Boss refuses to believe her employee is sick, employee sends proof along with her resignation letter: 'Now my CEO is begging for me [to come] back'

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Aug 8, 2025 2:00 PM EDT

No one should have to prove that they're sick to their boss if they need to stay home from work. Needing to do so creates an unhealthy dynamic that not only suggests a lack of trust in employees but also a lack of respect. Most employees are given a set number of sick days that they are free to use as they please. This should mean that if someone calls in sick, no follow-up questions should be asked, and no proof should be needed. Unfortunately, far too many employers become too invasive in these situations, while far too many employees feel pressured to allow this behavior to persist. 

This boss refused to accept the reality that her employee was sick while going through a move, so she constantly questioned the author's integrity and even bothered her incessantly with work matters while she was out sick. It got to the point where the author felt they had no other choice but to be free of this toxic work environment. When her employer demanded proof of her illness, the author sent her some medical results along with her resignation letter. Judging by how the CEO of the company intervened afterward, the author's boss would come to regret her behavior.

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  • A woman wearing a pink sweatshirt blows her nose with a tissue while sitting up against pillows on her couch with a white blanket over her lap.
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

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

  • While it's flattering that the CEO started to beg for the author to return to work, clearly this employee was already at her wits' end. This anecdote was just the straw that broke the camel's back. There was no way she was going to return to a work environment in which every illness would be interrogated and even her sick days became work days. Sayonara!

  • "My boss went nuts and I quit but now my CEO is begging for me back, should I return?"

    I had a pretty severe illness over the last week and was also moving house on Friday. It was taking me a while to recover, especially as I had to do physical
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  • things instead of just resting, so I was out most of Monday through Thursday, except for Monday morning and Wednesday morning.
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  • On Tuesday my boss continually messaged me on my sick day with both urgent things and non- urgent priority corrections,
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  • corrections on where to save documents, and claiming that I was just now telling her about big issues with my data analysis (I just said that our parts weren't matching up, likely due to her file
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  • naming. There was indeed no problem with my part). I kept trying to fix things as I could, but was heavily fatigued and often had to lay down, which I told her.
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  • On Wednesday, she set a meeting for one hour after I started work to complain about how I prioritized things on Friday.
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  • She also said that she's anxious and stressed, that she was too gentle in her deadlines, that she's seeing massive issues in HER parts of the data analysis and it's my fault for not submitting earlier,
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  • even though she hadn't mentioned that she was dependent on me for data validation in literal months. She also requested hour by hour time
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  • tracking of my tasks beginning immediately, even though I'd been saying I was still sick and not at 100% and still trying to prep to move. I had to leave to the bathroom to be nauseous during this meeting.
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  • A woman wearing glasses, a grey business jacket, and grey pants leans against a desk and poses in profile.
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

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

  • I decided I wanted the time tracking to wait until I felt better and was fully engaged so sent a slack saying that. She wanted to talk again and tried to insist on it
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  • for this week. I insisted back and got it moved to start next week when I am moved and hopefully no longer sick. We also talked about how I feel pressure to work
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  • while sick and have been having symptoms since Friday. She told me she wouldn't hold it against me if I took tomorrow off, and apologized for constantly pinging
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  • me Tuesday when I said that wasn't restful and I was put in a position to try to tell urgent from non urgent requests while laying in bed.
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  • On Thursday, I told her I finished packing but was wiped and probably made my infection worse so would need to take it off so I could move the next day. She
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  • claims I didn't tell her I was taking Friday off to move and I rebut with notes showing I did indeed ask for that and got it verbally approved on 7/24. She then gets pedantic about a random form
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  • that's just paperwork that I'm supposed to submit (but I've been sick the entire time and several of my colleagues have never submitted the form).
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  • Then she sent a long message claiming that my promises have not matched my productivity for months (mostly about this one data analysis task where she made me redo most of it because
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  • she gave me the wrong numbers to start with), saying I should not still be sick after 3 days on antibiotics, saying "I don't want to accuse you of lying but I'll tell you what this looks like to me",
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  • telling me I have to attend a 4 hour webinar day of and if I'm not well enough I should go back to the doctor, telling me "we're getting the impression that you
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  • might actually be preparing for the move", asking for a doctor's note because of a policy that was added to the handbook 2 weeks ago, and saying if not then I can
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  • attend the webinar and giving me new instructions for it (I don't know when I'm supposed to prep for this if I'm currently out...). She claims I committed to this important webinar with her boss
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  • but I have slack DMs showing I found it via mass email from another person and asked if I could skip a meeting to attend. It was literally not important, and I asked if I could do it.
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  • So I attached my results and a screenshot of her last message to a resignation email to higher ups. I've been sent a bunch of emails asking me to come back from higher ups. Do I take the job back, potentially with a different manager?
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  • RevealRemarkable... Potentially a different manager? Are they thinking. of keeping this lunatic manager on?
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  • That has to be assured. If they're begging you to come back then you get to call some shots now. If you go back make sure they know it's contingent on new bounderies that you're setting.
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  • Glass-Cry-5555 I wouldn't come back. Even though it may feel like you have support from higher mgmt. you actually don't know if it's just related to the fact that they need time to find replacement.
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  • Also, new manager may be better but key be also worse. Instead, you should ask CEO how is possible that some manager can act like this without any type of middle mgmt. control system. Ridiculous!
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  • No_Net6374. Why were multiple people in on reviewing and writing drafts of a slack message. Especially one questioning your time off. This is the biggest concern to me. I would not go back. If you do start interviewing right away.
    via hopefullynotorange

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workplace-stories work stories toxic-workplace job work i quit ceo satisfying quitting story quitting work Horrible Bosses bad bosses quitting story company quitting toxic-work-environment
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