So what's new since last post?
1) My MRI came back with no nerves squeezed or anything, even though that didn't really mean anything other than that an operation would not necessarily have helped my condition. No operation, but some serious physical therapy, a girdle, and water aerobics! Things went well, and by summer, I was even able to go for some jogging without too much pain afterwards (and then it wasn't my back, it was more other parts of my body--like knee joints and muscles--that hadn't been used much since my back 'immobilized' me). By midsummer, there was no more therapy of any kind, just me on my own, exercising for my own good and wellbeing, making sure my back would stay strong.
2) I got a job in Ireland as a multilingual customer support agent for the Xbox360 console. I almost got a job as a multilingual customer support agent for the Sony Vaio computer just weeks prior to that, but during my final interview, I did too well and didn't get the job because they thought I was overqualified and thought I'd get bored with the job rather quickly. Typical.
Well, I moved to Dublin, Ireland at the end of July, and started on the job training on August 16. Within days, me and my fellow trainees started getting colds, with coughs and fevers. But most of us still showed up for training, since we were told that if we missed the training days, we'd start off the real job with warnings, and more on probation than necessary. After about five weeks, I coughed so much that I had kept myself awake at night, and started coughing blood. Time to visit a doctor, who told me to stay home and get rest, plus I got some medication since he feared pneumonia. I got a chest x-ray to see if I did, and it turned out I had pneumonia in my left lung.
By this time, I had been home for weeks from work, but I thought this was ok since I assumed I would get sick pay from the welfare office (to which I sent weekly "sick notes"). At this point, I started feeling strange, and came down with anxiety attacks. The doc told me it was probably because of stress, and told me to continue to stay home. Eventually, even though my pneumonia got better, I never really got rid of my cold symptoms.
At that point, I wrote an e-mail to HR at work, telling them I wanted to meet and discuss the situation, and how this potentially was forcing me to resign. I never hear back from them, and after 2-3 weeks of no word (after trying to get in touch with both HR and my team manager), I decided to contact my initial contact at HR at work, a girl who had helped me when I first arrived in Dublin. She was helpful, and looked up what the situation was and why no one had gotten back to me. When she told me that they had automatically "let me go" when I had first sent in my e-mail concerning discussing potential resignation, and I hadn't worked there for weeks!!! She also mentioned that I probably wouldn't get any sick pay since I had only worked there for such a brief time!!! On top of that, I needed to pay back some of the previous month's salary that I had been paid by mistake, plus most of the relocation package money that they had helped us with to move to Dublin. Not a fun situation. Let's just say that I had more anxiety attacks than "normal" that day.
RIGHT NOW, I'm back in Sweden where I was before moving to Ireland, and I'm back to job hunting, and I still owe the company in Ireland money. Why I still owe them? Well, since I never received any sick pay and lived there longer than I needed to because I was never told I had been let go, I spent a bunch of money on rent, doctor's visits, and medicine. Then I had no choice but to fly back to Sweden since the climate made me worse and worse, as I suspect the humidity (outdoors as well as indoors) had quite a negative effect on my respiratory system. I have heard nothing from the company about paying them back, but I expect them to eventually contact me.
Then again, that company is so badly run that nobody there seems to know what they should do. Since I left, several Swedes have left the company, or been fired. Good for them. Working for that company is more or less slave work. Minimum pay, shift work with rarely even two straight days off, and they're not allowed to take vacation around or during Christmas. I'm glad I got out, even if I had to get really sick and more in debt to get it done. Everything happens for a reason.
