I have a question can you help me out?

[stevetheupsguy]

Steve, I enjoy your posts--a bit of comic relief to give the adults a break.

I enjoy you posts as well, Mr. Wilson.

 

[brownIEman]

In the two years you've been here, you were ushered into a driving position with no PT experience. That in itself shines a bit of light on your situation. Most people work PT for five plus before seeing a driving position. It'll shift your disposition a bit.

Take this for example: PT supervisor has an employee with liver problems, he has soresis all over his arm. I don't know this, but the supervisor does. I ask a few questions about the guy, and find out he's a raging *******. I ask not to work with him, since I assume it to be ringworm, the supervisor tells me to go back to work because its nothing to worry about. I talk to my shop steward, he tells management that if they can't produce a doctors note to verify it to not be contagious, the employee has to leave. They tell the guy that I (by name) said he has ringworm and he needs a doctors note before he can return to work. Later I found out , through the ******* guy, that they had processed an FMLA paper for his liver condition. So they knew, created a big mess, simply by refusing to say that the guy has a medical condition. I didn't need to know anything other than that they knew of a medical condition, that was not ringworm... instead they tell him that I said he's got ringworm and he needs a doctor's note telling them it's being treated.

Stick around long enough, being rear-ended by others is bad, but when you're rear-ended by your own supervisors that'll be enough to make you bitter.

Since I assume you skipped the PT gauntlet, I could see how you could view the establishment as peachy.

Andrew,
I am a tad confused about your story. You voiced a concern about this worker's possible health condition. You say latter in the story that you did not need to know anything about the mans condition except that it was not contagious. But you also say the supervisor gave you no details other than to say that it was nothing to worry about.

So... he basically told you it was not a contagious issue, but you went to you steward anyway. Why?
The supervisor is not allowed under federal law to discuss ANY details of a medical condition he is aware off.

I get that telling the guy your name in connection with the ring worm scare was unprofesional. However you got what you latter say was all you needed yet you went to the steward anyway and you refuse to accept any responsibility for a poorly handled situation?

 

[andrew99]

Andrew,
I am a tad confused about your story. You voiced a concern about this worker's possible health condition. You say latter in the story that you did not need to know anything about the mans condition except that it was not contagious. But you also say the supervisor gave you no details other than to say that it was nothing to worry about.

"It's nothing to worry about" != "It's not contagous" , and the steward agreed.

We all know the absolute assertion presented with "it's not contagous". It's not relative. What isn't contagous to me - shouldn't be contagous to you, him or them. I'm happy with all angles that statement covers.

"it's nothing to worry about" isn't so specific. I tend to believe that of the things my supervisor worries about, a potential skin rash on my arm, isn't one of them.

There is no reason a supervisor can't say "the employee has a medical condition that we're aware of, and isn't contagous". No law is going to make it illegal to confirm or deny the communicability of a visible condition on an employee., that's absurd. Now if UPS has a policy which mandates supervisors to obfusticate matters regarding the communication of personal health issues between employees, that wouldn't surprise me. To infer that a federal law prohibits any mention over the communicable status of a noticible illness amongst coworkers, that's a stretch.

Of course there's always more to the story. The employee regularly had a cover over it, which is S.O.P for treating ringworm. He stopped wearing it, and my first recourse was to ask the supervisor for him to cover it back up.... the supervisor said they'd look into it. When he came back to work with it still uncovered, I asked if they had followed up (they had not), and then asked not to work with the guy. So yeah, I felt like I was being blown off, and I probably was.

Thinking back to this event, I had never seen ringworm of that size. It didn't look like ringworm I'd seen before and wouldn't of taken much to palcate my concerns. However, being pushed around and subjected to conditions less than those which my own boss & supervisors would tolerate definately motivated me to go above and beyond what I would regularly do to ensure my complaint be handled.