'Don't believe I have the flu?': Night shift worker forced to come into work despite illness, maliciously complies and gets sick in front of boss

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Aug 17, 2023 2:00 PM EDT

Some toxic work environments have got to amend their sick day policies. Here, we have an employee who was told that he had to come into work to be assessed about whether or not they were truly sick enough. The Redditor explained that as a night shift supervisor, there were instances in which this kind of assessment was important. However, when it came to illness, it's better for everyone involved if employers just took the employee's word for it. Not only is it best for everyone involved health-wise, but also employees are entitled to sick days and they can do whatever it is they want with those days.

 

Now, this Redditor wasn't using his sick day for recreational purposes; he actually had the flu. However, he was of course forced to come to work anyway for this bogus assessment. Here is where the malicious compliance comes in. Sure, OP showed up when he was supposed to, but it didn't mean that he was going to control himself. Let's just say that OP left a nice present for his supervisor, which also served as more than enough proof of his flu-like symptoms. Let's hope the supervisor also got sick too, since he was the one enforcing a policy that endangers the health and wellbeing of every employee there. 

 

Keep scrolling below for the full story and for the best reactions in the comments section. For more stories like this, here's one about a job applicant who went into full Karen mode.

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  • 01
    Font - از اکانت-ده 6185 "You had to come in to be assessed."
    via JC Gellidon
  • 02
    Font - Don't believe I have the flu? Sure, I will come in SOC So, I was working at a certain brown package shipping company as a night shift supervisor in a loading area. The hub manager had a policy that if you called in, you would be told you had to come in to be assessed.
    via u/greginvalley
  • 03
    Font - I get it. Night shift, starts at 9. People party, to drk to come, want to stay with their girl, works the day and are tired.
    via u/greginvalley
  • 04
    Font - I had been spilling my guts most of the day, so was weak, dehydrated and kind of dizzy. Manager insisted I come in, see how I feel.
    via u/greginvalley
  • 05
    Font - So, drove to the building, practically stumbled up to the office, picked up his trash can and delivered stomach bile into a mesh trash can that was missing a liner. Said I will see you tomorrow, maybe. Never heard anything more about it
    via u/greginvalley
  • 06
    Font - blackav3nger 2 days ago +3. That's kind of a dangerous policy. You can be so sick that it's dangerous to run machinery, or drive. You sounded like you were. 3.1k Reply Share
    via u/greginvalley
  • 07
    Rectangle - greginvalley OP O 2 days ago I probably was, but also young and dumb 1.1k Reply Share
    via u/greginvalley
  • 08
    Font - DaniMW +3. 1 day ago It's not on you, though - it's on your upper management for making such a stupid rule in the first place! There are certain illnesses that make driving downright dangerous! Even a migraine - which a boss can't 'see', by the way - can make driving a hazard! Never mind working on machinery! 572 Reply Share
    via u/greginvalley
  • 09
    Rectangle - 3lm1Ster 2 days ago Sounds like you made your delivery for the night. 392 3 Reply Share
    via u/greginvalley
  • 10
    Font - Capa_D 1 day ago edited 1 day ago Had a positive covid selftest. Called my boss to say I'd work from home ise instead of coming to the office. I wasn't too sick to work, and didn't want to take a risk towards my colleagues.
    via u/greginvalley
  • 11
    Font - Anyway, boss says that without a real positive test, I have to come in. Even though I could perfectly wfh.
    via u/greginvalley
  • 12
    Font - So I take my responsibility and ise instead of going to the office, I go to the test center, and yes, selftest confirmed. The doctor offers me a note so I don't have to work all week, which I gladly accept off course.
    via u/greginvalley
  • 13
    Font - So instead of letting me wfh, I didn't work at all. All because bossman had zero concern for other people's health. Edit: learnt something new today about English. 356 Reply Share
    via u/greginvalley
  • 14
    Font - slackerassftw. 1 day ago The last place I worked, I had ~100 employees reporting to me. Days off and requesting time off were all done by seniority, so it was often very difficult for younger employees to get weekend time off since we had government mandated minimum staffing levels. The only time we could drop below those numbers was if people were out sick. We did have a very generous sick policy, they had to call no later than an hour before the start of their scheduled shift and no doc
    via u/greginvalley
  • 15
    Font - It was not unusual to get several junior people to call in sick on the weekends. My general policy was it's your time, use it how you want, and I will deal with staffing shortages. However, don't put me in the position of getting in trouble because I did or should have known you were violating the policy. I can't count the number of times I had closed door meetings with junior guys after they called in sick, which consisted solely of me having them delete social media posts of them being
    via u/greginvalley
  • 16
    Font - oldconfusedrocker 1 day ago I worked for that same brown packaging company. Years ago we had a 'black out day' meaning calling in sick, etc. was not allowed. We were in the midst of a harsh winter and had had record amounts of snow. I was involved in a multiple car wreck with me ending upside down in a ditch on the side of the road. It was caught on film by a news crew who'd been filming all the wrecks. They interviewed me once I was freed by firefighters because mine was particularly spe
    via u/greginvalley
  • 17
    Font - Brown Package had us so conditioned that my FIRST call was to the office; not my family. I was literally hanging upside- down by my seat belt. There was zero fi; given by them. I was informed again that it was a black out day and failure to show up would result in a write up.
    via u/greginvalley
  • 18
    Font - I flipped out; screaming and cussing at the person on the other end and hung up on them. I had broken a couple of ribs, my car was completely totalled. I had a police report. I still got written up, and my manager forced me to apologize to the person at work I'd sworn at on the phone when I returned to work.
    via u/greginvalley
  • 19
    Font - au-smurf 2 days ago Pity you don't love somewhere with good worker protections. In many places if you turn up you need to be pid a certain minimum amount of hours.
    via u/greginvalley
  • 20
    Font - Time Mage_Prime - 1 day ago I'm awaiting this scenario for myself at my job. We only get 40 hours sick time for the year, but work 12-hour shifts. One bout of the flu or norovirus or something, and so long to 36 hours of it; and what am I going to do with 4 hours of sick time? Plan to get sick 2/3 of the way through my shift? Anyways at this point in the year, my allotment is spent.
    via u/greginvalley
  • 21
    Font - So, I'll be bringing my illnesses into the workplace for the remainder of the year, and they'll literally have to force me to leave, unless they grant me the time off. ...which will mean others will get sick, and miss work, and not get things done, and exhaust their sick time allowances. Corporate America is its own worst enemy. 39 Reply Share
    via u/greginvalley

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boss workplace-stories work stories toxic-workplace job malicious compliance work malicious-compliance-reddit toxic-boss Horrible Bosses reddit thread Reddit toxic-work-environment
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