Lee Sparrington made quite a stir this week with a viral post in which he insists his recent struggle to find work is “in no way a ‘disability thing,’” claiming it is completely unrelated to his chronic knee, back and neck problems. “I don’t wanna be patronised or pitied, I just wanna keep working like I always have.”
His words were heartfelt and touched many readers. After fending off a barrage of support and accessibility tools offered to him by the online community, Sparrington told us he was even more frustrated than before. “I’ve turned away so many delivery men this week. An avalanche of crutches, a couple dozen wheelchairs … everywhere I go people are offering to carry my shopping or pointing me to an accessible lift. It’s been awful. Especially considering how hard it is for me to answer the front door these days.”
But despite the overwhelming support he’s received for his multiple health problems, Sparrington still insists this isn’t a disability issue. “My work output has been steadily decreasing for many reasons other than my health,” he told us. “Reasons I could name but won’t because I’m having trouble thinking through the constant pain.”
Sparrington denies having had any major accidents in the last few years and has stated that this means his inability to find work can’t be a disability issue. “I just wore my knees out lifting sandbags in my twenties, that’s all. Also I guess I did my back in doing plastering for most of my thirties. I’m 47 now; that’s still young. Though I’ve gotta say, after that last office job my neck’s really started to hurt. I’m running out of jobs that utilize body parts that still work. But that’s just the normal crushing inevitability of time. I’m not disabled or anything.”
For another perspective, we turned to Entropy Inc., a former employer of Sparrington’s and a company notorious for its high employee turnover rate. We sat down with one of Entropy’s representatives and shared Lee’s story with them. After several minutes of unbroken silence, they eventually offered this single statement: “Labour is a machine that turns healthy body parts into the minimum wage.”