Career Education Corporation CEC, CECO, Career Ed CEC discriminated against my Bi-Polar Disorder and forced me out the door. Internet

February 11, 2010: I have worked for Career Education Corporation for nine years. I have not received a review in three years, have received one informal feedback session from one of my three current bosses (Deb Lenart) no feedback from Vicki Hudspeath and as of last week, Cheryl Renner Whitney told me she thought I "walk on water."  A few weeks ago I accepted Outlook invites for interviews, which would have eliminated a portion of my position, for Vicki Hudspeath and Cheryl Renner Whitney. I was curious if I would still be supporting these women going forward, so I asked Deb Lenart if there was going to be a change in structure. Surprisingly, she did not snap at me and ask, "what do you want?" when I walked into her office. She said that another admin was in the budget and not to worry about it. I then expressed that I just wanted to make sure that I hadn't done anything wrong, forcing a replacement. She responded that she was concerned about workload and there had been some "bottlenecking issues, but we could talk about that later."  I spent the entire weekend obsessing on the conversation and trying to figure out what I may have bottlenecked. But really, how would I know since no one ever told me there were any issues? (When I told Deb Lenart that no one ever said there was a problem, she replied that she asked me about my workload 2-3 times. That is true; however, a VERY different conversation than telling me my work is sub-par.) I went to my site HR rep that Monday and she suggested that I be proactive and request feedback from my bosses. I then went to my division HR rep (who seems to be in Deb Lenart's nicely padded pocket) and she said she would make sure I got my review, which I have yet to receive. To make a long story short, since that time, I feel that these women have done everything to railroad me out of the company.

April 1, 2010: Because this situation has progressed considerably, I felt it prudent to update the details. I did continue to request feedback from HR personnel, Jen Campe, who worked very closely with Deb Lenart. She continued to assure me that I would receive a fair review and, in fact, seemed offended that I would think otherwise. I tried to explain that I was not just disturbed regarding no review for three years, but very, very concerned about receiving little to no feedback at all. I had no idea there was a problem until I accepted those calendar invites.  In September 2008, I had a "nervous breakdown" due to post-partum depression compounded by family issues. I was hospitalized for a week and was off of work for six weeks all together. Upon returning to Career Education Corp, I performed (to my knowledge) very well, except for a short time while my body adjusted to medication. I had a very long period of stability, which was disrupted when work began spinning out of control. As things grew progressively worse at work, I became more depressed. 

The evening of February 8th, I attempted to slit my left wrist. I was unsuccessful and proceeded to hack at my hair with a butcher knife and cut up my clothing. I then called my brother-in-law in a panic and he took me to the ER. I asked the ER to discharge me because I felt as though the episode was a panic attack. I was honestly afraid of being hospitalized again and losing my job. I did take February 9th off of work to rest and get my hair fixed before returning to the office.  I had another panic attack at work later that week due to a disagreement between Deb Lenart and Vicki Hudspeath. Vicki is a very forceful woman and demanded that I retrieve the glasses which she forgot at another building. Deb was upset that I ran an errand. In the end, both women blamed me for failing to do my job for them in some way. I started hyperventilating and crying at my desk.  Once I calmed down, I asked to speak with Gary McCullough (as he is Deb Lenart's boss); however, I was passed right back to Jen Campe and got nowhere. From my experience, Mr. McCullough simply does not deal with employee issues.

Friday, February 12th, I sent an email to Deb Lenart & Jen Campe stating that I realized as I was clocking out for lunch that I was at 40 hours for the week. As an employee that was considered to be underperforming, should I go home, take the overtime, remove some of the sick time that I took the day after my episode, etc, so I did not go over my 40 hours? I used to manage employees and I knew the company policy was that they frowned upon underperformers working over 40 hours a week. I truly was attempting to be above board by asking what they would have me do. So, I sent the email, went to lunch and looked at my email upon my return (without clocking in) to see what the response was. There was an email from Jen Campe asking me to see her when I got back to the office. I still did NOT clock in and went to see her. We talked about the email, my episode the previous Monday and continuous lack of feedback. She seemed to think that I was obsessed with getting my review, so I attempted to explain that I just wanted ANY feedback. These women were obviously dissatisfied with me and would not speak to me about it. I had access to Deb's email (which she granted because I was her assistant) and I could see all the nasty emails she would send to/recieve from others about me (my access from her email was cut just a few days later). Jen Campe suggested that I leave for the day and get some rest. She also suggested that I take the day off the following Monday, February 15th, as well.

I returned on Tuesday, February 16th, and Deb Lenart was ready to give me my review right away. She attempted to make it a casual conversation. She decided to give me a meets expectations because I did well Q1-Q3 of 2009; however, she described Q4 2009 as "inconsistent." Then she sat back in her chair and asked why. Well, honestly, I had no idea. I thought perhaps it had to do with the increased responsibility of supporting two additional people and their entire teams. She disagreed, as those women and their teams said that I did nothing for them. Then I asked why this was not brought to my attention in Q4 2009 so I could fix things. She said that it was my job to solicit feedback, not their job to offer it. She even went so far as to say that people were afraid to come to me because of my "personal problems," referring to my hospitalization in 2008. Then she gave me a written warning for internet usage for Q4 2009.

From my understanding, this warning prohibited me from transferring to another department (which I was looking into - and Jen Campe knew I was looking into transferring). I believe my email was also examined when I was out of the office February 15th (there were emails left as read and I never read them since I was not there - oops, someone forgot to turn off the Preview Pane). My guess is that they were compiling evidence against me. I felt very singled out. The rest of the review is blurry, as I had yet another panic attack (that made three in one week's time). I went into the bathroom and cried it out a bit, returned to my desk and wrote a nasty resignation letter (copies went to Gary McCullough, Deb Lenart and Karen Fitzpatrick, the site HR rep). I had an exit interview with Karen Fitzpatrick, and walked out. My husband and I were forced to file Chapter 7, will be losing our house and one of our cars. I have been so depressed, I haven't known what to do. I have been sitting at the computer for hours a day looking for a job while my two little boys run around the house. This is not a pity paragraph - this is just reality. 

On March 21st I took 55 of my anti-anxiety pills in an attempt to kill myself. I was in the hospital for 1.5 weeks. I have very little recollection of anything that happened late March 21st through some time March 25th. Obviously, Career Education Corp is not responsible for my suicide attempt. I took the pills and I take full responsibility for doing so. The part of this whole convoluted story that bothers me most is that they would not speak to me regarding my mental well-being, or stability, or personal problems, or whatever they want to call it. I don't think that is fair and I don't think it is right.  You know, they used to give us these pep talks about how we could change peoples' lives with education. That is so very true and I believed it with all my heart. However, because they are a for-profit education provider, behind the pep talks is an immeasurable amount of pressure for numbers. This, in turn, creates an immeasurable amount of pressure on employees. Perhaps it is that way everywhere, but CEC seems to be a particularly evil corporation.