Mybosstheenemy
New Here
This is my first time on any forum. My wife is aged 40, we have 2 kids. A few years ago she was a successful sales person in a male dominated logistics industry earning a six figure income which she had built up skills and clients over 2 decades. She won a massive contract which she estimated to be huge, well into the 7 figues but her boss's and her logistics manager disagreed, they estimated it at about 10 percent, the Ops manager did not even want to go and check out the venue, said he had better things to do. Anyway, they miss calculated BIG time. She ended up working 27-29 hour shifts, thown in as an onsite ops manager(no experience,no protective gear) routing up to 60 massive vehicles and organising all the jobs and returns with 2-4 hours break inbetween, in the middle of winter, She didnt come home for 2 weeks ,she grabbed showers at a relatives house in the next suburb and tried to get a few hours sleep on their lounge, I had to take our kids and dog on a 2.5 hour return drive to the warehouse to visit her every third or fourth day for 10-15 minutes( we all still had school and I had to work too). During this time she was being abused by the actual operations manager and some other male employees who were in fear of being caught out not doing their end of the organisational job for securing enough vehicles, she was blamed for other mistakes, She would call me in tears saying she was being sabotaged and threatened with her job, she was repeatedly sworn at, hung up in and when she would call telling them to send someone else out after doing 29 hours straight she was told" Its your contract, you fix it".
She called management and the owner, they told her not to be so sensitive and to pull her head in and get over it. She developed a severe flu which she had to work through, lost 9 kilos in 2 weeks ( she was size 10 so did not need to lose weight) and she had a few physical injuries like severly sprained ankles tripping over pallets and from physical exhaustion etc. On the last day of the event after many tearful outbursts she actually had a full scale physical and emotional breakdown. the end diagnosis was partial hearing loss in one ear, severe ringing in the ear, balance problem, ankle damage requiring reconstructive surgery and emotional injuries which doctors at first thought could be depression, reactive depression, anxiety, PTSD and in the beginning they did not know or endeavour to find out how her actual mental state had been effected the most, whether it was from the abuse and bullying or if it was related to the ringing in her ear (permanent and called tinnitus) or the other things that had occurred. They now agree that it was onset from bullying and abuse adn further aggrivated from not being able to sleep from ear ringing and insomnia and fear induced dreams because of what went on at the event.
Here is my problem now, the company she worked for dismissed her on grounds oof the GFC, even though they made a bomb and have all recently bought 400K cars and have grown, because she was earning above $104k she was not able to apply for unfair dismissal in NSW Australian law. Her workers compensation is $520 in the hand a week, she is still suffering from severe nightmares, scared to leave the house, svere balance problems, insomnia and hyper vigilance and has had to do a myriad of things organised by the insurance company all of which have made things worse and all the while they have denied treatment her doctors requests for up to 4 and 6 months at a time only to then approve it and to get it she has to go through the workcover NSW system who most of the time dont really care because it is a government organisation who merely overseas what goes on.
Over here it is the insurance company who manage's all of her treatment and all of her claim. We all know what insurance companies are like when it comes to being fair dont we?
Because her insurance company has misleading things on her reports, her legal team have told her she needs to get independant reports done, expensive, before they will represent her.
Now her doctors have said that she does suffer from a form of PTSD as a result of bullying and abuse but they claim it is from the tinnitus which makes it a secondary injury and therefor "not claimable". They are of the opinion that she should just keep limping around in pain and not sleeping and somehow be able to earn a massive income so they dont have to keep paying her the $500 a week. After 3 years of picking up the pieces, losing our house and having to move, helping my wife who was the main income earner for 10 years, doing my job and caring for the kids as well as my wifes family flying in to help, I am at a loss at how much longer they will drag this out for, the sad thing is, she is likely to only receive a payout of around $27k and she keeps being threatened with things if she does not try and find a fulltime job earning in excess of $140k a year even though her doctors have stated she is "not fit for work" Workcover have said that they cant override the insurance companies reason for how they believe the injuries happened and her doctors have even said that because of all the injuries that happened at once it was impossible for them to be able to tell in the first year what the biggest emotional issues were because dealing with a loud ongoing noise in the head is just as severe as PTSD caused by bullying and abuse, but the insurance company has said that "the doctors should of listed all the reasons it "could" of been from in the begining".
