'You don't sound sick to me': Employee refuses to give in to management pressures not to use any PTO, records conversation with boss to prove their actions are illegal

Author image for Bar Mor Hazut
Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
May 14, 2025 1:00 PM EDT

Having a certain number of PTO days in your contract should be something employees are happy about. Knowing they get x days in which they can do whatever they want, and simply not be at work. However, some things are too good to be true, and in most workplaces, that includes these supposedly glorious paid days off. 

For some reason, even though it is completely within an employee's legal right to use their PTO, employers tend to frown upon those who actually use it. Especially if employees use it to call in sick. They find it hard to accept that sometimes, people get sick, and would rather stay home than go to work when they feel under the weather. That being said, usually, employers know there is nothing they can do to prevent employees from using their PTO as they please. Other times, employers might actually try to drag their employees out of their sick beds and have them report to work.

That is what the management in the story below attempted to do, but they did so to the wrong employee.

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  • This employee had to watch as their company went down the drain because of toxic management. But even then, they refused to allow said management to get to them, especially when it came to using the PTO they were entitled to. Which is what led them to ensure management will never try to pressure them into not using those PTO days. Keep scrolling to read how they pulled that off.

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    Cheezburger Image 10504509696
    via prpicturesproduction

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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    "You Don't Sound Sick to Me"

    I used to work as a researcher in an in-bound call center. I loved the work, and the company was FANTASTIC when I started. But after 4 years they got bought out by a big international corp (a
    via Icy-Computer-P**p
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    pretty standard hack and slash corp = buy up a profitable company, strip it of all assets, cut costs, slash quality, make good money until our well-deserved fantastic reputation is destroyed, then sell off and move on).
    via Icy-Computer-P**p
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    Within weeks the company went from being fantastic to work for to just yet another s y, tense work environment where the bosses take advantage of the employees. One quick example of how badly they nerfed the bonus
    via Icy-Computer-P**p
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    structure - one particular bonus went from being able to earn up to a thousand extra dollars in 3 days to a single $50 Boston Pizza gift card. Previously all employees got paid varying bonuses under this scheme, but in the new
    via Icy-Computer-P**p
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    system, only one person gets the gift card. And they had the nerve to get mad at us when the new, slap-in-the-face "bonus" failed to motivate anyone. I was good at my job, and not to brag but I was the most
    via Icy-Computer-P**p
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    productive employee on the floor. We were given 15 PTO (Paid Time Off) days to use every year, which according to our employment contracts and company handbook were to be used for sick days, mental health days, and other
    via Icy-Computer-P**p
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    personal reasons. No explanation was ever asked for, use them as and when you will. I always made sure to use up all my PTO by the end of the year as it didn't bank, previous management encouraged us to
    via Icy-Computer-P**p
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    do so, and also there was no bonus for not using it. I followed the company rules, always gave plenty of notice, and only once left the team dangling with no notice (as I got seriously ill that time).
    via Icy-Computer-P**p
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    The new management takes over and right away they start trying to intimidate us into not taking PTO. I hear a lot of this from my fellow employees, how when they call in the supervisors have started grilling them, challenging them,
    via Icy-Computer-P**p
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    saying they "don't sound sick", etc. A lot of intimidation and bu ying. So by the time I need to use a PTO day, I'm ready. I call in one day and tell them I won't be in tomorrow. They want to know
    via Icy-Computer-P**p
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    "Why?", so I tell them I'm not feeling well. Their voice grows immediately cold, and they get a r de tone. "You don't sound sick to me".
    via Icy-Computer-P**p
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    Being a smart- I said, "Not even doctors try to diagnose illnesses over the phone" but they kept trying to push me. "Can you come in in the afternoon? You don't sound sick. You've been using a lot of sick days, way more than other employees."
    via Icy-Computer-P**p
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    I got tired of being treated like a criminal for obeying the rules, so I got a recording app for my phone. I live in a one-party consent area so it's perfectly legal to record phone calls. Next time I felt sick I called in to work.
    via Icy-Computer-P**p
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    Now they always began every call with a disclaimer "Thank you for calling X, for your information this call may be monitored or recorded for quality purposes".
    via Icy-Computer-P**p
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    I say hello, give them my name, and say "BTW, just so you know on my end, this call may be monitored or recorded for quality purposes". Because I am recording the call, and I think it's only fair to let them know. The
    via Icy-Computer-P**p
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    supervisor gives a perfunctory laugh, then says "So why are you calling in sick? You don't sound sick to me. I'll put you down as sick for the morning but you'll be in for the afternoon."
    via Icy-Computer-P**p
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    I inform them that no, I am calling in for at least 1 day and will update if I don't feel better. She says "No, I'll put you down for half a day, you can call in again if you don't feel better."
    via Icy-Computer-P**p
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    Cheezburger Image 10504548096
    via brizmaker

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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    Once again I say no, restate my position, and tell them that is that. She gets really p: y and and starts insinuating that this might cause me to lose my job. "Why do you take so much more PTO than the other employees?"
    via Icy-Computer-P**p
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    I take what my employment contract says I am entitled to. No more, no less. "Well, you should have a better team spirit, we'll have to review this with HR." Threatening tone, classical "ing playbook.
    via Icy-Computer-P**p
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    I'm off the next day, come in for my following shift. "Go see HR". I sit down at Art's desk in HR (he's very much a corporate HR lapdog). He starts going on about how they're going to have to review my employement contract
    via Icy-Computer-P**p
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    and consider whether or not going forward I am a "good fit" at X corp. Now in case I seem too calm in this scenario, bear in mind that, while I do prefer to remain at X for the time being, I do not care if they want to fire me.
    via Icy-Computer-P**p
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    I'm very good at my job, I have had several job offers from competing companies, so the threat of being fired does not phase me. While Art is berating me, I take out my phone, and start playing
    via Icy-Computer-P**p
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    the recording I made when calling in sick. Art stops, starts to get annoyed, then realizing he's listening to a recording of an employee verbally berating and intimidating a worker for exercising their contractual, legal rights.
    via Icy-Computer-P**p
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    He excuses himself, and is gone for about 10 minutes, before returning, visibly angry but restrained. He tried to dress me down, scare me, intimidate me into thinking I had violated the law with an illegal recording. I
    via Icy-Computer-P**p
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    told that, working as I did as a professional researcher, I had, to no surprise, done my research. And single party consent is all that was required. He shifted gears, starting saying the recording "didn't count" because the supervisor thought I was joking.
    via Icy-Computer-P**p
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    "I wasn't." "But she thought you were!" "And she was wrong. So it doesn't really matter what she thought, Art. I told her the truth, she made a mistake, and recording my own phone conversations is 100% legal... and admissible."
    via Icy-Computer-P**p
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    Art leaves, and returns a few minutes later, ever more red- faced. "You can go back to your desk". I did as instructed, and that was all I ever heard again about using my PTO. Whenever I called in
    via Icy-Computer-P**p
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    from then on they were always very precise and professional. Their tone was as cold as politician's promise, but that was a lot better than the bing from before.
    via Icy-Computer-P**p
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    segwaysegue One-party consent means that you can record a call just by being a participant in it, you didn't even need to tell her you were recording.
    via segwaysegue
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    cosmic_scott "you aren't allowed to record them!" so please provide the recording you, as the company made, for quality purposes. "we didn't record the call." good thing I did!
    via cosmic_scott
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    toodumbtobeAl "She thought you were" "Did she laugh?” Good job.
    via toodumbtobeAl

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boss workplace-stories employee hr manager job sick day malicious compliance tales-from-the-workplace reddit story PTO overworked-employees workplace sick Reddit company
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