u/Kathomgerine

Hi everyone! Only recently was I made aware that I have an accessory navicular bone in my right foot.

In a word of introduction- for years it was asymptomatic, then one day in March I woke up with huge pain in my foot. Several times before, I had twisted my ankle, once in the metatarsus, so I thought I must have stood incorrectly the day before and had to re-twist the old injury or something, but to be honest, I don't recall anything like this happening.

Okay never mind, moving on, I went to the doctor. Even before doing the X-ray he suspected the accessory navicular from the way my foot hurt, and it only confirmed it. He told me to take sick leave at work and to rest my foot as much as I could, but he also said that it would probably end in surgery. I did that, but to this day my foot hurts (not constantly but often) and is swollen all the time. I went to an MRI also and after getting the results he said it's not as bad as he thought it was and I should go for physiotherapy for now and come back to him in a year to see how it looks.

But the thing is, where I live if I want to have this physiotherapy paid from the national found I'll have to wait for like 2-3 months and will get a week, maybe 2 if I'm lucky. I will go for it, but the waiting list for the surgery is even longer - 2 years if one is lucky.

So I think my question is, should I press the doctor to issue a referral for surgery or is physiotherapy capable of healing that irritating little accessory bone?

I’ve worked at this cultural institution for four years as of now. I worked for one year, then left to complete my master’s degree at university, and later returned. So I can say I experienced both the previous CEO’s leadership and the arrival of the current one. Over the past year or two, things have steadily gone downhill.

The previous CEO certainly had his faults, many, but the current one is far worse. She presents herself as someone who cares about her employees, but in reality, she doesn’t. Everything is blamed on us — declining visitor numbers, low interest in events, and honestly, if she could blame us for bad weather, she probably would.

What’s even stranger is that she doesn’t target the entire staff. Most of the criticism falls on the general and front-desk staff, while the administration team is consistently praised and protected. On many occasions, their mistakes have been shifted onto us instead. We’re the ones threatened with job cuts (despite the fact that we’re already severely understaffed), have the lowest paycheck of all the staff (national minimum), etc.

Many of us come to work even when we should be on sick leave (I'm from Europe, so going on sick leave when you're sick is normal), simply because otherwise there would be nobody to cover the shifts. And despite that dedication, we are constantly reprimanded for failing to meet unrealistic targets the CEO has set.

The saddest part is that when I first started working here, I was genuinely excited. I had always imagined myself building a career in this place. Now, though, I'm only filled with frustration and resentment towards it.

Sorry for the rant. I just needed to get it off my chest. Recently, a new ordinance was introduced stating that employees are not permitted to say anything that could potentially “tarnish the good name” of this godforsaken institution — even if what’s being said is true. For example, one of our branches is reportedly being moved to a different building, even though the new location is far from ideal. Many customers are unhappy about the decision, but we’ve essentially been banned from discussing it because it’s considered a “difficult topic” for the CEO — which, in practice, seems to mean that she simply doesn’t care what other people think.

Honestly, part of me wishes I could leave an honest review somewhere, just so potential future employees would know what they’re getting themselves into.

Physiotherapy only or try for surgery?