I had to give up work in October 2012, I had no choice.

Having been absent from the workplace for 4 weeks, 2 of which were annual leave already booked months before and 2 weeks of being in and out of hospital, the CFO rang me while on was in annual leave 5 days before I was due back at work and said I needed to do the right thing by the company and resign or else. 2 days later and 3 days before being due back I learned I had 4 vertebrae and 2 rib fractures.

Scared of losing my job I turned up to work on the Monday and was in agony, the CFO breezed by my office and enquired how I was and I replied not the best, within 30 minutes I saw him and the MD behind closed doors. The MD came into my office about 3pm and said "what are we going to do", I told him I had a broken back and I would finish up that day if he paid me 4 weeks notice. He agreed. I could have gone for more as the CFO made it untenable for me to continue in the workplace meaning I could have gone for constructive dismissal with his poor workplace ethic but I had just reached a place where I was at the end of my tether.

I woke up the next morning and despite the pain I was in, the relief of not having to go back to that place of worry was enormous, it was a hellhole that every day for 12 months I went in and came home feeling disillusioned, tormented and in despair of how a company could operate in the way they did in breach of so many legislations. I've never been unemployed before and it still angers me, but, I never want to go back to working in an environment that is not supportive of its greatest asset, the employees who make the place tick over.

I'm so sorry you have to go through this. A friend of mine once said we work to live, not live to work. To get yourself into a better place of health you need to have the time and freedom to seek treatment and recovery, if your workplace doesn't support you it will be their loss. Get yourself a notebook and Document everything, phone calls and the times, noting who called and what was said and by whom. Better to be on the safe side and have everything you need for evidence if down the track you decide to do something legal about it.