Officially Off Disability
I am OVERJOYED to announce I will no longer be on ManuLife disability. I have taken a part-time (20hr/week) dev position with an IT support and Dev company. ManuLife has made legitimately being on disability really unpleasant and has disrupted/slowed the recovery process.
tl;dr Ranting/complaining about how ManuLife and disability has sucked
It's a bit of a long story but essentially in July 2016 I was in a near-fatal crash while cycling home from work. I returned to work, it went very badly, I went back on disability July 2018 and have been on disability ever since.
In January 2020 ManuLife finally read my email signature that mentions Lakebed and they flipped out. They claimed I was working on my startup idea (apparently you are not allowed to have [good] ideas while on disability in case they may be profitable in the future). First I got an angry phone call from the claims adjuster calling me a liar, she said I would be forced to return to work, and hung up on me. I guess her plan didn't go well because she then sent me a list of 20+ questions around "when did I start working on this", "confirm I have no income", etc. etc., etc.
That call and interrogation, naturally caused stress & anxiety. I went into COVID wondering when disability/income would be cut off and worrying I might have to find a job that allows part-time, working from home, and flexibility in the middle of a global pandemic.
By pure luck, a job actually found me and the new employer is very understanding and supportive of my leftover brain injury, chronic pain, and the flexibility I need.
Long story short, disability sucks and ManuLife sucks even more. And, being off disability and out from under interrogation I feel like I can come back to Indie Hackers without fear of anything I post here being considered "work" or proof of fraud.
Looking forward to contributing and helping again!
Congrats on getting the job man!
Worrying about losing the main income is really stressful, I was in this situation not long ago so I can definitely relate.
Thanks, it's been a pretty difficult 4 years. I still need to deal with the car insurance and lawyers but hopefully I can now at least have the freedom to live my life.
Awesome! Looking forward to your updates Simon!
Fantastic news, congratulations! Excited to follow your journey :)
Congrats!
Please keep sharing your story. ❤️
Congrats, Simon! We're all behind you on this 😊
Big up to you man!
I was in a similar situation a few years ago. I went on long term disability from my first startup job and started working on my current business. I couldn't really move forward without losing disability (which I did anyways). I opted to let it go instead of appealing, but got more sick at the next job I took.
I quit this spring and am finally able to just work on my business, but sometimes I feel a bit stuck. I think being on disability mentally affects you, but there could be other causes of it. I also can't make to much money and keep Medicaid.
I wish people understood how hard these situations and choices are for disabled people.
I'm SUPER happy you found something that works for you. I would love to figure out how to get more disabled indie hackers! It's the kind of flexibility a lot of us need.
Thank you for being open about this, made my day to see someone else like me!
Glad my story helps.
Yes, I think the majority of the population would prefer to earn their own money rather than sit on the couch but disability companies seem to assume everyone is a liar, a fraud, and lazy.
My twitter and email are in my profile and I'm always happy to listen to venting or bounce ideas around.
P.S. death to M-F, 9-5
Congrats!