The last thing I felt like doing this week was posing for any pictures. Monday morning at 9am I woke up to the phone ringing. Someone from the government had finally (a month and a half later) looked into my claim for maternity leave. Relief. Excitement. Thank god, thank god. Turns out though, that I only had 568 of the required 600 insurable hours worked to qualify for mat-leave-ei. What?! That's impossible!.. I barked, jumping out of bed. I tracked my total hours worked to the minute, every day, until my last day on November 2nd. I was told how to do this by a team manager - someone who I stupidly trusted with this kind of information. I told the lady on the phone that I definitely had 600 hours. In fact, I had 605.something hours. Something must be wrong. Panic. Fret. Worry. Tears. Frustration.
Ten minutes later I get another phone call. The same lady had called the human resources department at my job and verified that I was wrong. The way I was shown how to track my hours was incorrect and didn't give an accurate number. I am 32 hours short for maternity leave. This means no money - at all. I thought I was entitled to and paid in for over a year (counting the sick-leave I've been on for pain for a month and a half). But no, I wouldn't be getting anything and my claim was teetering on the edge of being denied. I was told that I could dispute it with the HR department. I called to speak to the woman who handled my leave of absence (LOA/sick leave/whatever) and was greeted by someone who told me I was wrong, it's not their responsibility, tough luck. I demanded a print out of the program that tracks the hours and promptly hung up on her. Anger. Rage. More tears. Keep in mind this all occurred before 930am on Monday morning - just hours before Blaine's first exam of the season.
Blaine went to school and I went to pick up the print out. It did show the hours that I thought it would but it also had a handy little note written on it explaining just how wrong I was - and after doing some math, it was confirmed. I relied on incorrect information from some random person and a computer program to keep track of something as important as my insurable hours for maternity leave. I spent the rest of the afternoon crying at my Mom's house and missed my last prenatal appointment of the year. I was advised to apply for social assistance - though we don't qualify because Blaine makes too much money going to school *head desk.* I gave the lady from the government the new information I had, was informed that my claim would be denied, and I started looking into my options. After a couple days of pondering, I decided to ask my Doctor when I saw her on Friday to write me a note saying I could return to work if she considered it to be safe. I would call HR and apologize for being so insufferably rude and beg them to take me back to work. Less than a week before Christmas. Please. Please. Please. Yes, I'll be leaving again in a few weeks for maternity-leave-for-real-real. Please. I have had massive anxiety about this entire situation for a week and have literally made myself sick with worry.
I told my Doctor that the back pain had improved (which is the honest truth, I don't sit in a computer chair for 10 hours a day anymore ....) and she told me that this wasn't the first time people have had to return to this particular place of work due to short-hours. I got my note. I called Friday afternoon and was surprised that the HR rep wasn't pissed off, and she actually thanked me for apologizing and assured me I could be worked into the schedule by Tuesday.
So there we have it folks. I will be returning to call center hell on Tuesday. I will work through Christmas and New Years - with no money, might I add - and hopefully leave again before the end of the first week of January. 32 Weeks pregnant and back to work. I never expected in a million years that this would happen. While I'm glad that the situation is resolved, I will be getting more than enough hours, and one more pay check from work, I am stressed about going back. It is a really awful job.
I'm also feeling really down because we were counting on the 1.5 month long paycheck to arrive and fund the remainder (ie: all) of our Christmas shopping and groceries. Since it's not coming, I've given up on Christmas this year. I have a gift each for my two nieces, something for my mom, and one kind of stupid gift for Blaine. I don't have the ingredients to bake my holiday goodies, or the vegetables to go along with the dip I'll be making. I suppose we can dip our fingers in it - har har. Nothing for Blaine's family, my father, sisters, etc. I've been feeling really guilty and down about it. We woke up to snow again today.. and the last time I wrote about it I was brimming with Christmas giddiness and excitement for decorating our home and tree. Now the tree makes me sad and the snow reminds me that it'll be difficult to get to work in yucky weather. I hate that I'm feeling this way. I hate that we even found ourselves in this situation. This year was supposed to be magical, and instead, I'll be listening to people scream about their cell phone bills on Christmas Eve. I may not get to go visit family (depending on my schedule), which is the most important part of the holidays for us. It's not about getting presents. It's about giving and seeing the people we love. I don't like to be such a Debbie-Downer grinch, but I wanted to post this quick recap to mark the chaos that was week 30. Week 31 is going a little better so far. But that's another post for another day. Bah humbug.
