The Breaking Point

August 3rd, 2025, I received a call from my manager telling me not to go into work on that Monday.   Well of course I was taken aback and wondering why and what the reason was.  I was all set to go into work for that week until I got that call.  I worked for an agency that provided support to people with developmental and physical disabilities.  Worked for the agency from 2017 throughout the Covid-19 pandemic until 2025.  Monday, I found out why I was told not to go into work.  It seemed I was suspended on accusations of abuse.

The dates of the accusations were July 10th and July 28th. I could not believe it for July 10th I was not even at work. I was on my summer week off during July 10th, so how was that date even relevant. July 28th I was not even in the room that I normally worked in. A week later I went in to be questioned and to write a statement. The statement that I wrote stated no wrongdoing because I was not nor nowhere near the people on those days in question. The strangest thing is that I was called back to rewrite that statement and the investigator say’s “Despite these dates did this accouri”. My statement they had me rewrite stated as the same as my first statement. However, the investigator had me add some details to my statement. Pretty fishy if you ask me.

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I did not hear anything from then on until September 16th when the manager called. He says in a voicemail “Hi Joanne I don’t know if Corporate Compliance reached out to you yet or not? I am sorry to inform you however from their recommendation you are terminated”. I was already working at the bank for ruffly two weeks when I got that call for, I already knew something was up. I knew that was going to happen. They were waiting for my PTO’s to be used up before they pulled the trigger. They already had their minds made up beforehand.

They reason I knew was because about three years prier 2022 I was pulled into the manager’s office accused of workplace bullying. Apparently two staff members went off crying because of how I was talking to them. When I was told that I was like um ok news to me. I never targeted anyone for bullying to my knowledge. You see I have this habit of talking out loud you know thinking out loud kind of thing. At one point a coworker and I were assisting a person having an issue. Well, having this habit of saying what I am thinking out loud at times I said to myself out loud “Well if the doors where kept closed they would not see to buses and not be having issues". What I said was not targeted to her nor anyone. She took offence to what was said I guess and told me I was on my own dealing with the person. I was pulled into the manager’s office shortly after that.

While in the manager’s office he expanded to me what I was in there for. He explained to me about how they were not going to tolerate workplace bullying. He then went on to tell me that I had to write a statement and that being my second to third strike that Corporate Compliance is recommending for me to be terminated. So, he told me to my face that I was going to be fired right there. My only words were “the only one who was being bullied was me”. Afterward I ran to the bathroom crying. I needed the job and I was scared to lose it. I didn’t have no issues after that no write ups no suspensions until 2025.

During that three-year gab 2022 to 2025 I was on and off targeted. I didn’t know it at the time a coworking pointed it out. I would work in one room and behind my back coworkers were mocking my hearing. You see I have hearing issues and I wear a hearing aid. That day I didn’t have it on for my ear I wear it on was bothering me. Apparently, a couple of coworkers one male one female were saying behind my back “Hey Joanne, do you want to have sex with me”. In that same room the team lead at the time and a couple other coworkers in the room would take the advantage of me being in the room. I would do most of the work. The toileting, the clean-up from dinning, sometimes coming up with activities for the people and their afternoon drink breaks.

Back in the main room where I worked the Team Lead for the room on and off would attack me verbally. It is the Agency’s policy that if staff was yelling at others for example to other staff in front of the people in the room receiving support that it is considered verbal abuse. Many time she would target me. When I first started working in her room back in 2017 or 2018, she attacked me out of the blue. I was coming back from an outing with a person and a coworker when she started yelling at me accusing me of judging her. That was in front of the people the first time she did not get disciplined.

Then it started in again she would start mocking me because of my hearing saying “Can you hear me, are you listening to me”. She would do this on and off in front of coworkers and the people in the room receiving services with no rescores. For the last three years I was working there that kind of behavior would continue on and off. At one point I was having emotion issues around my ex-birthday still healing from him and what he did. Now this happened just last year 2025 she was going around saying in front of everyone that she would walk out if I was not taken out of the room. That my anxiety was up and effecting things.

The other two to three coworkers in the room saw the opposite. They saw me calm and confused as I was quite and giving drinks to the people in the room. Another example of verbal abuse and targeting. With all that going on I would go to the assistant manager as well as the Manager about what my team lead was doing and saying. At one point two of my coworker and I stayed late from work to meet with the assistant manager regarding the team leads behavior. The three of us would share about her behavior and the assistant manager would write it all down.

