You asked about my life...
It seems I've been asked to explain how this whole mess started in the first place and what happened with Michael's to cause all this. Thinking back, I suppose I never really did explain the whole thing, or if I did it was so long ago that its long lost.
So, I think the first thing I need to say, and this is important, is that my issue with Michaels is not now and never was with the actual store I worked in, nor with any of the people in that store. To the contrary - most of the employees in that store I considered friends or acquaintances and still do - none of this was their fault, and I would hate to have people angry with the store when I still go there from time to time to say hi to the people there whom I still very much like.
No, my issue is with the corporate machine and the insurance policies, who are entirely responsible for putting me through hell.
While I worked at Michaels - which was for years, in two different stores - I was actually 'promoted' through about five different positions - from temporary seasonal cashier, to full time cashier, to front end supervisor, to fine arts department head, to senior custom framer. I LIKED working at Michaels and this entire thing has made me very sad because not only did I like my job - I was good at it. I was VERY good at custom framing and very good at customer service and sales, something I'm sure any of the management there would readily agree with.
Now, being one of the cookie cutter retail operations, everyone wears multiple hats - and when it comes to stocking the store, everyone empties they trucks and stocks the shelves, from temporary help right up to management - everyone works. And our management team wasn't slacking off and dumping it on the rest of us - they were out there unloading trucks in miserable weather with the rest of us - in fact they were usually there first - so nobody could honestly complain that they were getting crap work dumped on them. It just wasn't true - they worked just as hard as the rest of us, honestly. I say this because I really hold NO issues or problems with the crew at the store - this just wasn't their fault, it really wasn't.
Now, working in custom framing, we got more frequent shipments then the rest of the store just by the nature of constant custom orders and getting materials in for them. The store got one to two trucks a week, depending on the season - custom framing got five. Its the responsibility of custom framing to receive their own supplies and unload them,check them in and put them away. So, every weekday we unloaded materials for frames and mats and such. Mat board comes in pieces that are something like 4' x 6' or so, and are heavy cardboard-ish paper - and they boxes often have one or two dozen sheets in them. This makes them very heavy, much heavier then the actual frames.
On the particular day, the ups guy gave me a hand and put the matboard boxes on the wheeley cart for me. I wheeled them inside, then went to lift them off thecart to open the boxes and put away the matboard - such was my job. A 6' x 4' x 2' box is very unwieldy. The box started to tip, so I stuck my right foot under the box to steady it, then turned to put it down. Somehow,the weight of the box on my foot,while turning, successfully 'popped' a groin muscle and I kinda collapsed, unable to put any weight on my leg at all. If you've puilled a groin muscle, you'll understand this. Because the groin pull was so overwhelming,I did not realize at first that I'd also hurt my back - all I knew was that I was in terrible pain and couldn't walk and alarmed the other person in the frame shop by bursting into tears - not exactly what people expect from me. A co-worker ran and got the store wheelchair, someone called Tali to come get me, I filled out the required injury paperwork, I was wheeled to the car whenTali got there. People helped me into the car - which hurt - and my wife took me to the ER.
Our local ER is .... challenged. Because of the overwhelming pain in the groin, they stopped looking for any other damage, wrote it up as a puilled groin muscle,gave me painkillers and crutches and told me to go to the workman's comp clinic.
Which I did. The clinic saw me a few times, concluded that there was some kind of back injury as well, and sent me to a neurologist,who was older then Methusalah. The insurance company assigned me a case worker,who was toaccompany me on all doctor's visists. Whatever. I was sent for physical rehab, which wasn'thelping.
So the neurologist said it wasn't neurological and nothing was wrong. The clinic AND the case worker disagreed,and insisted I go to an orthopaedist. I was sent for xrays and an MRI. The orthopaedist said there was a very clear back injury that was new and was definitely from the work accident. The case manager heard him say this. The physical rehab people took one look at his report and refused to touch me again, saying they would only make it worse.
I was shufflfed to all kinds of tests and now this becamea legal battle - with Michaels insurance saying there was a preexisting injury and this wasn't their fault. There WAS a preexisting - but treated - injury, and the orthopaedist said that wasn't a factor. They didn't like this, and I was ordered to go to another neurologist - who said there was no neurological issue and surgery wasn't advised. They tried to use this to say I didn't need treatment - but the orthopaedist said surgery was absolutely required. Then, suddenly,the case manager was yanked off the case and I wasn't to contact her any more- dunno, guess she wasn't supposed to agre with me orsomething.
