My wife worked at Emory Animal Hospital, she committed her self to promoting the Animal Hospital there even when she was off the clock. Her and I both did favors for the people that worked there. Everything from grabbing some snacks/treats, to helping at the clinic (I didn't get any pay), to even helping the doctor with their personal pets at their house. I never realized it was so bad at Emory Animal Hospital, until my wife's attempted suicided. I tried to be reasonable about working with the owner since I was not sure if he was aware or not, although he did not make any effort to contact me back. Since our battle between Emory Animal Hospital regarding unemployment my wife is unable to get a job because of the blatant slander that Emory Animal Hospital is giving to my wife's potential employers.
Below is a somewhat edited version of what my wife had to send to the TN department of labor regarding her unemployment with Emory Animal Hospital.
The first instance of inappropriate behavior from Belinda Smith happened around the end of October/beginning of November. I had got to work early that day, and was the first on there. I didn't like being in the clinic alone with any of the doors unlocked, so I kept the employee's entrance locked. While I was preforming my morning duties the receptionist came in through the front door and locked it behind her. At that time, I was having menstrual problems, and had been bleeding for 6 months non-stop with times where there was a lot of blood. I had gone to the bathroom due to this problem, and while I was in the bathroom, Belinda. Smith came in. She tried to go to the employee's entrance and found it locked still, and had to come through the front door. At that time, a few clients were in the lobby being helped by the receptionist, Patti Walker. Belinda Smith threw a fit that I was not up front helping with the two clients that were in the lobby. At that time she started making comments to the clients and the receptionist about me not being there and not being helpful. When she heard me come out of the restroom, she can back there, and cornered me. She said You need to be here on time each day and be ready to begin your work at the appropriate time. I tried to explain to her what was going on with me and that I was in the restroom, and she said that she didn't care. She also said that she didn't like coming in and having to help clients right off the bat. I once again tried to explain why I was in the restroom, and that is when she said that we would talk about it later. I told her that I would be happy to and that I needed to talk to her anyways, because my DR wanted me to have surgery on December 1st. 2008. She just looked at me and said great, and stormed off.By this time, I was crying, and when I turned around, I noticed that the clients had heard everything that Belinda Smith said to me. Right before lunch, Belinda Smith called me into her office. Of course I was already crying, I had been all day. One of my doctors had prescribed me to take birth control pills ever six hours to help stop the bleeding, and when I went to see Dr., he had taken me off the pills all together. So my hormones were messed up, and I had been crying a lot. Once I got into the office, Belinda Smith told me that she couldn't talk to me while I was crying and that I needed to get a hold of myself. I informed her that I was trying, but I had just got some bad news along with being taken off the pills, so it was going to be a little hard for me. She then asked me what the doctor had told me when I was there the week before. I told her that he believe that I had Poly Cysistic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) along with Insulin Resistance (IR), and that he believe that it would be very hard for me to ever have a child, and that I was very upset about all of that news. She then told me to get over it because her sister couldn't have children either, and then she told me that "all of my problems was due to my weight." I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I tried to explain to her that the Dr believed that my weight problems were because of my PCOS and IR. She then said that I wouldn't have those problems if I weren't so overweight. I was so shocked about what she had just told me, that I didn't know what to say. Then she went on to make fun of the way that I ate by saying it was like I was stuffing my face.
From that point on things with Belinda Smith went down hill. At every chance she got she was on to me about something. Most of the time, it was things that was not even my job to worry about. I tried to be nice to her, and even remembered to get her something for her birthday. But none of this helped. She would go out of her way to come and say something to me about diets and how I needed to be on one. There was a time that I was working on cleaning something in the lobby, and I bent over and my pants came down a little bit so that my back was showing. There was no one there in the lobby with me, and she and I were the only ones in the building, so I was not to worried about it. She came over to me screaming that " no one wanted to see my ass", and that I need to be more careful. Things got so bad with the comments that she made to me, that I would try to avoid her at all cost. The fax machine and copier were in her office, and I would wait until she left her office to do any coping or faxing that I needed to do, just so that I didn't have to be near her.
Belinda Smith even turned some of the other employees against me.
When I first started working at Emory Animal Hospital, I discovered that there was a drawer full of expired products. I was even told to clean out the drawer and throw away things that were just too old or that we would never use. While doing that I asked another employee what the products in the drawer were used for if they were expired. The employee, Kim Darnell, informed me that the products in that draw were for everyone and anyone who needed them, and then she herself took some thyroxin from the drawer. So in January, when my dog was having trouble with her skin, Dr. Skelly told me that it would be ok to give her some Clavamox. Being short on money at the time, I was not sure how I was going to pay her vet bills and pay for her medication along with that. Then later that week I remembered the drawer full of expired products that no one had touched in forever, and so I took some Clavamox for my dog with the intention of paying for the expired drug when I got paid. Apparently, Kim Darnell saw me walk out of the hospital with it, and instead of coming to me and asking me about it, she went to Belinda Smith and told her that I was stealing Clavamox.
Later that month we had decided to do a skin scrape on my dog to see if she had mites. We done the scrape and it was positive, and I was so stress about that and the things that I was going to have to do for her, that I forgot to put the charges for the skin scrape into the computer, and in turn forgot to pay for it. From that point on any purchase that I made at Emory Animal Hospital I had my husband do and pay for.
On March 22, I was at my wit's end, and decided that my life was not worth living anymore. I then made the attempt to kill myself. I could not do it, and then went to my husband, Michael, for help. We called a counselor that night through his EAP at work. I talked with the lady on the phone for a long time, and then we decided to go to my mom's house so that she could help watch over me that night.
The next day, Monday March 23, my mother called and left a message on the answering machine at Emory Animal Hospital saying that I would not be in that day because I was ill. I then spent the day with my mother under close supervision. Later that day, Michael called into Emory Animal Hospital. He asked to speak to Dr. Andrew Skelley, but was told that he was busy. Michael then left a message for Dr. Skelley to call him back and that I had a doctor appointment the next day. Dr. Skelley never called Michael back! Michael was going to tell Dr. Skelley what was going on with me. He didn't want to tell the receptionist or Belinda, since he didn't want the message to be told to anyone who walked into the door.
On March 24, I had an appointment at Dr's practice. I saw a nurse practitioner, that day. She believe that I was a danger to myself and kept me at the office pretty much all day. She ran different test, done an ultrasound, and sat me down and talked to me. It was later in the day when I left there. When I got out, I was going to call Emory Animal Hospital, but discovered that I had left my phone at home. So, I went home to chance clothes and get something to eat.
When I got home I discovered that there was a message on my answering machine from Belinda Smith saying that I was fired.in the appeal hearing she stated that she had tried and several other staff members had to tried to call me and Michael all day. I want it known that there was no other messages from them, nothing on our caller id, and nothing on our missed calls from them that day. Later that day, after Belinda called, I did have a call from Patti Walker, a receptionist at Emory Animal Hospital, asking how I was, but that was a personal call and was made from Patti's cell phone.
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