That meeting was in late 2024 early 2025 and of course no disciplinary action was taken. The Team Leads behavior was so aridic at times she put her hand on a person’s mouth while they were having issues and yelling. Noone said anything even though it was physical abuse. That again occurred between summer 2024 and spring 2025. I would get called out or spoken to about taken a cloth to a person’s face to wake them for their lunch too roughly when that was not the case. I started calling out favoritism.

Look I know I was called out for some issues, but I would never harm a person receiving services. I mean why would I. I have family that receives service and lives in group state homes, an uncle and a cousin. I’m not portraying myself as innocent of some wrongs some I admit to and take responsibility for. However, I am not going to stay silent when there is corruption. I started to see the corruption within the very agency I loved working for, for I loved the people I supported. I started to see everything clearer.

Why would they put and refuse to move the most vulnerable people in the agency in the coldest part of the building? Why did the create a health hazarded putting a so-called changing room in the old staff break room next to the kitchen in the cafeteria? In face the room I was working out of was the cafeteria because the administration took over the one building. So, everyone was crammed in one building.

The so-called changing room had no ventilation and was right next to the kitchen. Many time the doors on both ends would be left open. The kitchen window was open during the day so urine and feces partials would travel through the air. They would travel through the doors left open and make their way into the kitchen through that little kitchen window left open. I was not crazy.

I would say that they agency was actively killing the people with intend neglect. Some examples are one person developed severe breakdown on her bum on both sides. I kept saying that she needed round the clock bed rest and repositioned ever hour. To be kept monitor so she can stay clean on those areas. I am no doctor nor nurse but with the training I received I knew better. Before her sores became worse that should have happened. They finally but her on bed rest but it was too late.

Another example is that one person had a risk of aspiration. In his house he lived in the manager at the time moved him to the far end room where he was not in eyesight. He had a seizer and aspirated very shortly after that he passed away due aspiration. Now that was something that could have been prevented. Another person had a broken hand the nurse of the house neglected to send him to the ER for that hand. He later passed away due to cardiac arrest and infection. There are more but I will move forward with the story.

Before all the targeting and bullying started an email was sent from the CEO of the agency. In that email he stated something to the fact of that the house manager had a right to schedule and mandate staff to fit the needs of the residence. Meaning staff would work more than state mandate of 16 hours max and everyday if needed. While my big mouth replied to that email siting NY State law. NY State law states no employer can work there employees more the 16 hours and must allow 1 day off. There was never a work home life balance with this agency. Nursing home has a mandate rotation schedule that’s different, but this agency does not. Then everything started happening like a domino effect. It was almost like management allowed my targeting and bullying.

I finally received the findings to the suspension in September 2025. The July 10th accusation was unfounded, no surprise there. July 28th was unfounded for 1 and category 3 the least of the charges. Then I got the call that I was fired in that same month on the 16th. Did not get the separation letter until October 2025. They say I am not blacklisted but things prove different. I tried reapplying for another agency I was working for before the latest one but apparently. Apparently, I am ineligible for rehire and would have never know if I hadn’t reapplied. If I am not blacklisted, then what gives. I can’t even get rehired back to that other agency. Something was not adding up.

I did some research with the pattern of everything. I went down a rabbit hole, talked to family members. My brother and my twin sister, both at one time work for the same agency. My brother took criminal justice in collage he was my go-to. He told me that dates matter, timelines matter in a proper investigation. To keep the integrity of the investigation accusations, need to be brought forward with in a timely manner. No later the 24 to 48 hours and that’s the same policy the agency has. The witness or accuser would be part of the crime or abuse if longer than that. Come to think of it the investigator told me that the ones who made the accusation were afraid to come forward. Now I don’t think they were supposed to do that for would that not be witness tampering. The rewriting of the statement and stating regardless of these days did this happen, now that would be coercion.

It all started to make sense the more I talked to my brother and sister. So now I am at the process of getting everything ready. Ready to go to the Department of Labor and here’s hoping something is done about my treatment there. Now all this led up to whistleblower and retaliation which is not legal. This was the back story to my first piece. It’s also the beginning how I became aware. Became aware of the signs of the universe of The Natural Witch.

This piece is the beginning of a story. A story of a struggling signal mother who found herself part-time at a bank. Trying to figure out where to go with her life spiritually, mentally and financially. Looking for a way to end the generational poverty she for herself in. To break the cycle for her son and beyond. Her way to Irland. Hope you all enjoy the read and consider subscribing for more.