Again, I have a fantastic employer. If I have a problem being accommodated at work, I just have to call her.
This happened just after the fire, two years ago, in Fort McMurray. I was working in the news department. I was working right through the fire, right through evacuation and everything else.
I knew, after about six weeks—if there is a stressful event it takes about six weeks for it to have an impact on me, physically—I was feeling the physical effects of that. I told my employer that I was going to need to take a week off because of that.
At the time, they had gotten rid of one of our employees, and they said, “No, we can't give you the time. We want to give you the time off, but we can't give it to you right now.” I said, “Well, I've started dropping things. That, to me, is the first sign that I am going downhill physically. I am being affected by the stress of the past six weeks. I need to take that time off.”
It was a matter of my calling human resources and their saying, “No problem. Schedule the time off and take it.” They knew my physical condition was on the decline because of the stress, so they knew I was going to need the time off, and they arranged it.