'It got so bad that the upper management started an intimidation campaign': Employee gets written up for being transparent about sick time, so he trains 150+ coworkers to exploit the system

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Isabella Penn
May 16, 2025 9:00 AM EDT

Sick time is one of those workplace benefits everyone technically has, but actually using it all makes you feel guilty. Even though it's right there in the employee handbook, you always get the sense that someone, somewhere, is silently judging you for taking a day off. And it's probably your boss. Some companies even go so far as to make you feel like you're committing a crime by asking for the time you've earned and pressuring you to save it up for some hypothetical "real emergency." 

Maybe your manager is side eyeing you when you come back, or your coworkers are trying to figure out if you were genuinely sick or just having a mental health day. Both of which, by the way, and more than valid reasons to take time off for. In fact, if you aren't using up your sick days, you are actually committing a crime against your own sanity. 

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  • At least we live in a day and age when a simple text will suffice. If I had to call in and speak to my boss, I'd probably never use any sick days. 

    But that’s nothing compared to what one employee went through. After letting his supervisor know he planned to use sick time to leave early, he got written up for time theft. So, he decided to let his coworkers know exactly how to exploit the system... and actually use up their sick days. 

  • Cheezburger Image 10505438976
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • "Written up for being nice"

    This happened years ago when I worked in a distribution center. It was one of those days where they were trying to cram 50 peoples work into 25 people, which is typical in these places. I
    via rissearcher
  • was tired of it and had sick time so I went to my supervisor before lunch break and said "hey I'm gonna leave after lunch". We usually told him when we're were going to do this so that over our lunch, he has time to
    via rissearcher
  • move people around and cover the empty work slot. Well, I was on a sh list with a person in upper management and they wanted to use this to burn me. They called me
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  • into the office the next day. "You told him you were going to leave well before you left? How did you know ahead of time you would be sick after lunch?
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  • Sick time is for being sick only, so if you use it without being sick, you are stealing company time." And that's what they wrote me up for.
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  • "So if I would have lied and said I feel sick, I'm going home immediately, I wouldn't be in trouble?" I asked, to which they actually replied "yes".
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  • Cue malicious compliance. I told everyone at work (150+ people) that if you notify that you are leaving ahead of time, you will get written up for time theft. No one ever did it
    via rissearcher
  • again. From that point on, it was "I don't feel good, I'm going home" from anyone who wanted to. Meaning their job position went unmanned for the 30 minutes it takes to restructure and reassign job tasks.
    via rissearcher
  • Meaning every day, 2-3 times a day they would have to take someone from another job and put them in a backed up mess. Which led to more call offs.
    via rissearcher
  • It got so bad that the upper management started an intimidation campaign in which they would start saying things like "I'm starting to see a pattern" whenever people left early more than once in a year.
    via rissearcher
  • Cheezburger Image 10505439232
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • I now have a new job that is a million times better, but thought I'd share this here.
    via rissearcher
  • Remarkable_Macaroon5 I started feeling sick one day with my usual pre-cold symptoms, and told a co- worker I likely wouldn't be in the next day, and i started sorting out the next day things for my cover.
    via Remarkable_Macaroon5
  • When i returned I found out she was talking sh about "how can she know she is going to be sick the next day?"
    via Remarkable_Macaroon5
  • Sad_Ease_9200 You got to leave if you were sick??? We had to show up and be cleared by the in house medic. If you called in,
    via Sad_Ease_9200
  • that was an unpaid day. Once during inventory my entire crew of 5 was working with temps of 102-103.
    via Sad_Ease_9200
  • SlumberAddict I like how being sick is simply a binary situation with them. It could have easily been, "I don't feel so hot, let
    via SlumberAddict
  • me wrap up what I can before lunch. This sh is about to get intense so I'm leaving after lunch."
    via SlumberAddict
  • LloydPenfold "saying things like "I'm starting to see a pattern" whenever people left early "
    via LloydPenfold
  • Say "Yes I see that - a lot of us are getting sick recently. I'll report it to the council's environmental health dept." and let them panic about a forced shutdown and clinical clean up.
    via LloydPenfold
  • Illuminatus-Prime "You don't look sick." "You don't look like a doctor, either; yet, here we are."
    via Illuminatus-Prime
  • Bantam Crow "I'm starting to see a pattern" is upper management code for "I hate this and I'm going to use this to destroy you"
    via BantamCrow
  • Contrantier They thought THAT was intimidating? If they said that during some meeting, everyone would start laughing. NOBODY is
    via Contrantier
  • intimidated by your ability to see basic patterns, manglement, so shut up and get back to your bulls job.
    via Contrantier

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Tags

management sick days humor employee job malicious compliance work coworkers petty revenge PTO comedy Horrible Bosses warehouse blue collar funny
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