We are now having to pay $1300 for each report to try and get a proper authorised NSW doctor to address this and each report will cost this, so even though we are out of pocket by over $300,000.00 in lost wages and the most she is entitled to is $520 a week and a lump sum of $27k, we now have to come up with money for expensive reports to get the diagnosis done in the correct order of injury.
I havnt even started yet on the out of pocket for her treatment that we end up paying for because they say it will not help, like relaxation therapy, massage etc or the therapy we have had our kids in seeing they once had a Mum who was sporty and did everything with them, took them to theme parks, carnivals,holidays etc and now she is limping around waiting for her surgery to be approved and barely leaves the house and is upset all the time, or the fact that her mother is like a live in nurse maid and childcare minder at times which obviously affects her life.
We have both worked hard and done the right thing, and we are supposed to be in the lucky country, so how is this allowed to happen and why is it that her greedy employers who made a mint out of this excersize, get off SCOT free.
If anyone knows of any help we could get in relation to this I would appreciate it a lot, can PTSD be caused from bullying as well as injury? Is it reasonable that doctors may not know what the cause of PTSD or anxiety depression is from exactly in the begining? All the bullying and abuse was documented from the begining to the employer, the doctors and the insurance companies.
I know there are a lot of other people suffering out there with worse things and Im mindful of that, including the recent floods up here which the insurance companies are not paying out based on the fine print of what caused the flood which is a disgrace, and Im aware that insurance companies main aim to is to pay as little as possible, but there must be something in place that does not allow these companies to actually be the case manager of the injured person, I know it is different in different countries but these are the laws here sadly, and I dont know how much longer I can keep our family together.
Her doctors have now updated everything with all the injuries and the causes but the insurance company is not accepting that decision even though they have only sent her to their doctor once 2 years ago who even stated that he is unable to ascertain the extent of the injury based on abuse as he was not given any documents or information on this other than what she and her mother told him in the one hour visit, he did manage to write a 14 page report though after a one hour visit stating that she should be able to do a return to work programme, but with many clauses like "once injury is stable,once nature of injury is assessed,once proper return to work program is understaken etc.
This was 2 years ago, she has completed 2 return to work programms, one ended in another breakdown the other she gained a menial part time job which ended badlt after 3 months when she had an accident driving home and her employer got upset she was forgetting where she put things, this sent her into a total downhill spiral as she was hysterical, crying that once she was able to meet with heads of companies and now she is getting written warnings about forgetting to pick up the boss;s coffee cup and getting upset she cant find her own filing.
This latest event has made her feel whe has no use adn no worth yet the inurance company keep pushing her to go back to work regardless, I fear for her safety at present as I cant get up anymore to do basic things and I dont know where to turn.
Appreciate any help or info in relation to anything that could help.
She called management and the owner, they told her not to be so sensitive and to pull her head in and get over it. She developed a severe flu which she had to work through, lost 9 kilos in 2 weeks ( she was size 10 so did not need to lose weight) and she had a few physical injuries like severly sprained ankles tripping over pallets and from physical exhaustion etc. On the last day of the event after many tearful outbursts she actually had a full scale physical and emotional breakdown. the end diagnosis was partial hearing loss in one ear, severe ringing in the ear, balance problem, ankle damage requiring reconstructive surgery and emotional injuries which doctors at first thought could be depression, reactive depression, anxiety, PTSD and in the beginning they did not know or endeavour to find out how her actual mental state had been effected the most, whether it was from the abuse and bullying or if it was related to the ringing in her ear (permanent and called tinnitus) or the other things that had occurred. They now agree that it was onset from bullying and abuse adn further aggrivated from not being able to sleep from ear ringing and insomnia and fear induced dreams because of what went on at the event.
Here is my problem now, the company she worked for dismissed her on grounds oof the GFC, even though they made a bomb and have all recently bought 400K cars and have grown, because she was earning above $104k she was not able to apply for unfair dismissal in NSW Australian law. Her workers compensation is $520 in the hand a week, she is still suffering from severe nightmares, scared to leave the house, svere balance problems, insomnia and hyper vigilance and has had to do a myriad of things organised by the insurance company all of which have made things worse and all the while they have denied treatment her doctors requests for up to 4 and 6 months at a time only to then approve it and to get it she has to go through the workcover NSW system who most of the time dont really care because it is a government organisation who merely overseas what goes on.
