Short Story

Joy was born into a loving family, but she was born with a disability. She was born with only one leg. Over the years she learned how to get by in life and was able to get a prosthetic leg when she was fully grown. With the help of this prosthetic leg, she was able to do things like complete college and get a full-time job and live on her own.

Joy's full-time job was a bit challenging, but she worked thru her struggles and her multiple bosses over the years understood her struggles and helped her however they could, but they also saw her value. Her disability meant that she also had skills and disabilities that others around her without the disability didn't have. Some of her bosses were nice to her, but a couple of them also became close friends that she could also spend time with outside of work. They encouraged her in her life and showed her the strengths that she had and helped her deal with her weaknesses. She stayed at that job for many years, through many bosses and hundreds of coworkers. Her years of experience made her valuable to the team.

After one of her bosses, who was also a friend to Joy, had been promoted to a different department in the business, a new boss came to her work location. This boss had his own ideas about disabilities and Joy got the impression that he didn't like the fact that she, or anyone else for that matter, were born in what he thought was an imperfect condition. He didn't like the fact that she used her prosthetic leg at work. He got acclimated into the job and got to know the employees, but Joy never felt completely comfortable whenever he was around. He talked nicely to her, but she always felt like his words were hypocritical and he really didn't like her or want her in his workplace or under his leadership. Her disability was not something that he looked favorably upon, even though her prosthetic leg was not a visibly prominent feature, mostly hidden by long pants.

After a couple of months, the new boss said that there was new rule that said that prosthetic limbs were no longer allowed in the workplace because they might pose a safety hazard. No one could explain to Joy how her prosthetic leg was a safety hazard or how it had ever been a safety hazard to anyone that she worked with, but they said that prosthetic legs could be a safety hazard in other jobs in the company, but those tasks were not things that she did in the course of her daily tasks. She was never around the big machines that could have been a danger to her, so the new rule being applied to her made no sense and no one felt the need to explain anything to her other than that she needed to comply, or she would be fired. The only option was to get a doctor's note that stated that she needed the prosthetic leg in order to work.

Joy complied with the new rules as best as she could, but life was very hard. Some days she could manage, but other days the pain was unbearable, and she had to use sick time to go home and deal with the overwhelming pain. She had made an appointment with a doctor and the doctor gave her a note for her boss as well as some pain killers that she had never needed to use before. But her new boss didn't like giving her any exceptions to the new rule. After much discussion with those above him in the company, he finally agreed that she would be able to use crutches in the workplace, but not the prosthetic leg. She tried to continue to work with this, while also looking for a doctor that could be more helpful in this specific area. This new doctor gave her a note for work that stated that Joy had a physical disability and that using the prosthetic leg was very helpful in being able to do her job and that it should be allowed in the workplace.

When she brought this note to her boss, he told her that because this was listed as a safety issue, he didn't have to give her any further accommodation and would not give her any further accommodations, no matter what that doctor or any other doctor said or wrote down. He was very firm on this and said that maybe she would be better suited for a different type of job. Joy had been doing this job for many years, so the idea of this job not being a good fit for her had not been a consideration. She did some thinking about this but wasn't sure what to do. She started to consider different options, but trying something new was going to be hard.

One day the boss found a reason that he was able to blow completely out of proportion and used it to terminate her, without any warning whatsoever and no way for her to fight for herself. He wanted to get rid of her before she had a chance to find out her legal options when it came to him denying her accommodations and acknowledging that she had a legitimate disability. She took all of this as a sign to find other job opportunities and seek out what was the next chapter in her life. Life was hard and would continue to be for a long time, but she would find new job opportunities where they wouldn't prohibit her from using her prosthetic leg. She was still in almost constant pain from everything that had happened, but she would slowly get better, but would probably need those extra pain killers for the rest of her life, due to all that the boss had put her thru. She would find a path where she could prosper and try out new career paths and enjoy life again, but life would never be the same again for her.

This story tells of something that is unthinkable in the workplace because the disability is visible, and people can understand the need for prosthetic limbs in order to live life more fully. What is harder for people to understand is mental disabilities that can't be easily seen by those around them. This is just one illustration of a visible physical disability to show what it feels like when mental disabilities are discriminated against in the workplace.  Those of us with mental disabilities have found ways to make our lives and jobs easier, but some people aren't willing to see this, so they try to take away our methods of coping with life, in the same way that the boss tried to take away Joy's ability to use her prosthetic leg in the workplace.

There are many people who have mental disabilities who are treated wrongly all of the time, even with disability protection laws in place. Employers can make it hard for mentally disabled employees to fight back. Because we often don't have the funds or the ability to fight a legal case in court, let alone handle all of the mental stress that comes with all of this lengthy process. The medications that we end up on can be things like antidepressants and such, because the PTSD from the incident can create a psychological and chemical imbalance in our brain and body that needs medication as well as other support sources in order for the person to return to a mostly normal life. PTSD can last a lifetime. The impact may fade a bit over time and with support, but never completely goes away.

Taking away our coping methods is equal to taking away the ability to use prosthetic limbs. It hinders our ability to work as effectively as when we have our coping methods. It takes more work, both mentally and physically, to accomplish the same things that we did when we were able to freely to use our coping methods.  Discrimination like this against a prosthetic leg would be unheard of, but some people treat mental disabilities this way because they aren't visible, so they are harder to understand and more likely to be treated badly by people who don't understand and don't want to fully understand the mental struggles of their employees. They have their own ideas of what they want, so they get rid of their good and faithful employees because they want a certain type of employee that fits into what they consider to be "normal". They don't see the value of different types of brains and how we each have different strengths and weaknesses and we need each other in order for all of us to be able to succeed.