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As a result of what I deemed to be discrimination regarding
the aforementioned situation, I immediately obtained a lawyer.
His review of the circumstances led him to advise me that I had
indeed been discriminated against and that we should move forward
with filing a claim. Concurrently, Rose Johnston surmised that
there must be an underlying reason why I spoke to the security
guard. I informed her that the building was not up to code and
provided her with all the details. Her response was that maybe
some good could come of this despite what I deemed to being made
an example of. Within a few weeks she brought me in again to
inform me that she had approached the building manager regarding
my issues. Not only had he insisted the building was up to code
to her but to the corporate headquarters as well. I insisted that
either he didn't know the law or else he was lying to save face.
Regardless, soon after, an outside agency was hired to assess the
building and indeed found it to not be up to code. It was relayed
to me, once again by Rose Johnston, that Jim McGough had indeed
lied and that there were plans to bring the building up to code.
With this knowledge in hand, I decided not to file my lawsuit and
instead to await the changes that I was led to believe would be
imminent.
MetLife did make the changes but not until late November of this
same year. Two weeks prior to these changes being made, I was
transferred to another installation 15 miles further from home.
Hence, I was never able to utilize the changes I had petitioned
for. Namely an alternate bathroom stall on the other two floors
and push button technology to open the once heavy and cumbersome
doors.
The building that I was transferred to is a new building. On my
floor there are two bathrooms. Each bathroom has 1 accessible
stall with one that is more accessible than the other and has a
sink within it. The primary bathroom also has one non-accessible
stall and three urinals. The other two floors in the building
have only a primary bathroom with the same two stalls and 3
urinals. When our group moved to this building we were at
approximately 50% capacity. Over time, with the advent of
increased staffing, this had increased to nearly 100%.
Additionally, our office had been increasingly used for meetings
and training classes burgeoning the capacity dramatically. With
so many additional people on site on any given day and the
conference rooms being utilized for extracurricular functions on
my floor, the bathroom often times is overflowing with all the
facilities that I can use occupied. To compound this situation,
many associates choose these facilities as their primary choice.
This resulted in not making it to the bathroom in time on 3
different occasions.
Once again I sought the advocacy of the human resources
department in July of 2004. I met with the new HR Generalist,
Michael Reilly, and provided him with all the shortcomings of the
new building as regards my disability. The following is that
list:
1. The front door is often compromised by a wind lock, which
makes it incredibly difficult to open even for the ambulatory
people in the building. It is prevalent even at times when the
wind outside is not a factor.
2. There is an inside door on the second floor that serves as a
short cut to many people's workstations. Since this door opens
outward, a sign should be placed on the inside to warn people to
open the door slowly. The consequences of someone opening this
door in a fast fashion could injure someone or spill someone's
lunch on them, etc. The possibility of someone getting burned by
scalding liquid exists.
3. To minimize people using the handicap stalls as a first
priority, I suggested that an email enlightening people to this
etiquette faux paux be sent. I was explicit in noting that the
email directly state that the bathroom stall in question is the
more accessible one located in the shower room and that this
should be referenced in the note. The other accessible bathroom
stall requires me to back in and on a number of occasions I had
banged my elbow on a shelf that I can't see when backing up.
4. I also asked that the aforementioned shelf be moved as I had
previously had surgery on that elbow and did not wish to reinjure
myself.