This stupid battle and test after test raged on for most of a year. The injury was in January. In June,Michaels stopped paying workers comp benefits, saying the groin muscle was all better and that's the only thing they were responsible for. Now, I had a lawyer who was working on my case. In the middle of this mess,Tali was hospitalized with her frist stroke - her entire hospitalization up to her death and funeral occured while this workers comp battle was still raging on andI was living on painkillers in order to walk. In fact, I have now been on painkillers since January of last year,and am still on them, post surgery
Finally, a little while ago, my lawyer won the case in our third round in court and Michaels was ordered to pay al the benefits from June to present, and to continue paying benefits indefinitely, as well as pay for all medical treatment and surgery. Eventually the surgery was scheduled, as you know, and now I'm home a week out of surgery. I have a few more weeks of recovery before I can even start physical therapy so that I can go back to work. I will note, since Tali passed away in November,my entire source of income has been ( aside from the amazing charity of friends) the worker's comp benefits from Michales - which amounts to 60% of my retail pay - wanna guess how much that leaves me with? The benefits don't even cover half my rent, let alone anything else,and I have a kid to support.
Now, because of the financial situation, I am facing a court date for eviction coming up in about 2 weeks, because I haven't had the money to pay the rent. So, no job, still recovering from surgery, I need to find someplace to live asap for my self, my son and our pets - and I can't lift anything heavier then 2 lbs,can't bend,and can only walk slowly with a cane since I just had spinal fusion surgery.
This then is the totality of the Michaels situation and the hell I've been going through for year. If it wasn't for the incredible generosity of friends taking up collections, I wouldn't have even been able to pay for Tali's funeral - and now I have a little money I'm trying to hang on to in order to manage a downpayment on someplace to move to. Not that I have any idea where I'm going to move to - I have nothing really lined up yet and nowhere to go,which does kinda scare me but I can't let it overwhelm me every day or I'd get nothing done. Not that I can get much done in my current condition,but still .... Some days I find it nearly impossible to even contemplate how I've gotten to such an impossible place, but I am still grateful for having such amazing friends and family to help me when things get to be the worst.
Ok, that was probably more information then you actually wanted,but that should about cover it, unless you have any more questions - I'd be happy to answer.
So, I think the first thing I need to say, and this is important, is that my issue with Michaels is not now and never was with the actual store I worked in, nor with any of the people in that store. To the contrary - most of the employees in that store I considered friends or acquaintances and still do - none of this was their fault, and I would hate to have people angry with the store when I still go there from time to time to say hi to the people there whom I still very much like.
No, my issue is with the corporate machine and the insurance policies, who are entirely responsible for putting me through hell.
While I worked at Michaels - which was for years, in two different stores - I was actually 'promoted' through about five different positions - from temporary seasonal cashier, to full time cashier, to front end supervisor, to fine arts department head, to senior custom framer. I LIKED working at Michaels and this entire thing has made me very sad because not only did I like my job - I was good at it. I was VERY good at custom framing and very good at customer service and sales, something I'm sure any of the management there would readily agree with.
Now, being one of the cookie cutter retail operations, everyone wears multiple hats - and when it comes to stocking the store, everyone empties they trucks and stocks the shelves, from temporary help right up to management - everyone works. And our management team wasn't slacking off and dumping it on the rest of us - they were out there unloading trucks in miserable weather with the rest of us - in fact they were usually there first - so nobody could honestly complain that they were getting crap work dumped on them. It just wasn't true - they worked just as hard as the rest of us, honestly. I say this because I really hold NO issues or problems with the crew at the store - this just wasn't their fault, it really wasn't.
Now, working in custom framing, we got more frequent shipments then the rest of the store just by the nature of constant custom orders and getting materials in for them. The store got one to two trucks a week, depending on the season - custom framing got five. Its the responsibility of custom framing to receive their own supplies and unload them,check them in and put them away. So, every weekday we unloaded materials for frames and mats and such. Mat board comes in pieces that are something like 4' x 6' or so, and are heavy cardboard-ish paper - and they boxes often have one or two dozen sheets in them. This makes them very heavy, much heavier then the actual frames.
