the workplace patsy
Anna returned to work after caring for a disabled child and because she was so happy to be back at work, living a normal life, it took her a while to realize that she was being treated like the workplace patsy and was in a toxic job.
"When you're home taking care of someone," explains Anna, "you don't get to socialize much, so I suppose I never really knew what other people thought about me and my situation. Boy, do I know now!"
"After a few weeks of being dumped with all the dirty work," explains Anna, "I settled down and started to wonder why I was doing twice as much as everyone else and seemed to end up with all the menial work."
"In the first week at a new job you expect to be given a few menial tasks by the team until you have learned the ropes," says Anna, "but when this prolongs endlessly there is going to be a huge problem, and this is the toxic situation I face in my job."
"I am either dumped with twice as much work as everybody else, or dumped with the work nobody else wants to do," says Anna, "and I truly believe that I am treated differently because I have a disabled child."
“I didn't ask at the interview stage how long I will be under probation, and when I can expect to be a fully fledged member of the team, doing equal work.”
"How was I to know this?" asks Anna. "Sometimes, even terms negotiated at interviews are abrogated so it’s not my fault I ended up as a doormat."
“Most of a caregiver’s troubles are internal - either related to the dynamics of the relationship with the disabled person or related to feelings of life passing you by,” says Anna, “but now that I’m back at work I’m finding that the hardest troubles are caused by outsiders who treat you differently because of your situation at home – and that sucks.”
"I appreciate that it's far easier to prevent this sort of thing happening in the first place than to resolve it once a pattern has been set," says Anna. "I guess if you don't want to be the workplace Patsy, then you shouldn't act like one when you start a new job - or tell them you have a disabled child."
Read more by Anna on this issue:
sunshine at home, doormat at work
Unfair distribution of work
"When you're home taking care of someone," explains Anna, "you don't get to socialize much, so I suppose I never really knew what other people thought about me and my situation. Boy, do I know now!"
"After a few weeks of being dumped with all the dirty work," explains Anna, "I settled down and started to wonder why I was doing twice as much as everyone else and seemed to end up with all the menial work."
"In the first week at a new job you expect to be given a few menial tasks by the team until you have learned the ropes," says Anna, "but when this prolongs endlessly there is going to be a huge problem, and this is the toxic situation I face in my job."
"I am either dumped with twice as much work as everybody else, or dumped with the work nobody else wants to do," says Anna, "and I truly believe that I am treated differently because I have a disabled child."
“I didn't ask at the interview stage how long I will be under probation, and when I can expect to be a fully fledged member of the team, doing equal work.”
"How was I to know this?" asks Anna. "Sometimes, even terms negotiated at interviews are abrogated so it’s not my fault I ended up as a doormat."
“Most of a caregiver’s troubles are internal - either related to the dynamics of the relationship with the disabled person or related to feelings of life passing you by,” says Anna, “but now that I’m back at work I’m finding that the hardest troubles are caused by outsiders who treat you differently because of your situation at home – and that sucks.”
"I appreciate that it's far easier to prevent this sort of thing happening in the first place than to resolve it once a pattern has been set," says Anna. "I guess if you don't want to be the workplace Patsy, then you shouldn't act like one when you start a new job - or tell them you have a disabled child."
Read more by Anna on this issue:
sunshine at home, doormat at work
Unfair distribution of work
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