Over here it is the insurance company who manage's all of her treatment and all of her claim. We all know what insurance companies are like when it comes to being fair dont we?
Because her insurance company has misleading things on her reports, her legal team have told her she needs to get independant reports done, expensive, before they will represent her.
Now her doctors have said that she does suffer from a form of PTSD as a result of bullying and abuse but they claim it is from the tinnitus which makes it a secondary injury and therefor "not claimable". They are of the opinion that she should just keep limping around in pain and not sleeping and somehow be able to earn a massive income so they dont have to keep paying her the $500 a week. After 3 years of picking up the pieces, losing our house and having to move, helping my wife who was the main income earner for 10 years, doing my job and caring for the kids as well as my wifes family flying in to help, I am at a loss at how much longer they will drag this out for, the sad thing is, she is likely to only receive a payout of around $27k and she keeps being threatened with things if she does not try and find a fulltime job earning in excess of $140k a year even though her doctors have stated she is "not fit for work" Workcover have said that they cant override the insurance companies reason for how they believe the injuries happened and her doctors have even said that because of all the injuries that happened at once it was impossible for them to be able to tell in the first year what the biggest emotional issues were because dealing with a loud ongoing noise in the head is just as severe as PTSD caused by bullying and abuse, but the insurance company has said that "the doctors should of listed all the reasons it "could" of been from in the begining".
We are now having to pay $1300 for each report to try and get a proper authorised NSW doctor to address this and each report will cost this, so even though we are out of pocket by over $300,000.00 in lost wages and the most she is entitled to is $520 a week and a lump sum of $27k, we now have to come up with money for expensive reports to get the diagnosis done in the correct order of injury.
I havnt even started yet on the out of pocket for her treatment that we end up paying for because they say it will not help, like relaxation therapy, massage etc or the therapy we have had our kids in seeing they once had a Mum who was sporty and did everything with them, took them to theme parks, carnivals,holidays etc and now she is limping around waiting for her surgery to be approved and barely leaves the house and is upset all the time, or the fact that her mother is like a live in nurse maid and childcare minder at times which obviously affects her life.
We have both worked hard and done the right thing, and we are supposed to be in the lucky country, so how is this allowed to happen and why is it that her greedy employers who made a mint out of this excersize, get off SCOT free.
If anyone knows of any help we could get in relation to this I would appreciate it a lot, can PTSD be caused from bullying as well as injury? Is it reasonable that doctors may not know what the cause of PTSD or anxiety depression is from exactly in the begining? All the bullying and abuse was documented from the begining to the employer, the doctors and the insurance companies.
I know there are a lot of other people suffering out there with worse things and Im mindful of that, including the recent floods up here which the insurance companies are not paying out based on the fine print of what caused the flood which is a disgrace, and Im aware that insurance companies main aim to is to pay as little as possible, but there must be something in place that does not allow these companies to actually be the case manager of the injured person, I know it is different in different countries but these are the laws here sadly, and I dont know how much longer I can keep our family together.
Her doctors have now updated everything with all the injuries and the causes but the insurance company is not accepting that decision even though they have only sent her to their doctor once 2 years ago who even stated that he is unable to ascertain the extent of the injury based on abuse as he was not given any documents or information on this other than what she and her mother told him in the one hour visit, he did manage to write a 14 page report though after a one hour visit stating that she should be able to do a return to work programme, but with many clauses like "once injury is stable,once nature of injury is assessed,once proper return to work program is understaken etc.
This was 2 years ago, she has completed 2 return to work programms, one ended in another breakdown the other she gained a menial part time job which ended badlt after 3 months when she had an accident driving home and her employer got upset she was forgetting where she put things, this sent her into a total downhill spiral as she was hysterical, crying that once she was able to meet with heads of companies and now she is getting written warnings about forgetting to pick up the boss;s coffee cup and getting upset she cant find her own filing.
This latest event has made her feel whe has no use adn no worth yet the inurance company keep pushing her to go back to work regardless, I fear for her safety at present as I cant get up anymore to do basic things and I dont know where to turn.
Appreciate any help or info in relation to anything that could help.
