946904

I worked for Cleveland State University from December, 2010 until April, 2021. For the first 7 or 8 years of employment, I received excellent reviews from my supervisor. I became ill in approximately 2018 and I also failed to comply with a request that I felt was not following CSU policy (taking time off when the chair was not there and not recording it to vacation or sick days). At approximately this same time, my supervisor began bullying me. I went on medical leave about the time that I did not comply with her request because I was her bullying began to wear me down emotionally, and I was not well physically. During my medical leave, I was diagnosed as having severe sleep apnea and excessive daytime sleepiness, which was causing a form of narcolepsy, specifically "sleep attacks", or an uncontrollable urge to fall asleep while I was working. I tried to get information about accommodations and whether or not my my issue of falling asleep momentarily due to a sleep disorder that I was diagnosed with, but no one would return my calls or emails and I was told they were not allowed to talk with me until I returned. So basically, I was fearful that if I returned and my disability was not recognized, they could potentially fire me for sleeping on the job. Prior to all of this, I had been having problems with a particular Professor approaching me from behind and tickling me. When I told my supervisor, she did nothing about it on three different occasions. Finally, I went to the department chair, who said he would talk to the Professor only if I dropped the issue then and there. I got an apology from the professor followed by an excuse that he thought we were "just playing". Each and every time that he touched me, I told him under no circumstance to ever touch me again. At one point, he startled me, and I commented that he was lucky that I did not take a swing and hit him. His response was that he would have hit me back if I had done this. I was not involved in the discussion between the chair and the professor, but I feel that in the end I was being overly sensitive and was overreacting. So, since I was told I could not bring this up again, I felt I had no recourse. After that, my supervisor began to make an issue of me sleeping on the job. I told her that I was under a doctor's care and was trying to figure out what was wrong with me. Regardless, she went to HR, and had me sign a form for accommodations. She then began to decide what the accommodations should be even though she had no training or education in this area, and at the same time, she was creating an improvement plan that included that I was to stop falling asleep at work immediately, even though she knew I was under a doctor's care. From that point on, she made my job extremely stressful and difficult, even though I tried to follow this improvement plan that was basically something that I am incapable of doing do to my diagnosis of severe sleep apnea and a form of narcolepsy that was causing an incontrollable need to fall asleep. I finally decided several months later to retire, after I was not successful in finding anyone from Human Resources or my union to help me with her continuing and increasing harassments. The I asked to file a grievance but was strung along until I had exceeded the time limit to file a complaint. I left at least 15 messages for the HR person I was told to contact, and she would not return my call. I later found out that all three of these people were discussing my situation, but I still was not given any due process to state my case.