I've experienced nothing but blatant discrimination at some point at every job I've had. They are usually very supportive at the beginning but then when I end up NEEDing the accommodations all of a sudden its a problem and I cry wolf. I wish there was more training for HR and education about the fact people can have like 5 months of nothing, I seem normal. But then it's like a relapse of seizures and they assume I'm "abusing the system." as I've been told. What do people do for work? I struggle… read more
@A MyEpilepsyTeam Member
The way my work values me gives me suicidal thoughts. I’ve been at the store for over 20 years and teens who just got hired already mean more than I do.
I worked at a coffee hut and our safety plan was for me to lay on top of the trash bags of coffee grounds 🤣 def the funniest compromise i had to do...I wasnt able to work the window of the drivethrough at one place...which meant sometimes people from the kitchen would have to cover. i had another employee look at me and say "you need to stop hiring people who cant do Sh**" I need to write a book about all the weird compromises that have to be made just to work as an epileptic
I agree. The first job didn’t really have anybody watching me so I went in the back to sit down. My second job, I was discriminated from doing a job because he was afraid I might have a seizure and someone would break-in. But the only accommodation they gave me was if I had one, I was allowed to go to the office to sit. The next one they took me out of customer service because a couple people said I was slow. It was hard because nobody was really watching to make sure I was doing it right. But they put me on personal shopper and gave me a foldable chair in case I had one while I was on the floor, which I never did. The last and current jobs try to send me home if I have one. The last one only because she didn’t even want me to hire me but was forced because the owner gave me an offer plus there was no accommodations. The current job they try to send me home because they don’t have any nurses, but yet it’s a place for disabled workers. The only accommodation is that most of my jobs, I’m already sitting down. Most places don’t know what accommodations are and think an epileptic is a liability, as I have been called once, to their company.
@A MyEpilepsyTeam Member, asking for accommodations from your job can be very hard. A lot of businesses don't want to make accommodations for employees. I worked for a business that had issues with a co-worker that had MS. The company thought she was demanding. She passed away two years after she asked.
What you're describing is unfortunately something many people with epilepsy face, and it's genuinely exhausting and unfair. The unpredictable nature of seizures — months of calm followed by a difficult stretch — is so hard for workplaces to grasp, and being accused of "abusing the system" when you're just trying to manage Show Full Answer
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