Working Ain’t All It’s Cracked Up To Be

First, let me apologize for not blogging for a few weeks. Various excuses apply, but in the name of participatory story telling, I encourage you – the reader – to make up an excuse for my lack that inspires you!

Speaking of readers – it would appear that almost NO ONE is reading this blog as only one person ssshas become a “follower” or made comments on the posts. Well NO ONE!! – I know you are there. A couple of you have sent e-mails or made comments to me in person. It would be helpful if you followed the blog links and signed up as a follower, please. If this blog is seen to have a readership I can link it to some politically effective blog sites, and join in on grassroots efforts to change policy around relief of poverty. Yes, you, the reader, can join with me, the writer, to make a difference!

This story is about another Joan – someone whom I have known for many years and of whom I assumed she was on ODSP. I mean I know she lives in one of those apartments where an agency supplies a personal assistant four or five times a day, she uses a high tech wheelchair somewhat like mine, and that she volunteers regularly in the governance of her apartment building in downtown Toronto.

This week I found out I was wrong. This Joan has lived on a long term disability pension, an insurance related health benefit, for more than a dozen years. As a recipient of these funds she is not eligible for ODSP.

This week she told me her story which I will relate here briefly. Joan is skilled in computer networking and troubleshooting. She learned these skills mainly hands on, but as she was using them years ago to assist friends and to make a little money on the side she eventually was recommended to a large service and advocacy organization and she landed a good job in corporate Ontario.

Now Joan did a fine job and was used and even overused by employees across the company to keep the information system going. However her experience as a worker was mainly unpleasant. She found that her so-called “disability” and not her work performance was constantly the focus of attention. For example, other employees would excuse their absences from their desks by saying that she needed their help when this was blatantly not the case.

Joan found it difficult to get treated as a typical employee. For example supervisors would refuse to give her proper performance evaluations, and over time she found she was passed over for regular bonuses and promotions. One time after renovations she found herself regulated to a cramped cubicle instead of an office. This gave her lack of privacy in the use of her speaker phone and lack of mobility with her wheelchair to interact with others in the workplace. She could no longer perform essential duties adequately. She became depressed and eventually left work on a long term disability income.

Joan’s story might sound exaggerated, but not to me because I have experienced the same sort of corporate cold shoulder myself and have seen two other people get very ill under similar circumstances. Another bunch of stories indeed!

It might seem that having a long term disability pension from a health insurance company is not such a bad deal, but just look at the downsides:
- Joan cannot earn even one penny or she will lose her meagre $1800/month;
- Long term disability DOES NOT cover medications, and dental and equipment costs. Joan had to pay $10,000 from her own savings for her most recent wheelchair;
- Joan is not eligible for a retirement pension so when the long term disability income ends at age 65 she must depend only on CPP and Old Age Security; and,
- Joan must be assessed every two years as still “emotionally disabled” and if she is deemed to have recovered she will lose the income anyway.

The monetary value of her benefit is about $800 more per month than what ODSP would provide, but Joan often wonders if it is really worth it. Her self worth and her bank account are stressed ongoingly by this “benefit” and she often wonders if she is making the right decision to not give it up.

In the meantime Joan volunteers in many different ways and avoids getting paid work even as she locates sources of grant money to fund others to do the work she is already participating in.

Doesn’t it just make you want to smack your head against a wall?

Judith