ptsd Postal Fmla For Ptsd?

[nlualum82]

I have not used sick leave for many years. Wonderful health? NO! Scared to death!

My post office started leaning on plain old sick leave for "ridiculous" things like ....being sick? many years ago. FMLA was your only safe harbor and there are some complex hoops to jump through.

We now have some kind of centralized automated phone notification that nobody understands, and I am wary of partly because of my hearing disability.

I go when I have stomach viruses, I go when I have the flu, I even went one time when I split my forehead open right before time to leave. I should have gone to the emergency room for a couple of stitches, but butterfly bandages and gauze held it together with just a little trickling blood - the throbbing was hell.

I was wondering if my VA psych. will/can submit info for me to take sick leave covered by FMLA for PTSD. I am diagnosed as such, though service connection is in the works now and may or may not happen.

I think I remember them saying something about long-running conditions goin on file so that you can get a file number on them and refer back to that when needed each time.

Knowing I have to go no matter what contributes to the already huge stress of working at our notorious office.

Had another small conflict last night due to a lazy, self-centered employee who always makes it as easy as possible on himself by heaping it on his co-worker (2 workers per DBCS). He has been there forever and has been front office. When he wants something he always seems to have a fresh rule that covers it for him. When we all know better, he describes why this particular time is a special situation. He is almost universally hated by all as a co-worker on a machine, is very hard to follow if you inherit his assignment due to accumulated mess he let build up by slacking and is always argueing some ridiculous interpretation of the contract that would get him what he wants at the moment - even the union folk try to tell him he's wrong.

The supervisor gave him his way last night, and they socialized later. The same supervisor has told me on occassion when I'm questioning an off-the-wall order of his that will heap unneccessary work on me that "I'm just doing it to piss you off" and other phrases to that effect.

I am ready to document it and file on it if I can ever catch him saying such a thing again in front of a witness.

I could really use an answer to the FMLA for PTSD/stress thing. It would sure lift a burden off of me just to know I could take time when I'm really struggling. I would love to lay at home on occassion and make up sleep that has eluded me or just not face it when I feel I can't.

[john999]

I worked for the USPS and used FMLA for my little ole mental condition. The USPS insisted that I get a letter from my shrink attesting to the fact that I was not a danger to myself or others every time I called in sick or used sick leave for any reason. Of course, it was gross discrimination but the union said there was nothing they could do so I filed many an EEOC complaint until I retired. That kind of vicious discrimination was one of the reasons I retired on disability from the USPS.