My new job is not working out
I'm a PTA who used to work at a orthopedic PT mill a month ago. It was ok in all honesty, but there were some changes coming that had the potential to make an already difficult job hell. At the same time, I was reached out on LinkedIn for a position that's at an outpatient clinic that's not a mill where they would cover my training for pelvic floor PT.
Getting educated in the pelvic floor specialty has been my dream ever since I was in college but it wasn't possible for me to get at my last job, so at first this felt like serendipity.
Unfortunately, I got sick right off the bat at the start of my second week at the job. It was just a nasty cold, with a bad cough and congestion. I never once asked to take time off but my new boss was initially kind enough to offer to let me take off a day and a half to recover. Unfortunately, I was still sick for the full week after that too (so two weeks sick). Again, I never asked for any more time off and worked as hard as I could all week despite feeling and sounding terrible. I wore a mask and washed my hands frequently when working with my patients. It didn't stop my boss from chewing me out twice for having this awful cough and said it was my fault for not eating healthy enough, even though she never asked anything about my diet.
Now I'm starting the beginning of my fourth week here. My cough still lingers but it's a lot better. Unfortunately, my baby got really sick yesterday and had a 103.4 fever early this morning. While she hasn't been diagnosed yet, she developed the croup cough really bad last night. My husband took today off but needs me to take tomorrow off. I tried to ask some family members for babysitting help this week but no one is available, so I have to take tomorrow off for her. My boss again implied that my baby's illness is my fault for not eating well enough. My baby goes to daycare. She's exposed to everything under the sun and everyone I know who has daycare kids talk about how their little one got sick constantly the first year.
My boss went on to say that I have to stop coughing, even a little, or I can't do pelvic floor at all, and that "we're going to have a big problem."
I feel awful. As much as I don't want to go back to the mill, I'm so stressed I'm going to be fired for things outside of my control. I can only eat so many fruits and veggies, but I know that's not going to stop me or my infant from getting sick. I feel so guilty how this started and how much stress I've put them in with the back to back illnesses, but it was also obvious that I was willing to work hard despite feeling miserable. I feel lost and sick to my stomach that I'm going to lose this opportunity. A part of me doesn't even want to go into pelvic floor anymore. I don't really have a question, just needed to vent. The last month has been a lot of back to back stress and I'm running on one hour of sleep after staying up taking care of my sick kiddo.
Posted Oct 14, 2025, 12:50 PM UTC