So I’m feeling pretty bad, guilty and on top of that extremely tired and well, poorly.
How’s your day/night going?
Have you tried scheduling your sick leave 4 weeks in advance? /s
If it wasnt for the domain id have guessed the US but the UK is basically the post secession Texas of Europe so basically the same thing.
Hello boss, thank you for bringing in boss’ boss as well, I appreciate it.
So, boss, I understand you wanted to talk to me about my attendance due to being sick for several days and taking an unpaid day off. Before we get started, I’d like you to think carefully if what you have in mind to say would be a good look for the company, should someone in the press publish our conversation. Not that I’m threatening to go to the press! Ha ha ha no, of course not! It’s just… well, what with COVID and all, I imagine people would wonder what could possess a person to penalize someone for taking a sick day. Why, they’d wonder about the competency of a manager that couldn’t adjust to an employee taking ill. They’d wonder what dangers the company would submit it’s customers to, seeing as they care so little about their employees.
But if course, that’s not why we’re here today, I’m sure! So what was it you wanted to discuss?
The progress reports you are going to fail over the next 6 months and then your termination
Oh yeah?! Well i don’t need your company. I’ll make my own company. With blackjack. And hookers
Let go of the guilt and get fucking angry man.
How fucking abusive is this shit they’re pulling on you??
Please let go of the guilt, get angry at these fuckers, and if you can, find a job that respects you. (I know, that’s harder than it sounds, I don’t have one either).
But you deserve respect for your real life problems, and this endless charade of making people work sick is literally killing us.
We went through a worldwide pandemic and learned jack fucking shit about letting people stay home ill.
Please, for the love of god, document everything, get angry, and use that anger to get constructive.
Because you, nor anyone else, ever deserves to feel guilty for this absolute horseshit.
If you are in the US, diabetes is covered by the Americans with disabilities act and there are laws governing what kind of accommodations your employer is legally obligated to make for you.
Diabetes comes with needing extra or extended sick time and is not likely an unreasonable accommodation for your employer to make.
Know your rights before your talk to them
I had insomnia and only went to sleep at 6 am just to get up at 8 and be completely zombified for most of the day. And this compounds with the fact I also have diabetes and often get lethargic if I don’t walk immediately before or after a meal. Which I didn’t feel energized enough to do due to the sleep deprivation so yeah… not great today.
Look at this another way. If they force you to come in, that is illegal containment. If they yell at you for taking sick leave then that is a hostile environment that you should leave ASAP. Try to look for other opportunities. You should never have to feel guilty for taking off work due to illness unless that illness is caused by sheer stupidity on your side (like overdrinking or running naked in the rain for a few hours).
When it comes time for the conversation, and if it’s a paid sick day; remember that it’s part of your compensation package and you’re entitled to use it. Would you feel guilty about cashing your paycheck?
Don’t apologize for being sick and needing a day; take the mindset that they should be glad it’s just a day because let’s face it, no one gets back to 100% after one day.
Be human, man. Be kind to yourself.
You shouldn’t be upset with people for using their benefits.
That’s the thing. We don’t get paid sick. So I’m taking a £100 hit for this day off and it’s going to go down on my record.
I’m assuming you’re British, and I’m unfamiliar with labor laws and practices over there. I’m mentioning what we have in the US in case there’s any similarities or if Americans reading this find themselves in a similar position.
I am a manager at a large tech company, and I’ve been in similar positions for the majority of my career. I’m mentioning that for context. In the US, laws vary from state to state, with exactly what you’d expect the differences to be between Republican and Democratic states.
Your record is only a thing at your current company. Virtually every large company (and most of the medium and small ones) have a strict policy of discussing employee information if they are called by a company to which you are applying. They will confirm date of hire and departure. Some companies will ask if the candidate is eligible for re-hiring, but in general this is only seen in lower wage positions like retail sales. I think finance and banking have additional things they can (or are legally required to) report on, but “this person was tardy” is not one of them. Most large companies have a dedicated phone number or service that will simply read off the dates but will not give out information regarding salary or work habits. As a manager and someone in a supervisory position, I can and have written glowing letters of recommendation for my students and former employees, but if a person were to be fired for cause I would likely not do so for that individual. Their future employer can take that into account (or not).
This is done to indemnify the former company from a lawsuit from the previously employed person. Even if they have reams of documentation of all of the terrible things you did, it is not worth the time and expense to defend against such a suit. They’ll possibly do it if they are facing a wrongful termination case, but it’s just not worth it to simply keep a former employee from getting another job. Even if you were the worst employee ever, I’m simply happy to have gotten rid of you, and it’s no longer my problem. I’m certainly not being paid by the new company to make sure they hire only the best employees, and they may in fact be a competitor anyway.
So while I think it’s grossly unfair to not have paid sick leave or some other sort of paid time off, the only thing your record is going to affect is your ability to get a raise/promotion or your employer firing you.
Your mileage may vary - again, I don’t know UK practices - but younger employees and those who haven’t been managers or admins might not know all of this, and so can be taken advantage of by their unscrupulous employers.
I agree with this sounding like a toxic work environment and would join the recommendations to seek a position with a different company.
Find out when that record resets. If they’ve created a system where talent is penalized for living on this planet of bacteria, viruses, and the grossest of all, people…then the system should be exploited to its full potential.
Find out how many days in a row count as one sick day, often times employers will only count multiple consecutive sick days days as one occurence.
With those two pieces in hand; if you’re going to be taking a sick day, take the full amount allowed under one occurence, and do that to the maximum allowed until reset.
This write up in your record is nothing more than intimidation being used to “align” your behavior with that of the business, and it’s obscenely disgusting.
If you’re in the UK, then you’re probably well into your work day. I hope this message finds you in better spirits, with the awkward conversation behind you.
Dude should take the second day for stress.
And pray he doesn’t take a third
