A few weeks ago I found out that one of my co-workers, we'll call her "Beth" has breast cancer. She is my age, had a baby last year and has another two boys that I would guess are under the age of 11. She beat breast cancer before 5 years ago and was looking to fight the good fight again. Last week she went to the Cancer Center in Chicago to find out exactly was going on in her body and start a game plan and treatment. Yesterday was her first day back to work. Unfortunately she had to leave ill due to the effects of the chemo she was given in Chicago. This morning I found out her cancer is stage 4, it has spread to her lungs, her liver, her bones and two other places that I don't even remember. This is not a fight she will likely win. I was heartbroken. I don't work with her often, mostly in passing and usually that only happens once every couple months but ours is a small department and we are all close.
Our department lead is a 25 year old "girl" who I used to have a lot of respect for. I don't always believe in the way she deals with things in her personal life, such as buying $80 swimsuits for her 5 year old, simply because they're Burberry (yes, she is a name-brand whore) and she smothers her two kids to the point that they will most likely hate her by the time they reach 12. (for example, she won't let her daughter eat lunch by herself at school because she--and I quote--"doesn't think a baby should have to eat lunch without her mommy." WTF, people???) but I digress. How she runs her personal life and raises her kids are her business, I only have to hear about it when we work together.
So my 25 year old "boss" doesn't like "Beth". She never has. She was hired just as my boss was coming into the department so she never really had a say when she was hired. "Beth" is not rich, by any means. She wears clothes that are either homemade or are pretty obviously old and outdated. She does not look sloppy. She comes to work clean and tidy but she doesn't not wear name brands. (oh the horror!) But guess what? Neither does anyone else in our office! At every opportunity my boss is given she gives "Beth" as much shit as possible. Things everyone else in the department gets away with, "Beth" does not. Keep in mind, "Beth" is not full-time. She works 4 days a pay period, just like me and also has another part-time job somewhere else where she does similar work as we do in the Switchboard. She's a nice person who was just dealt a very shitty hand.
When "Beth" found out she had cancer she told our boss and she also told her she was going to Chicago for treatment. With the way "Beth's" schedule works, she was basically going to have to miss one of her scheduled days for her trip to Chicago last week, but she had Earned Time to use in it's place. This shouldn't be a problem. Quite honestly our department could probably make due without "Beth" on the schedule but it works out a lot better with her there. We would just be shorthanded occasionally. Our supervisor didn't take this well though and called her at home and just ripped into her. Actually yelling at her and telling her she didn't have anyone to cover her. Why would you treat someone who just found out they have cancer like that you ask? Because my 25 year old boss doesn't think "Beth" has cancer. She has told a couple people in the department that she thinks she is lying. Who lies about that kind of thing???
Flash forward to yesterday when "Beth" came in for her first day back to work. She ended up having to leave early, as I said, because of the chemo treatment she received in Chicago. She called our boss at home and also explained to her the extent of her illness. Immediately after hanging up with "Beth" my boss called Employee Health about "Beth's" so-called illness.
Outing an employee's illness to Employee Health is a lot like telling your Nazi neighbors that your very Jewish friends are coming over for dinner tomorrow night at 7:00. Ok, maybe that's a little over the top but seriously, was that phone call necessary?? She did it because she doesn't believe "Beth" and wants her to have to prove herself. She's basically trying to shove her out of the department. What did Employee Health do? They immediately called "Beth" at home and told her she had two choices, 1. Keep working her scheduled days with no issues. 2. Quit. They said she does not qualify for FMLA because she is part-time and that if she can't work when she is scheduled then she doesn't need to return to work. WHAT. THE. FUCK??
Until about an hour ago I loved the company I work for. I really thought it was a great place to work that took care of it's employees. How can I support a hospital that would treat what is basically a terminally ill employee so badly? If we can't take care of our own, how are we taking care of our patients? I am sad, I am pissed, I am hurt and I am disappointed.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
sad
Not long after I started at Trinity in 2006 I happened upon a blog quite accidentally. The author lives in Canada and had been writing his blog for several years (the blog recently turned 10) but he had just found out that he had colon cancer. This was in 2007. Most of his posts after that were about his fight with that cancer, but he was also able to blog about the things he loved blogging about, which was music, photography and techy/geeky crap, which quite honestly I had no interest in. It was his fight with cancer and most of his posts about music that interested me.
I never put it in my blogroll so his blog was one I normally only read at work whenever it crossed my mind to do so. In November of last year he realized he would not be winning his fight with cancer so he decided to stop his treatments. He started writing about death and what was happening to his body. I sort of put his blog out of my mind for a while and had a panic earlier tonight at work when I realized it had been a couple of months since I had read it. Sadly, on May 3rd, he passed away. His last post (besides one he had written to be posted after he died) was on April 27th. I had to go back to the last post I had read and start reading until what I knew was his last post. He left a wife of 23 years and two daughters.
What I know about Derek from reading his blog is that he was not afraid to die. Sad, of course that he would be leaving his family and that he would be missing out on all of the things that they will experience in life from this moment on, but not afraid. He was a man of science, studying biology so he knows that dying is a natural course of nature.
One of his lasts posts struck me as he talked about one of my favorite artists, Adele. He had been listening to her new album, which is simply fantastic, and was struck by one of her songs for his own reasons. You can read this post here:
Derek K. Miller
I have known since he posted back in November that he was ceasing his treatments that he would one day pass, but I had no idea how sad it would make me feel. A man I never even knew. I feel sad for his daughters who will not have their dad there with them through life. I feel sad for his wife who has lost the partner she has shared over half of her life with. Fuck cancer.
I never put it in my blogroll so his blog was one I normally only read at work whenever it crossed my mind to do so. In November of last year he realized he would not be winning his fight with cancer so he decided to stop his treatments. He started writing about death and what was happening to his body. I sort of put his blog out of my mind for a while and had a panic earlier tonight at work when I realized it had been a couple of months since I had read it. Sadly, on May 3rd, he passed away. His last post (besides one he had written to be posted after he died) was on April 27th. I had to go back to the last post I had read and start reading until what I knew was his last post. He left a wife of 23 years and two daughters.
What I know about Derek from reading his blog is that he was not afraid to die. Sad, of course that he would be leaving his family and that he would be missing out on all of the things that they will experience in life from this moment on, but not afraid. He was a man of science, studying biology so he knows that dying is a natural course of nature.
One of his lasts posts struck me as he talked about one of my favorite artists, Adele. He had been listening to her new album, which is simply fantastic, and was struck by one of her songs for his own reasons. You can read this post here:
Derek K. Miller
I have known since he posted back in November that he was ceasing his treatments that he would one day pass, but I had no idea how sad it would make me feel. A man I never even knew. I feel sad for his daughters who will not have their dad there with them through life. I feel sad for his wife who has lost the partner she has shared over half of her life with. Fuck cancer.
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