Something's gotta give

Before I took a break from work, I had an informal agreement with my boss allowing me to telecommute on days where I felt less than perfect.  For example, if I woke up with a migraine and took my meds in the morning, it would take about an hour before they would kick in.  Rather than being an hour late for work (I would still have to shower and get dressed), I could work from home and get my work done.  Or, if I knew I was extra fatigued and on the verge of coming down with something, I could get some extra sleep, take a nap if I needed to, and work later in the evening if needed.  When I returned to work, I figured I would at least have the same agreement.

I set up a meeting with my boss and the department head last week to discuss my work schedule.  I thought that if I could telecommute on a more regular basis, I could avoid getting sick so often and being so fatigued.  The other option that I presented was to reduce my hours (and workload), maybe just by 8 hours a week, to preserve my health.  What I didn't expect was that the department head would be completely against any sort of telecommuting now.

Turns out there is some "stuff" going on in the company and - to avoid the boring details - the department head appears to be scared for her job (and maybe the rest of our jobs).  While she initially seemed agreeable to the reduced schedule, when she took it to her boss he vetoed it.  He says that they can't afford to lose a "full time position" right now.

In the mean time, I had a follow up with the orthopedist yesterday and he wants me to go back to physical therapy.  That's two to three sessions a week, 1.5 to 2 hours each time.  I let my boss know about this, and he tried to help.  His suggestion was that since my sick days are protected by FMLA, I could take 1 sick day a week (or there about) but spread the hours out throughout the week as needed for my appointments.

I appreciate that he was trying to help.  But really, that's just not going to work.  The equivalent of 1 day a week out of the office equals a 20% reduction in work time.  However, I will still have 100% of the workload.  The only thing I see in this situation is increased stress on me to get the job done (without the flexibility to work at home) or risk a bad performance review.  I've been back to work for 6 days and already have 2 migraines (yesterday and today) and increased pain in my neck and back.  I am completely exhausted, once again back to having nothing to give to my family at the end of the day.  I can't keep it up.