I think it’s pronounced “fucko off”.
You never answered whether you were keeping her up to date, day to day, or not?
That would make a lot of difference for me.
I saw this situation a lot when I was in High School, I imagine not much has changed since then.
I worked at a small, family-owned business (in my case, a local supermarket.) While we had a good number of employees, due to the nature of the business, shifts were ran light–they had to be or the owners probably wouldn’t have gotten by.
If someone didn’t come in, that meant someone else had to cover a shift or something didn’t get done (usually meaning a checkout lane had to be closed, or restocking wasn’t done properly, or cleaning or et cetera.)
I’m sure the owners and their manager would have loved to have enough employees on staff that they could easily absorb someone calling in sick, but they didn’t. They couldn’t afford to, that’s sort of the nature of a small business.
In an office, working for a big corporation, or in a factory working for a major manufacturer, it’d be kind of dickish to fire someone over a temporary bout of sickness as long there was no pattern of poor attendance.
But in a small business environment, the people in charge are put in between a rock and a hard place when people don’t show up. They have to find someone to cover that person’s shift, if that becomes a consistent thing, then the manager is left in a position of really needing to hire a new person. But hiring a new person and keeping the sickly person on will lead to too many employees and people not getting as many hours as they need to live on.
It’s not fair to the sick employee, but it is even less fair to the other employees to hire a new person to replace a sick one and keep the sick person on–thus reducing everyone’s hours.
Yeah, I’m not really seeing the outrage here either; if you often couldn’t work, you often couldn’t work, and that’s it. Not your fault, of course, but not the business’s fault either, is it? They have to do what they have to do to keep the place running as smoothly as they can. Not to sound cold about it (although I know it sounds cold), but if you have this recurring issue, it is something that will handicap you in any job you take, in a business of any size, and frankly will be a problem to some degree with whatever management you find yourself working for. The size of the business and their ability to be flexible may help you out some, but their first obligation is not to you.
If the employer knows what the medication is typically used for, I can see them making a judgment to not let things slide that they normally would. As in, Random Employee X has a bad cold and is out for that long, and gets a warning, but RRFM has a terrible cold and is out for as long, but isn’t given the same chance because the employer assumes it’s due to mental health issues.
I’ve seen it happen before, s’all. From both sides. Doesn’t sound like that was the case here, but if it was. . .that would be prickish IMHO.
I wasn’t calling her daily to say, “Yeah, still feel light-headed and feverish, and the rash has now spread to my ass and between my fingers.”
It went like this: initial calling in (after working 2 days with a high fever) I told her I was going to the doctor, as there was now this rash. After the doctor, who incorrectly diagnosed scarlet fever, we talked and she told me to take the next day off, then come back after the “weekend” (we’re usually closed Sundays and Mondays) giving me a total of 4 days of recovery. However, Tuesday I still felt like I was dying, so I called to tell her I couldn’t come in and would be going back to the doctor. The doctor switched antibiotics and said I’d be better by Thursday, so I let her know and we planned for me to come in Thursday, which I did, although I felt faint and dizzy and thought I might puke. Same thing on Friday. Friday night, one of my coworkers (who makes the schedule, she’s sorta the unofficial assistant manager) called and told me NOT to come in Saturday, as they could tell I was really sick and they needed me to be there Sunday (Mother’s Day). I worked Sunday, by the end of the day my legs were swollen and purple and I could barely walk. Monday I had off, so I spent the day in the ER because it looked like my legs needed to be amputated. Finally got the correct diagnosis (the drug reaction) and went into work Tuesday despite still being in pain. However, I was sent home early because I was obviously not well. After my follow-up appointment Wednesday, I left a message explaining my prognosis and asking her to call me to talk about scheduling. The next call I got was Thursday, when she fired me.
Rough luck, redroses, and I hope you’re feeling better. I still stand by my initial advice, which is to maintain your dignity and resist the impulse to tell your manager off.
/off-topic
Stevens-Johnson Syndrome?
/end off-topic
Yes.
Anyhoo, I didn’t end up really telling her off, just politely (though with thinly veiled contempt) explained that I thought I’d shown how dependable I was by working while I was very ill. She said I “earned points” for that, but they still felt it necessary to let me go.
Pick up the check some time when the restaurant has customers but not completely slammed. End of lunch rush or something. Say “As long as I’m here, I’ll have a bit to eat” and have them seat and feed you as a paying customer.
When nearly done, look at the remains of the food on your plate with some alarm. Put your hand to your throat (choking) or mouth (the urge to regurge) and look stricken.
Then do the rest of the above.
Don’t really do any of this. It would make you the dick, not the manager. But enjoy the fantasy.
Dependable, maybe, but if I had a server that could barely walk and was obviously sick, I’d be turned off to the place pretty quick. Perhaps your boss was concerned about your impression on customers.
Between that and your missing several shifts, I can’t agree your boss was being a dick by firing you. I see no compelling reason to keep you on. Sympathy, maybe, but ultimately your health issues shouldn’t become your boss’s problem.