The worst thing in my life is my job and the behavior of my immediate supervisors. When I was going through the worst of my health issues this year and having to go to the doctor’s office frequently, I made sure the impact on work was minimal. But the fatigue was crushing. Both my supervisors called me into their offices to say that my illness was ‘inconvenient’ for the company and that they might have to put me on notice … even though I had the most successful products in our division.

I let them know exactly what I was dealing with and notified both of them that they should be aware of the FMLA, which drew blanks stares from these guys. My HR department freaked out when they heard what my supes did, and insisted I protect myself by going on intermittent FMLA. Huge hassle, when all it would have taken would have been for them to tell me that I could work from home on my worst days. Recently, the mother of my supervisor was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, and he seemed completely overwhelmed with the medical visits, what he had to learn, medications, etc. I actually helped him understand what to focus on and when to get second opinions and then reminded him that I had been through all of this in the last year. He looked pretty ashamed … not that I think it’ll change him much.