Had 1st therapy session but employer won't let me have time off for 2nd!

[Jayne]

I saw my therapist about 2 weeks ago & things went really well.
The night before I got only a few hours sleep as I was so nervous. I spent the whole coach journey listening to Enigma & Mike Olfield with my eyes shut & by the time I got to London I felt calm & rested.

The therapist said that as i've made the most important social step of telling everyone I know about my upcoming transition then he is willing to consider HRT without me living as a woman 24/7. I just need to get a blood test done before my next appointment so they can have my dosage worked out.
He was very understanding when I told him that my excema is stopping me from going full time & has caused me to be put on anti-depressants.

If anyone else is as nervous as I was with an upcoming first appointment then I assure you that the staff at the Gender clinic in London are really friendly & helpfull & contrary to popular belief the therapists don't have two heads 

I recieved my next appointment for August but when I went into work with the letter they refused to give me the time off so i'm having to re-schedule & my new appointment hasn't arrived yet. If my employer refuses me time off for my replacement appontment then i'll kick up a right fuss & they have recently realised that i'll only be pushed so far before I fight back.

They tried to give me a disciplinary because i'd had time off for 5 asthma attacks in the last 6 months costing me time off work but it's obvious that they are trying to make life harder for me since I announced my transition, even co-worker have commented on their change of attitude towards me. Instead off taking it lying down I went into the meeting armed with an A4 sheet of medical information about the relation of excema & asthma attacks, I then convinced them that once my dermatology treatment is sorted my asthma will return to normal & they shouldn't be penalising me for the NHS waiting lists.

I managed to force them to drop disciplinary charges against me without having the union to back me up (I refuse to pay to be in the union, I can fight my own battles).
When the HR manager told me after a 3 day wait that they were going to let me off it looked like she was chewing a very bitter pill, I had to fight the urge to laugh at her obvious displeasure

[lilacwoman]

employers are entitled to get rid of staff who can't work as these days its accepted that the job has to be done so if the original worker can't do it then the company has to get someone who can.

we have cases like this come through our office regularly and the company loses unless they can move the worker into a job where abscences can be tolerated.

being long term asthmatic - probly from your mother poisoning your nasal passages with excessive detergents and such when you were a baby - you are protected by the disability discrimination act and as such can't directly be sacked but then if you can't improve your health or you won't accept redeployment you will have to go.

you are not protected by being diagnosed as GD but will be after a full year.

Equality Act seems to offer some protection but the employers right to have workers who get the job done overrides the act.

[Pippa]

LIlacwoman, what part of the world are you in?

In the UK, you can't discipline someone for being sick, particularly if you are aware of the ailment.  If someone is asmathtic and has to take a day off, they are entitled to sick leave, this however, may be unpaid.  It sounds as if this employer thinks that there are sick days being called in for no reason.  My office had a plan that if too many sick days were taken in a period, there was monitoring to show that someone was actualy sick e.g. doctors lines but it was a monitoring process not a disciplinary process.

Employers are entitle to sack staff on the basis of capability but if there are fumes in the air that can set off an asmatha attack, there may be health and safety issues in the workplace that need attention, not the sacking of staff.  Severe asmatha may also be deemed a disability under the Disability discrimination act in the UK and employers must assess the workplace to see if it is fit for an asmathic to work.

NHS guidance on transgender issues is that employees should treat it in the same way as any other serious medical condition.

[lilacwoman]

Pippa. go read my post again please.

We have cases regularly where unreliable people are sacked legally.

the world has moved on quite a bit since employees thought they could take time off anytime they want like the p******brains I have worked with in over many years.
My insisting that if they didn't come to wrk then the job didn't get done and the customers got fed up and went elsewhere fell on deaf ears.  Now most of those people are uneployed for the rest of their working lives - but its not their fault its the Governments!

[Jayne]

I found out the other week that my company is making 29 redundancies, 10 in managment & the rest from the proper workers, so i've opted for volountary redundancy.
It's obvious that my job is aggravating my asthma & excema as it starts to clear each weekend but gets worse as the working week goes on.
I'm being put on my new medication next week so hopefully i'll get my skin & breathing clear soon.

[Annah]

Jane

If you have disability insurance as part of your benefits package have your counselor right it in as "depression." You may or may not get that day covered (your therapist will need to talk with your disability insurance psych to see if the "ailment" is severe enough to interrupt your work duties).

Usually it works but sometimes it doesn't. But it doesn't hurt to try!

[Jayne]

Unfortunately employers don't do insurance as part of a redundancy package in the UK.

I had confirmation today that my job will terminate on the 17th of August & i'm over the moon.
My employer is so bad that a couple of years ago the job center wouldn't advertise jobs in this dump.
Leaving this job isn't a bad thing, it's the chance for a new beginning