Work investigates employee for leaving the country during sick leave because of their email timestamps: 'You're 100% going to get fired'

Author image for JR Atkinson
JR Atkinson • Writer and Editor
Mar 27, 2026 10:00 AM EDT

When you're out of work, where are you allowed to be?

Sometimes life comes at ya, and you can't make it into work. This happens, and is allowed to happen. You don't have to put your job before your health ever. You can reserve the right to make the proper decisions for you and your health. You can do what you need to do to keep yourself afloat, and you don't have to apologize for that. But sometimes managers overstep and try to make you feel bad for something you didn't do. This is more common than it should be, and the behavior should be called out whenever possible. The worker in this story wasn't quite sure how to do that, and made themselves worried in the meantime. 

Nobody wants to worry. That feeling of something hanging over you that you can't get around. It's not a good feeling. But if you're prone to worrying, like many are, then it's a feeling you're familiar with. You know what it's like to walk around with a sense of dread and not be able to fully get out from under it. Maybe you think you've done something wrong, or maybe you don't. Either way, you want to identify the feeling so that you can address it to its fullest extent. This can be difficult to do in a work setting, though, where you're being watched constantly. The feeling of being evaluated all the time doesn't make life any easier. 

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  • A woman looks stressed out sitting in front of her laptop
    via Resume Genius

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • Work investigating me for apparently leaving country during sick leave due to the timestamps of my emails (sent from personal email).

    Update: apparently as I replied to their emails in the afternoon all the time and not right away this means I lied and I was overseas while on sick leave.... They said IT will now investigate me and I will then have a formal meeting. The meeting has been arranged I now have to have a formal meeting with HR, employee relations and my manger in their central office which is miles away from where I go to work...
    via Some-Ad7003
  • They said I can have a union rep present but we dont have a union??? How does that work? Anyone have any idea how I can handle this?? Any advice appreciated it's so stressful! I had the operation on Friday and once been recovering since then and this meeting will be when I return to work
    via Some-Ad7003

  • Commenters gave their takes on what they thought was happening here.

    Metalsmith21 Great now they can fire him for performance reasons.
    via Metalsmith21
  • Some-Ad7003 Original Poster's Reply Hi what do u mean?
    via Some-Ad7003
  • PolicyWonka I mean it would probably be more so if OP sued to get their sick leave back because they worked part of the day, then they ultimately would have only worked half a day when they should have worked a full day. Probably a moot point given that I'm 99% OP is getting fired anyways given who will be at the meeting.
    via PolicyWonka
  • A businesswoman looks at her computer, stressed
    via Unsplash+ (Curated Lifestyle)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • Some-Ad7003 Original Poster's Reply Is it cos it's employee relations now too not just Hr and my manager? Before it was just manager and hr but I said I couldn't do the initial meeting as they scheduled it while I was still on sick leave and now they have moved the location to 1.5hiours further away and included employee relations suddenly too
    via Some-Ad7003

  • This worker was investigated because her managers thought that she was using her sick time inappropriately. She wasn't sure if she was breaking any rules or not, but her instinct was that she was being unfairly evaluated. She was scared that it would end up jeopardizing her job, and she wasn't comfortable with the terms of that agreement. So she reached out to the internet for a little guidance, which it served up a lot of. Keep scrolling to understand what was going on here and see what commenters had to say about the whole ordeal. There is a lot to it, so enjoy the discourse.

  • Square_Medicine_9171 How is it any of their business where you spend your recovery time?
    via Square_Medicine_9171
  • Some-Ad7003 Original Poster's Reply That's what I thought! But they asked me specially in an email they said are you in the uk? I found so many of their questions very intrusive actually considering I was signed off
    via Some-Ad7003
  • omnipwnage IT has a sh ton of data in regards to where the email came from. Its in the full-header. There's no way for you to disprove a negative, but IT can cross reference headers across multiple emails.
    via omnipwnage
  • Some-Ad7003 Original Poster's Reply Is my personal email can they still check that? Surely they know people use vpns for privacy?
    via Some-Ad7003
  • hanimal16 And why did you reply with your personal email?
    via hanimal16
  • Some-Ad7003 Original Poster's Reply Our laptops our left in office. As I'm off work sick there is no other way to contact them to tell them/ submit my sick notes
    via Some-Ad7003
  • fadinizjr You're 100% going to get fired unfortunately.
    via fadinizjr
  • Some-Ad7003 Original Poster's Reply But why I have been signed off sick with doctors note had two surgeries and treatment for this health condition
    via Some-Ad7003
  • darcerin Someone at one of my previous jobs was fired for this exact thing. Said they needed to take sick leave, went to visit family instead. They were found out and marched out the door when they returned to the office.
    via darcerin
  • Some-Ad7003 Original Poster's Reply But I've had two surgeries and been undergoing treatment for the condition while off
    via Some-Ad7003
  • ChefCurry Yum Yum They said you could bring a rep but you are not represented by a union? Either this story is fake as f there is more going on here. or
    via ChefCurryYumYum
  • Some-Ad7003 Original Poster's Reply "Xxxx (company name) do not have a union in place, you would need to join a union of your choice should you wish to have a representative accompany you to the meeting." This is what they said to me
    via Some-Ad7003
  • ChefCurry Yum Yum That makes no sense. Most union work is closed shop, meaning everyone who works there has to be in the union. What industry is this? Is this in the US?
    via ChefCurryYumYum
  • Some-Ad7003 Original Poster's Reply Uk and its a big well known international company too
    via Some-Ad7003
  • Angry_Hairy_Mongoose How you and your medical team decide to treat the reason you're off is none of the Employer's business, unless criminal activities are involved. You haven't indicated the jurisdiction you're in: that also makes a huge difference in options available to you. Ex, in Ontario Canada you can hire a paralegal to assist with this type of case if you're not unionized. Source: I'm a FT representative for a national union.
    via Angry_Hairy_Mongoose
  • Some-Ad7003 Original Poster's Reply I agree! In the UK I wish I had not replied to all of HR's many emails as they harrassed me every day on my sick leave saying the company can not have you being out this long we cannot support this... they pressured me to return to work and they asked questions such as what is this condition and where are you right now and what hospital are u being treated at and they over stepped so many boundaries
    via Some-Ad7003

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antiwork toxic-workplace job bosses coworkers working toxic-boss workplace bad bosses
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