Take Back the Truth?

Over the weekend I realized that I am allergic to artificial cinnamon.

A few tasty hard cinnamon candies during the week, and by Saturday morning my tongue was swollen and horrible ulcerated sores lined the side, making speaking and eating incredibly painful, when possible at all. I even had to cancel my Father’s Day plans to see my dad, which have been rescheduled for this coming weekend.

Well, just as the internet predicted, my tongue healed itself relatively quickly. Everything seemed just fine.

With the pain still fresh in my mind, I emailed my awesome tasting job supervisor (both the job and the supervisor are awesome) to let him know about this new allergy, asking if I could take a leave of absence if we ever had a cinnamon unit. Within an hour of the email being sent, the temp agency I work through called me. They never call.

I used to work for a temp agency, so I knew what this was all about. He was kind about it. He didn’t say I was fired; I was simply “no longer eligible to participate on the panel.” What I was was disproportionately devistated. I LOVED that job. It’s not my fault that fake cinnamon makes my tongue swell and break out in sores. This is just so unfair!

“Why did I even tell them?” was my first thought. Then I bumped my last, quickly fading sore against my teeth and remembered why. I had to.

I dusted off my old HR hat and told myself that I was a worker’s comp case waiting to happen from the company’s perspective, which is true. I never would have been called in for an initial interview if I’d known about and properly disclosed the allergy on the application, which was also true.

Why is the truth not very comforting?