Got fired from internship

I got fired from my internship because they said I didn’t take enough initiative to learn how to do things. It was a sports analytics internship, and during the practices, someone else usually was the one who put stuff into the iPad and set up the drills. With OCD, I just want to make it through the day, so I was happy when someone else was the one putting stuff in the iPad, because it would mean I didn’t have an opportunity to mess it up, and get fired. They said it should have taken me a week to learn how to do the stuff which is only like doing it 2-3 times, cause that’s how many shifts I have each week. With OCD, my mind is always somewhere else, and my case is extremely bad. I didn’t even get a warning about not taking initiative, they just fired me. They also made me work today before telling me I was fired at the end of the shift. I also went out not early enough to one of the practices (they want us out 30 minutes early to practices and I went out 7 minutes before the practice started), cause someone else had always been the one who told us when it was time to go out to practice, and there wasn’t anyone who did that this time. For this practice, I was there with one other intern who it was their first day. My boss said that that was my opportunity to take leadership, especially as a senior, and I didn’t do it. I feel like this was going to happen at some point, because with the OCD being as debilitating as it is for me, and the high expectations they have, it wasn’t going to work out to meet their expectations of learning it immediately. I wish this stupid disorder would go away, and I could have a normal life

Anonymous

Date posted: Yesterday

Not to make excuses — sometimes our disorder does impact our job performance — but I do find that lack of feedback before going straight to termination really unprofessional. I know we wouldn’t do that to any intern at my job ! You’ll still be able to use this internship as a reference, and hopefully find a better opportunity. Additionally, and this can be even scarier, so it’s a “know you can” not a “you should,” OCD is protected under ADA. If you had previously disclosed OCD, they would be required to give you proper feedback and make accommodations before termination. If they didn’t, you would have cause for a discrimination suit. But also who wants to go around telling HR all their business ???

anonymous23635

Date posted: Yesterday

@Anonymous I had disclosed OCD to them in an email in the beginning. I did not tell them the severity of it, which is my therapist recommending I try a partial hospitalization program until after I was fired. It wouldn’t have made a difference, and I feel like I just needed more practice, and even with the OCD, I could do the job. It’s even hard for me to be standing when I don’t have to do anything at work, but I have been able to do that, so if given the opportunity to learn how to do the drills more, I probably could’ve learned how to do it. Cause of OCD, I don’t catch onto instructions clearly, because my mind is a war zone. I feel like they are very strict and they said to me “as a senior, you need to take more initiative.” The boss also said that she feels that my health needs to come first, and that the situation is bigger than the job, so she doesn’t want to schedule me for something that is going to make me more stressed out

anonymous23635

Date posted: Yesterday

@Anonymous I wasn’t fired cause of having OCD, but they never asked about accommodations. The accommodations I would need is more time understanding how to do things, because as hard as I try, I can’t pick up things immediately

Anonymous

Date posted: Yesterday

@anonymous23635 Those are the kind of accommodations they would need to give you under the ADA — clear feedback, documented SOPs/procedure documentation, and an adjusted timescale for picking up new things. I’ve had to do this at my own job and it is really uncomfortable - and management doesn’t really understand it :-(

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