was not open to like being part of the maintenance team (I would be bored out of my mind and I told her that). There were other suggestions on other shifts, however I told then no because I would lose my $1.50 shift differential. At the end I was warned that if my productivity didn’t improve other measures may be taken (termination).

I then asked if I could take an extra break, so I did and went to the far end of the parking lot and cried my eyes out. I was in a panic mode because I can’t work anywhere else making the money I do now expect at a machinery company (but I would have not transportation to get there anyway). When the tears finally subsided, I began to get angry. Those MF’s (<- bad word) call me in for productivity when there others on the team that have worse productivity then me and they (management) just let’s it slide.

At one point during our meeting I was told to talk to the store manager. She happen to come in around 6am. I told her about the meeting and she looked at me weird. Her words, “I didn’t talk to (person) about any issues with you, this is all new to me.” I told it, “That’s it, I am so done with this place.” Took some breaths and told her what transpired. She wasn’t aware of anything like that going on. After our conversation she said that she will not allow them to take me of third shift stocking unless I ask to change position.

During our conversation, I told the store manager about my incident at work and how that was not reported. She asked me to fill out a report, give approximate dates and it would be filed. Another day Coach then got me, we filled out the report, then I just left for the day because it was 7am. A third party company (which I’ve dealt with before and isn’t a pleasant experience) will contact me about the incident in the future.

Summary

I had a work injury, no report was filed by a Coach. I was called in the office to discuss my productivity which is decreasing the last couple of months. I was told to talk to the Store Manager who I say later blindsiding her about my meeting with management. I ended up filing an accident report. However, I have now got the deal with the possible retaliation (which they can’t do but will try) from the two Coaches. The first for not reporting it and the second for saying that she talked to the Store manager about my productivity but that was a complete lie.

Thank the Gods, I have two days off to rest. KInd of nervous what is going to happen when I return. Thankfully I have a therapist appoint scheduled for Wednesday morning so we can discuss what happend and how to handle any fallout that may occur.

If and when this saga continues, I’ll post what is going on.

Now I am going to enjoy my weekend. It’ll reach up to 90°F today. I had plans but with my right leg being painful, I’m not going anywhere.