On the particular day, the ups guy gave me a hand and put the matboard boxes on the wheeley cart for me. I wheeled them inside, then went to lift them off thecart to open the boxes and put away the matboard - such was my job. A 6' x 4' x 2' box is very unwieldy. The box started to tip, so I stuck my right foot under the box to steady it, then turned to put it down. Somehow,the weight of the box on my foot,while turning, successfully 'popped' a groin muscle and I kinda collapsed, unable to put any weight on my leg at all. If you've puilled a groin muscle, you'll understand this. Because the groin pull was so overwhelming,I did not realize at first that I'd also hurt my back - all I knew was that I was in terrible pain and couldn't walk and alarmed the other person in the frame shop by bursting into tears - not exactly what people expect from me. A co-worker ran and got the store wheelchair, someone called Tali to come get me, I filled out the required injury paperwork, I was wheeled to the car whenTali got there. People helped me into the car - which hurt - and my wife took me to the ER.
Our local ER is .... challenged. Because of the overwhelming pain in the groin, they stopped looking for any other damage, wrote it up as a puilled groin muscle,gave me painkillers and crutches and told me to go to the workman's comp clinic.
Which I did. The clinic saw me a few times, concluded that there was some kind of back injury as well, and sent me to a neurologist,who was older then Methusalah. The insurance company assigned me a case worker,who was toaccompany me on all doctor's visists. Whatever. I was sent for physical rehab, which wasn'thelping.
So the neurologist said it wasn't neurological and nothing was wrong. The clinic AND the case worker disagreed,and insisted I go to an orthopaedist. I was sent for xrays and an MRI. The orthopaedist said there was a very clear back injury that was new and was definitely from the work accident. The case manager heard him say this. The physical rehab people took one look at his report and refused to touch me again, saying they would only make it worse.
I was shufflfed to all kinds of tests and now this becamea legal battle - with Michaels insurance saying there was a preexisting injury and this wasn't their fault. There WAS a preexisting - but treated - injury, and the orthopaedist said that wasn't a factor. They didn't like this, and I was ordered to go to another neurologist - who said there was no neurological issue and surgery wasn't advised. They tried to use this to say I didn't need treatment - but the orthopaedist said surgery was absolutely required. Then, suddenly,the case manager was yanked off the case and I wasn't to contact her any more- dunno, guess she wasn't supposed to agre with me orsomething.
This stupid battle and test after test raged on for most of a year. The injury was in January. In June,Michaels stopped paying workers comp benefits, saying the groin muscle was all better and that's the only thing they were responsible for. Now, I had a lawyer who was working on my case. In the middle of this mess,Tali was hospitalized with her frist stroke - her entire hospitalization up to her death and funeral occured while this workers comp battle was still raging on andI was living on painkillers in order to walk. In fact, I have now been on painkillers since January of last year,and am still on them, post surgery
Finally, a little while ago, my lawyer won the case in our third round in court and Michaels was ordered to pay al the benefits from June to present, and to continue paying benefits indefinitely, as well as pay for all medical treatment and surgery. Eventually the surgery was scheduled, as you know, and now I'm home a week out of surgery. I have a few more weeks of recovery before I can even start physical therapy so that I can go back to work. I will note, since Tali passed away in November,my entire source of income has been ( aside from the amazing charity of friends) the worker's comp benefits from Michales - which amounts to 60% of my retail pay - wanna guess how much that leaves me with? The benefits don't even cover half my rent, let alone anything else,and I have a kid to support.
Now, because of the financial situation, I am facing a court date for eviction coming up in about 2 weeks, because I haven't had the money to pay the rent. So, no job, still recovering from surgery, I need to find someplace to live asap for my self, my son and our pets - and I can't lift anything heavier then 2 lbs,can't bend,and can only walk slowly with a cane since I just had spinal fusion surgery.
This then is the totality of the Michaels situation and the hell I've been going through for year. If it wasn't for the incredible generosity of friends taking up collections, I wouldn't have even been able to pay for Tali's funeral - and now I have a little money I'm trying to hang on to in order to manage a downpayment on someplace to move to. Not that I have any idea where I'm going to move to - I have nothing really lined up yet and nowhere to go,which does kinda scare me but I can't let it overwhelm me every day or I'd get nothing done. Not that I can get much done in my current condition,but still .... Some days I find it nearly impossible to even contemplate how I've gotten to such an impossible place, but I am still grateful for having such amazing friends and family to help me when things get to be the worst.
Ok, that was probably more information then you actually wanted,but that should about cover it, unless you have any more questions - I'd be happy to answer.