Just curious how you can mark your profile as hidden here. I’m kinda nervous that one day my work could find out about my profile…
My workplace claims to be all about mental health, but they don’t include addiction when they say mental health. They would probably fire me or lay me off if they knew about my addiction, even though I’ve been working on it and successfully fighting it. They truly would not give a fuck, and I’d go from workplace rockstar status to worthless piece of shit junkie status in their eyes if they knew about it. A lot of people in my workplace have never experienced addiction so they just don’t understand it.
Also, let’s say one day I wanna move to another corporation, would my TalkingSober forum history ever somehow show up in a background check, like do I have to delete my account before starting to apply to new places? Lastly, if I were to delete my account one day, would my post history still show up on this forum?
I really really don’t want my workplace or future workplaces to find out about my addiction. It’s unfortunate that us addicts are shunned from society, but this is also the reality we face regardless of if we are all recovered in my opinion. This is at least how it is in Big Tech, not sure about other industries.
Also, before it’s mentioned, yes I know that a workplace cannot legally fire you for having a past addiction that you recovered from, BUT this does not mean a corporation can’t figure out a different excuse to fire you or lay you off! I am not naive to this shit. These fucking corporations are DIRTY!
To add on to this, for example I’ve heard from a coworker that his old boss chose to not hire some woman, just because she is blind even though she was the best candidate for his team, and on top of that my corporation claims to support people with disabilities! Is it legal to choose not to hire someone just because they are blind? Hell no. Does the blind person know that she wasn’t hired due to her disability? Hell no. Was she given some bullshit reason instead to not hire her? Of course! Was my corporation ever sued for this? Not that I know of.
They do not give a fuck, they will wreck me of my job if they ever found out about my addiction issues.
When I first got sober I spent a lot of time worrying about “what ifs” and rumors too. At the end of the day all of that stuff is outside of my control.
I was working as an attorney when I went to my first rehab. The day I got home I got fired as well. While it sure looked like I got fired for my substance use disorder it was actually because I was a bad employee. As addicts we absolutely love to try and blame everyone else for our own shortcomings. Hell it happens so often steps 4-7 deal with that. But at the end of the day we have to own up to our shit. And that usually means admitting we were not nearly as good as we thought we were. There’s no such thing as a “functional addict” no matter how many people on this forum claim to be one.
You’re in very early sobriety. Let that be your focus. Hit a meeting, call your sponsor, read the literature. Let everything else work itself out.
Tbh I kinda disagree with what you’re saying, I hope you understand. I disagree because of the following reasons:
I don’t know how you were at work, but my boss absolutely loves me. I support almost everyone on my team and even external teams in my corporation whenever they need it. I’ve architected and written solutions for work during my spare time outside of work even. My boss recognizes all the work I do here and is going to promote me to Senior Software Developer soon. My coworkers often praise me for the work I do and the help I give them. I’m often working until 7pm or 8pm most days. By the sounds of what you’re saying, you could’ve got fired just because of the fact you had an addiction. But again, I don’t know how your performance was at work.
I’d rather isolate this problem by ruling out the possibility of my workplace one day finding out about my addiction that I recovered from recently. That way if I ever got laid off/fired, at least I know for sure that it was because I was a bad worker then.
I believe this issue of my workplace finding out one day is in my control and preventable. Why let it happen when this could simply be prevented by taking the precaution of deleting my posts and my account when the time comes?
I was indeed a functional addict. I was one of the only two people ever on my boss’s team to ever get a higher than average performance review despite my addiction back then. So, I disagree with the idea that there is no such thing as a “functional addict”.
I hope you don’t take these things the wrong way. I’m simply stating why I disagree with what you’re saying. I’m open to feedback.
But anyway, I’m mostly looking for the answers to my original post. I really gotta know how to hide my account like how some members seem to have done with their accounts.
@HoofHearted or an admin/moderator/sysadmin for this forum, let’s say one day I need to delete my account, does my forum post history stay, or are my posts wiped along with the account? Also, can my username be updated to “john_connor1337” please?
Not planning to leave anytime soon, but I’d need to do this eventually when I start looking for a new job, thanks
This is the quote of everyone else who claims to be “functional”. I was a successful trial attorney. I was a competent grant writer. I, too, worked insanely long hours. I was given promotions. I taught CLEs to other attorneys. I probably would have said similar things to what you said. However, if I were as good as I thought I was then it wouldn’t have mattered. Right? So if you are that good what boss in their right mind would get rid of you, addiction issues or not?
I would suggest focusing on recovery rather than all the what ifs in the world.
Yeah I feel like the same thing kinda happened to me, like I opened up wayy too much on this forum and it kinda trips me out for my work career. But yeah it’s comforting to know that being here hasn’t impacted your work so far, thanks dude
Maybe I’m overthinking it, but yeah I definitely wanna protect myself for sure
Yeah that’s a good point, thanks dude. You’re right that it would mean that I have a shitty boss if he ever decided to fire me over something like an addiction that’s being taken care of. But still, I feel the need to protect my career so I’ll still take some precautions just for in case
For now I’ll definitely focus on my sobriety though, thanks homie
Changing your user name to one that isn’t your real name can be useful in alleviating sone concern regarding being found by your work, or anyone really; and, as has already been mentioned, you can do this whenever you think it would be best for you.
I think without an email you provided to your workplace, your name, phone number, home address, etc., it would become difficult for your work to find you with the amount of effort most work places put into their search. If you do change your user name, it can be useful to choose something you don’t use in other places.
