@likeridingabike I am rather assertive every day. As a disabled person keen to keep my fulltime employment, I have to be, in terms of insisting upon wearing suitable footwear that contravenes the 'professional working attire',
refusing point blank to stand for four hours because 'it looks smarter' at work events than sitting down,
on getting time off approved to attend hospital appointments,
on noting that staff's private medical information is on display on the database and given a choice to either have it on display 'because it's too hard to hide it' when it's a couple of clicks from the admin to make it hidden or to have it not recorded at all,
on stating on application that I have a disability, to find that it's been disregarded because I don't use a wheelchair, to point out that disability is far, far more than a happy soul in a wheelchair,
on finding out from the private company hired my the NHS to supply my medication where the everlasting fuck my delivery booked for three weeks ago has got to,
getting to sit in the seats on the bus designated for people with disabilities instead of having to stand because the entire area of disabled seating is taken up by somebody with a fucking Pavement Panzer that doesn't even have a kid in it,
getting to use a toilet that I am entitled to use outside of work without having to wait for people without disabilities or who identify as a gender they were not born with to do whatever it is they are in there doing (including getting changed into new clothes),
being told when I tell off students for using the disabled toilet (at my last job), and they answer 'it's a toilet, I need to go and the boys'/girls' ones are disgusting' (as is the disabled one is when a bunch of teenagers have been pissing over it for the day, getting changed, checking their hair and makeup, having a crafty vape, skivving off, etc) that 'well, it's a toilet after all, it's there to be used, are you perhaps being a little fussy about this?',
not getting stranded on one level of a train station because they've not just closed the lift for maintenance, all the escalators are switched off,
and everything else that's inherent in trying to function as an economically active adult in a society where people still seem to think that not only do they have the Right to use facilities that they find more convenient, they also have the Absolute Right to be a complete prick to people by demanding they show a fucking card to prove their disability where one doesn't fucking exist and hasn't done for at least fifteen years.
There is no Disabled Register anymore (for adults at least in my borough - hasn't been since the 90s). I'm not pissing around - pun intentional - justifying my existence and sharing my personal information any more than I have to, because I'm bored with everybody assuming they have the Right to know everything about me. It's annoying that half my conversations start with 'so what's wrong with you?' - and most people don't seem to like it if I mention that, as part of it, I'm quite likely to be dead within five years if my father's lifespan with the same condition is anything to go by.
But when my job (and that of many people) is so busy that it is difficult to get time to go to the toilet when it suits (and parents don't usually like it when their kids are left unattended for twenty minutes because staff need to pee, poo or sort out sanitary protection, I made a joke about it in a post that will be quite familiar to some who have similar jobs, I get told I should be more assertive.
Gee, thanks for that.