Somehow I’ve managed to scratch my cornea twice from contact lenses. I’m not quite sure how it happened. My best guess is that the lens had a small nick in it.
I did not seek medical attention but I was unable to go to work because I was unable to drive there (there is no bus) and even if I got there, I would not have been able to do my job.
I told my boss I couldn’t see our of my eye and it was gross and weepy. I would have not passed any eye exam, so temporarily blind would have been a correct, though dramatic, description.
I do wonder though… I thought it was not legal to require an employee to disclose a medical condition. I could be mistaken, but I think an employer is only allowed to ask for proof that the employee has sought medical attention, or that the employee is now able to return to work or not.
In my experience, someone who just wants to get out of work for a day or 2 would pretend to have something non-severe, like a short-lived flu. I’d be inclined to believe him at first, because lying about such a severe, provable condition as partial blindness would be *really *stupid. So, instead of jumping straight to firing the guy, why not request a doctor’s note to justify his absence first? Health problems are many and varied. It’s not impossible to go spontaneously blind, although it is exceedingly rare. After all, he’s not a doctor. He could have woken up half-blind for a reason unrelated to his contacts, and just assumed they were the cause of it.
But if he can’t or won’t produce a note, and tries to come back to work good as new, you’re justified in letting him go.
It happened to my dad, he woke up blind from wearing contacts at night. As you can imagine he was really, really freaked out. They went to the emergency room and he was fine the following day. But freaked out enough to always warn people not to sleep with contacts in.
If I were blinded and freaking out and just out of the emergency room and I received phone calls with anything other than “Oh wow, you must be terrified, I am so sorry and hope everything is better soon” I would be extremely pissed off.
Key word(s) is freaked out. Repeating only “I’m blind,” and hanging up is at the very least someone with a serious communication problem. I didn’t say this in the OP, but he was speaking in a monotone. I might as well call my boss up and say in a complete monotone, “My arm was cut off. Can’t come in,” and hang up.
You guys have described legitimate reasons that I wasn’t aware of to wake up blind, but somehow I doubt any one of you would just be like, “Meh, I’m blind” and hang up on someone who was like, “Really? What happened? Emergency room couldn’t do anything?”
Sure, they didn’t have to keep him if there wasn’t anything they could do. But what does, “The emergency room sent me home,” imply? Not even “The emergency room sent me home because they couldn’t do anything, but I still really can’t come into work.” And why be so defensive? Is anger the immediate default when someone asks what’s wrong?
Although I’ve learned something about contact lenses I still stand by my decision to fire this guy because he the way he went about telling me what was wrong and the timing sounded pretty suspicious. He waited until we were wondering where he was and did not go to the emergency room until we said what he was describing sounded serious. Making it in and out in under two hours is also a bit odd, but maybe he got lucky to be seen immediately.
You’re not giving him a single chance to defend himself first? You’re being ridiculous. If you fire this guy without at least giving him a chance to produce a doctor’s note, you will be the most horrible asshole manager on the face of the earth. Even if he DID fake it.
Reminds me of the guy who fired me for going to chemotherapy.
Oh wait, sorry, for “not spending enough time at the office.” (He did know about my health issues, did know my chemotherapy schedule before we even started, and I otherwise never missed a day of work, even when I probably should have stayed home. Can’t say that all my office time was as productive as before, because, you know, CHEMOTHERAPY.)
Yes, seriously. This isn’t an office job. People make all sorts of excuses not to come in. Usually we’re flexible about it and no one’s ever gotten angry upon someone saying, “Really? A doctor couldn’t help at all?” Even telling me he didn’t appreciate the question would have been better than just hanging up. I’ve already explained that the timing was suspicious and even if he wasn’t thinking rationally, wouldn’t he be upset? Why be very defensive about the entire thing?
We have someone else with a long term leg injury. We arranged for her time off and asked her to just keep us updated about when she could come back, what her limitations were, etc. It all went smoothly. If she had responded with, “fuck you, I got more important shit to deal with,” then too bad for her.
Then I am the most horrible asshole on the face of the earth and I stand by it. I gave him a chance by asking him about the emergency room and he hung up on me. For the record no, he did not have a note and was not able to get one.
As I’ve said, we had a conversation about the emergency room. He said they sent him home**** and he did not get a note and it wasn’t clear if he ever saw a doctor. He hung up on me upon further inquiry.
So yes, in this case I don’t regret my decision to be an asshole.
The ER certainly wouldn’t keep him there if it was something that could heal at home. I don’t think you even get to stay overnight for childbirth anymore. Short of needing surgery or the ICU, ER visits are generally in and out.
