Asking for a reasonable accommodation isn’t supposed to be a career-ending event.

When an employee with a chronic pain disability raised the issue at her very first job, her boss responded with a termination threat and a bitter crusade against her to HR.

Soon, she started to feel like it was only a matter of time before she was headed for the door.

Keep reading for the full story.

I messed up at work by telling them my disability.

I (23f) was assigned a task that involved taking measurements in the field at my job. My title is project manager.

I asked for a reasonable accommodation for an extension arm to take measurements but it still was insufferable for my pain (fibromyalgia).

Unfortunately, disclosing this turned out to be a huge mistake.

In a meeting, my boss threatened to fire me and quickly followed it with “but to be clear, YOU are the one who brought up termination.” (I was not, it honestly didn’t even OCCUR to me.)

He told me to wait while he talks to the company attorney.

It soon became clear the boss was determined to drag this out as long as possible.

After 1 week he said he still has more questions he needs answered and that he’ll meet with me next week.

Next week goes by and nothing is said.

All the tension is really starting to get to her and she’s worried about the security of her job.

We are on week 3 now. Things are so tense at work.

I’ve called around and maybe found an attorney in case he decides to escalate things so I’m prepared.

I’ve also been applying to other jobs like crazy.

Then the boss starts sending mixed signals.

He’s made comments about future things like “you’ll get this for your desk, etc.” as if I will have a job.

These field measurements are arguably not even part of my job description and if they were, it makes up around 20-30% of my work.

I set a firm boundary that I couldn’t do the measurements.

But other times, it feels like the writing is on the wall.

On top of that, I do not get assigned project management work and my boss has not reviewed or looked at my work in the last 10 months (is that normal????)

This is my first job and I think I made a mistake. Oh yeah and I sobbed through the aforementioned meeting :’).

If you were me, anxious as all heck, what would you do?

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This employee is really going through the wringer.

What did Reddit make of this whole thing?

This user advises this employee to act quickly to protect herself.

To get through this, she’s going to have to beat HR at their own game.

Many companies don’t seem to realize that it actually costs them very little to accommodate their employees.

This commenter ends with a follow-up question.

Many toxic bosses think they’re always right, but she can’t let him win, not this time.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a woman who reported her manager to HR after being forced to work 24-hours straight.