Diabetes/weight discrimination at work.

toomuchcoffeelady · 01-30-2009, 12:38 PM

I work full time at a client site (my employer that signs my paychecks is a consulting firm). I've been there a year and it's usually fast paced, but not all consuming. The last few weeks have been pretty nuts though lots of super-urgent work thrown at us at the last minute. I'm a white-collar desk jockey who was diagnosed with diabetes 2 years ago; most of our clients are retired military and law enforcement (ie, from an environment in which people are used to staying up for 48 hour stretches to do strenuous work, skipping meals, etc.) Because of my condition, sleep deprivation and esp missing meals are reallly dangerous for me - they wreak havoc with my blood sugar and everything else.
The other night, a group of folks (I was the only contractor) and I were told to stay late to finish a task. At 7 PM, someone suggested we order food and I said I wanted in. My client looked at us and said that ordering food was unprofessional, nobody was getting dinner till we were done working, etc. I flashed my medic alert bracelet, and politely explained my condition and that it was dangerous for me to miss meals.
Client looked straight at me, said, "You heard what I said. If you are hungry, I believe you know where the vending machines are." Oh, the vending machines full of candy bars, potato chips, and other sh**t I'm not supposed to eat? Thanks.
Here is the kicker: Client's right-hand man looked straight at me (this is in front of a group of about 20 people), sneered, and said, "It looks like certain people could afford to miss a few meals anyway." Now, I was a size 2 when I first started getting sick, but at a size 6, I'm hardly so fat I can't fit through the door. Dieting isn't easy when you have all the food restrictions I do, nor does all this BS with my insulin make it even that effective.

So I was in the war room till almost 11 that night, working on the deliverable, getting dizzier and shakier as the night went on. I had a little bag of nuts and a few hard candies to keep myself concious. For those of you who have never had a hypoglycemic incident, it is like working while a little drunk or really tired. I emailed in the deliverable; another teammate drove me home since I wasn't in any shape to do so at that point.
I get in the next day, to hear that there were typos and a formatting issue with the deliverable. I fix it asap; it gets to the Big Cheese 5 minutes after its deadline.Client and his boss asked me what happened, I explained the situation, and they just rolled their eyes and said, "We'll yell at you later." My boss was out that day and yesterday; I didn't have the chance to speak to him. I'm sure the client has though.

I called HR at my company later that afternoon to explain what happened and that I need to be allowed to eat at my desk and not mocked for being "fat", and to ask for suggestions on how to discuss this with my boss. (Tact is not my strong suit when I'm as upset as I am). HR lady was horrified, blew a gasket about my boss leaving before I did (whatever, dude's allowed to have a life). She told me she was going straight to our VP with that story, and would not give ME the opportunity to speak to my boss and VP myself.

I would have wanted my boss to hear this from ME, since he is a pretty reasonable guy. And, in a year this is the first I've heard that eating at my desk is a problem.

Today is my boss's first day back at the office since that happened; how do I broach this with him without sounding whiny or threatening? How do I manage the fact that it looks like I went over his head? I am so nervous I'm going to get branded a whiner, a backstabber, or told that my "disability" disqualifies me from this job.

Jael · 02-12-2009, 08:51 PM

I would just talk to him asap - explain that you wanted to talk to him but he was out and talked to HR in the mean time. Explain what happened. My suggestion is to stock up your desk with snacks that keep well and you can eat. Bring fresh fruit in with you, constantly pack food (lean proteins and complex carbs).nuts, even a bag of trailmix in your desk is a good idea. I know i'ts a huge pain in the butt, honestly I do, but it's better for you to have the good stuff on hand than to be caught off guard like that. (been there done that - had the hypo crashes too). Plus if you do that and tell your boss that you have done this - it will seem more like you are being proactive about the situation than just whining about it.

Obviously there is only so much that you can do to prepare ahead of time, and some snacks that keep well in your desk - uh yeah not so great for diabetes I know. Fruit keeps at least a week though, nuts and dried fruits even longer. Nutrigrain and other 'energy' bars - not as great since they often have simple sugars in them but they're better than a bag of chips or a snickers bar. I hope your boss understands!!

(p.s. the fat comment is ridiculous!! I'd be fuming at that one! - and I'm no where near a size 6 anymore)