‘You’re Getting Fired Bro’: Idaho Employee Demands to Be Paid for Unexplained Mandatory Meeting With Boss Following Missed Shift—Online Community Tells Him He Is About to Be Fired, but It All Works Out When He Receives a Phone Call 40 Mins Before

Hello everyone, I'm looking for some advice on what I should do next. To give some context, I had a family emergency that required me to miss a day. I have been at this job for 2 months, the job is a midnight shift stocking shelves. 

I work with one other person during my shift, hes been working there for 2 years and is always complaining about how our boss is managing the store and how he treats him, recently I had to miss a day due to a family emergency, which ended up me unfortunately calling out. I'm going to share images of our conversation.

More information about my aunt's situation (the family emergency), she was getting kicked out where she was living suddenly, so I had to go help her pack her things and move practically everything, she has some sort of scoliosis in her back and [was] recently diagnosed with breast cancer, she starts panting just going up 12 or so stairs. No one else in the family helped her. I don't regret my decision.

Now the only concern I have right now is whats going to happen at this meeting and if hes going to violate my labor rights. It doesn't seem like hes going to pay me and if I don't attend I'm worried he'll fire me.

At this point he has ignored my message.

If you have any suggestions that I should talk to him about or any advice on what I should do I'm open to hearing it, and also did I do anything wrong? Am I in the wrong?

I've missed a total of 2 days. First day being in a lot of pain + sleep deprived.

Fyi I live in the state of Idaho and I'm paid hourly.

Thank you.

Edit: also my coworker also says that our boss only expects us to miss 1 day in a year. Which I personally find wild. I'm going to audio record my meeting with him if I do end up going.

Edit 2: I live in a small town with very little job opportunities, not trying to lose the job but also I hate being mistreated, very conflicting feelings.

*******Edit 3: Firstly I'd like to thank all of you for commenting, I appreciate the time you have dedicated towards commenting. After reading 2 hours worth of comments 10 hours after it was posted I'd like to make a few clarifications, Every time I'm at work I get the job done with my coworker on avg 2 hours before our official clock out time, I've never mistreated anyone poorly at my job. My coworker has called out 3 times in 1 month when I first started, which gives me hope on not being fired.

Since some of you were wondering, I get paid $14 an hour at 26 avg hours a week, i take home about 1k a month after taxes.

Also I didn't think trying to reschedule a better meeting time that worked for both of us was a bad idea, I was trying to think about his schedule and mine.

I did get all social cues from his texts and did understand the severity of the situation, my way of going about it might have been a bad decision.

I was just wondering since I was coming in on a day off if I'd be getting paid, I didn't think the question was a bad one and this is what I was mostly wondering about, if asking was a bad idea.

From what I'll take from you all is this,

1. Dont over explain
2. Go in and apologize and explain why I thought it was important to me to help my aunt
3. I'll be sure to conduct myself differently when faced with a similar situation like this
4. I've already gone ahead and applied for 1 other job since that's all that is hiring around me, (interview went very well btw, just 2 week notice at current job might have thrown it off due to his hiring time restraints)
5. Since Idaho is a 1 side consent party, I'm going to audio record the meeting
6. I'm going to a military recruiter after the meeting
7. I'll make sure to manage emergencies differently from now on

I'll update you guys on how the meeting turns out, I also believe I'll be fired. However, I have hope!*******

Meeting starts in: ended (I'll keep updating timer and the outcome here for anyone curious)

It is important to be firm about your rights at work. But there is a way to go about it and a way not to. Firm but pleasant, without too much insistence. Otherwise, you might find that your insistence sees you out of a job sooner than getting your intended result. You can debate whether or not this is for the best and whether you might not have wanted to work there anyway, but it depends entirely on your individual situation. 

Chances are that, if you're working somewhere that makes a big deal about these types of things, you're probably more limited in your options and have less of a financial buffer for bridging the gap should you suddenly be out of work. Besides, in some small towns, and even in moderately sized cities that behave like them, word-of-mouth can reach ears before you even get in the door for an interview. People know people who know people, and a word in edgewise, no matter how petty, is always going to work against you getting that interview, no matter how good you look on paper. Even if you had a point in the first place, you're far better off just biting your tongue, politely declining that exit interview that is ever-so-tempting, and moving on to the next gig.

See the employee's continued update below that he shared after the meeting. Things didn't quite turn out as expected.

UPDATE 1/2: I just got accepted into another job H**L YEAH! (the one I applied for, I did the interview friday) I got the call 40 minutes before my meeting, I'll still go to the meeting though for sure and update anyone interested, I'll take everyones advice and treat this one much more professionally and not miss any days for 90 days.

AFTER MEETING UPDATE 2/2: Meeting lasted 15 minutes, they made sure I was clocked in, boss asked me why I was more concerned about being clocked in rather than being worried about being fired, I said I was worried about both. He explained to me about the points system that I hardly knew really, I'm at 12 points, fired at 20, 6 points each day missed. He threatened to put me in another department for 4 hours a week, he then reminded me that theres 2 guys waiting wanting my job, and then asked me if I believed I'm suited for the job, I said "yes, but I applied for another job" cuts me off, says some stuff and then asked me again if I believed I was suited for the job again, I said "yes, but I did get accepted into a new job, I'm wanna put my 2 weeks in" he said "okay thats fine" told me how to do it via the app and then asked if I wanted to go home and think about submitting the 2 weeks, I said yeah sure I'll think about it.

(I didn't get fired) But basically put in my 2 weeks due to some crazy timing from my interview I did Friday, read update 1/2.

Thank you guys for all the advice, I'll make sure I'm a changed employee for my new job and be better, I really appreciate all the advice you all have given me and I wish you all great success in life, thank you guys. I'll be sure to check this in the future too.

I'm no longer going to update the post

Im still going to the recruiters office later today to talk to recruiter

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TLDR: I was worried about a mandatory meeting not paying me and was asking if I did something wrong in my replies, a lot of people thrashing me for missing 2 days in 2 months and the way I messaged my boss I deserved to be fired,I did an interview Friday, new employer called me and said I got job 40 minutes before meeting (craziest f** luckiest timing ever, wont happen again probably), meeting came, threatened to put me in new department 4 hours a week, explained I was almost fired, not fired, put in 2 weeks, starts new job soon.