Some people react differently to trauma. I violently broke three vertebrae once (and was out of reach of medical care), and my reaction was to go home and tell my friends “Hey guys, it’s a pretty bad scene. I need to go to sleep and make some phone calls in the morning. I’m not sure what’s going to happen. Do you mind if I take the bed, I’m pretty badly hurt?” I was simply too stoned on pain, fear, and adrenaline to have anything leftover for an emotional reaction. The freakout didn’t come until the next day. And you can bet I didn’t give a second thought about my job until I knew if I was going to be paralyzed for life or able to walk again.
I don’t believe that employees have any legal obligation to explain their illnesses. If I am at the gyn because I had a sex toy injury, I certainly don’t have to tell the details to my boss. I think you can require documentation of where he was, but it seems pretty jerkish to determine someone’s livelihood based on a single phone call at what may be a “top ten in your lifetime” stressful time.
Of course he didn’t have a legal obligation to explain. He volunteered the information. Anyway, I’ve already explained why I thought he was lying and that’s that. We had more than one phone call and the co-worker who recommended him also contacted me and stated that she thought something really weird was going on with him and thought it was also strange that he waited until after we wanted to know where he was that he called. She had seen him the night before and things were fine. My question was about contact lenses and being blinded, not “am I huge asshole for firing this guy” so there’s no point in going through every detail although I suppose that’s now necessary.
And even sven, I think your reaction was normal. I don’t think getting incredibly angry and hanging up on people is a usual reaction unless something incredibly rude has been said. I didn’t tell him I didn’t disbelieve him, I just said, “Wow, really? The doctor couldn’t do anything?” in a tone that I would say to someone who had a serious problem and wasn’t receiving proper treatment. I did not ask for a note explaining every detail, just a note that he was at the emergency room, and he was not able to get one at the time. Then he hung up on me.
If tolerating people who behave in a way that implies that they are lying to get out of work makes me an asshole, then fine. Generally speaking however we are very accommodating of time off and it’s usually a non issue. This guy made it an issue when we were simply trying to determine if he was ok. End of story.
Oh, now I remember. You’re the same manager who was belaboring under the misapprehension that minimum wage grunts should feel obliged to give 2 weeks’ notice.
I’d say “The emergency room sent me home” does imply “because they’d done all they could do for me.” Why else would they send him home?
Based on my own experience with a corneal ulcer, the only things I know of that a doctor could do on a first visit would be to check for and remove any foreign bodies in the eye (not applicable in this case) and determine if the eye was infected, prescribing appropriate medication if necessary. None of this would require a lengthy stay in the ER.
Did he say something other than what you’ve told us? Because you said that he explained his problem in a monotone voice before hanging up. That doesn’t sound defensive or angry. It may, as you say, indicate someone with poor communication skills, although I’d be inclined to give someone the benefit of the doubt during what may have seemed like a major medical crisis.
Maybe you have good reason to disbelieve this guy, but the way you keep emphasizing that the ER let him go home even though multiple people have said there’d be no reason for them to keep him does not seem reasonable to me. Your characterization of this man as angry and defensive also seems inconsistent with your own description of his behavior.
It does make sense. It’s pretty frustrating when people quit without notice, but what can you do but hire someone else? Thankfully my bosses took the situation seriously and hourly employees are now making well above minimum wage.
Some people react to medical emergencies and serious injury or illness by shutting down rather than getting stereotypically upset. In other words, the monotone reaction isn’t unknown and might be a sign of emotional shock.
Personally, I’d tell the guy that he has to either produce medical documentation that his condition keeps him from working or he’ll be fired, but give him the chance to prove his case even if his reaction seems odd or off to you. But, of course, you’ll do what you think best in the end, given your bias from the start of this thread I don’t expect you to do anything other than summarily kick him to the curb regardless.
He said he was blind in a monotone. He then got mad when I asked him if he was going to the ER. “Huh? I just woke up and I was blind,” was his response (not in a monotone). Other co-worker then got in touch with me. Then he went to the ER. He said they sent him home and he didn’t have a note. More monotone repeating of “I’m blind.” Then I said, “Oh really, the doctor couldn’t do anything?” because as you said, this sounds like a major medical crisis, or at the very least whatever was in the eye could be removed. Then he hung up.
My question was about blindness from contact lenses and that question has been answered. Not whether or not I was in the wrong for firing him. I stand by my decision to fire him because I had reason to suspect that he had overslept and was making up a story.
Odds are this guy would have ended up being let go anyway for some other reason. After I let him go I found out that there had been a complaint about him grabbing a female co-worker by the arm repeatedly although being told “please stop” multiple times. Another female co-worker said when someone jokingly called her “a little girl” he said, “there’s at least something big on her.”
None of that is relevant though to blindness from contact lenses and I did not expect this to become a debate on when to fire someone so I did not find it necessary to include, but there it is for further background.
He was not able to produce documentation and hung up on me during the discussion. My decision to fire him was based on his attitude. Some people do shut down and if he were to explain later I would re-consider.
