They Made Me Work When......

[Saydrah]

Thought this might be a fun idea for a thread. Share your story of a time you should NOT have been at work, but someone forced you to come in anyway. Here's mine:

It was about 2 weeks before Christmas and I suddenly came down with killer, trampled by rhinoceros, run over by truck, stomach flu. Woke up and immediately puked. Called work (Petco, at the time):

Me: "I'm sick. I really can't come in today. Sorry, I know that leaves you short-handed, but I just puked and I feel like I'm going to do the same as soon as I hang up."

Manager: "I'm so sorry, but I can't spare you today! I need you to come in."

Me: "What? Manager, I told you, I am really sick. You know I NEVER call in. I don't even know if I can drive there without stopping to throw up."

Manager: "If it was any other time, I would say stay home and feel better, but it's the Christmas season and a weekend. I really need you to just come in."

Me: "I'm not well enough to come in, and I'm probably contagious!"

Manager: "I'm sick, too, and I have to come in. Look, just come in and I'll cover the register if you need to take a break to throw up. I wish I could give you the day off, but I just can't."

So of course I was STEAMING-- both over her making me come in and because I then realized that SHE was probably the one who gave me the killer flu! But of course being not human, and more of a reptilian species called "Petco Manager," she wasn't affected as much by it...

I went in to work and had to take no less than SEVEN breaks to throw up. One customer came in with such bad body odor I had to call Manager to cover the register because I would have thrown up right there.

[Pairou]

D: Feeling better? Jeez, that really sucks buttons. ><

[Peppergirl]

GOD, Saydrah. I had that same flu right about the same time!!! It was the sickest I've been in YEARS. I was PRAYING to die.

I cant even IMAGINE having to work with the public with that flu. I stuck it out most of the day, but I was working from home, and was able to put callers on hold to throw up.


Your boss is an IDIOT.

[Cookiesaur]

During my teens, I worked summers at a local family restaurant that was pretty popular with the locals. I firmly believe that if you're sick, like, AT ALL you should not be around the handling of food. My boss didn't always seem to share my opinion, and often seemed baffled that I declined to make an appearance and bake my pies with an extra helping of cooties.

Weekends were always particularly busy, especially in the mornings when people took their families out to breakfast. On one occasion, I was rather spectacularly sick with a stomach bug that had been making the rounds, so I was none too pleased to be awakened this rainy morning by my boss insisting I had to come to work.

"You can't be sick. I saw you three days ago and you were fine."

"Well I AM sick. J, I can't even stay upright for more than five minutes. I can't come in today."

"Look, kiddo, I know how it is. You want the money, but you don't want to work for it. That's fine. I was a teenager once, too. But I'm telling you, kiddo, if you don't show up today don't bother showing up tomorrow."

Okay. Fine. You want the Cookie? You'll get the Cookie.

But first I made sure to have a big bowl of cereal.

I arrived at work a half hour later, grim and determined to make my point clear. I don't go into the restaurant, but rather walk around to the back, where we leave the window above the stove open for ventilation so we don't pass out from heat stroke. I cup my hands around my mouth and bellow, lady-like, for my boss, who arrives puffing and angry moments later, eyeing me smugly.

"See? Not so sick after all, huh?"

Without responding, I reach over, tip one of the garbage bins delicately towards myself, and violently vomit up the multicoloured remains of the Fruit Loops I'd choked down earlier to make my point.

Then I went home.

My job was still there when I showed up three days later, doctor's note in hand.

[Chazzie]

Ouch, Saydrah, I'm sorry. That one certainly beats mine.

I worked a pretty painful Sunday shift a while back. I walk 2 miles to and from work every Saturday and Sunday in the cold and snow. It sucks. So my feet were already hurting from working Saturday, only to work a 7-3 shift Sunday, or something like that.

So I walk to work. I had my worst customer I'd ever had that morning (The 'make yourself useful' guy). I get home about 4 PM since it takes about an hour for me to get home. My feet are KILLING me, so I'm ready to sit in my chair and relax for the next WEEK.

One hour later, my phone rings.

That's right. I got called BACK into work an hour after I got home. Apparently one of my CWs was feeling sick and wanted to leave. I asked if there really was no one else who could take the shift, and the answer was no. So I put my warm clothes back on and walked an hour back to work, and proceeded to work 6-10 (closing). Thankfully I got a ride home after that...

I never want to do that again.

[Broomjockey]

Eh. All I got is a "They tried to make me work" story. I'd wiped out on the slippery floor at work twice in one day, and trashed my ankles. Walked around for a month in pain, finally went to the doc. Spend most of the day running around (taking the bus, no less) to get X-Rays and such, and finally ended up with a diagnosis of unhealed sprain and a note for the next few days to get bed rest. The minute I had the note, I called work saying I wouldn't be in.

Asshole manager who liked to play favourites said that I'd have to find a replacement, or I'd have to work my shift. This despite multiple co-workers often simply not turning up to no ill effects. I let her know in no uncertain terms that I had a note, and would not be showing up. And further more, I wouldn't be making any calls, either, since they'd never seen fit to give me a contact list, and if she didn't like it, I'd be happy to take it up with someone higher than her. She backed down pretty darn quickly.

[edible_hat]

The only one I can think of is when someone tried to get me to cover for them on what would have been my 15th day in a row of work. Shortly after that a memo was sent saying to check with head office before switching shifts, since somebody who covered 6 shifts in a fortnight cost the company too much in overtime.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I firmly believe that if you're sick, like, AT ALL you should not be around the handling of food.

QFT, unless you want to get sick person's germs all over everybody's food, and then they become convinced it's food poisoning when they get sick.

Anyhow, I've gotten questioned a couple times when I called in sick and I rarely ever do, but never forced to come in.

The receiving clerk, on the other hand, can call in drunk, oops sorry I mean sick, at least a month without question, And the apparel manager can announce "I'm not walking around on the floor today or doing anything because my back, legs and feet hurt." The night before, she had been observed shaking her moneymaker at various bars until bar time.

[Dave1982]

During my supermarket days, they once made me come in during a raging blizzard. I called an hour before my shift was scheduled, when it had been snowing heavily for several hours already, and they said yes, you must come in.

So I just barely make it in in one piece, having nearly gotten stuck several times and almost not making up the hill through the center of town, only to be sent home less than two hours into a 6 hour shift because they decided to close early since NO ONE was coming in to shop. I didn't ring a single person in the whole time.

Then I got stuck twice on the way home, since it had continued to snow heavily the whole time.

[jayel]

They made me work when my sister had been in a car accident, was waiting for an ambulance to arrive because her arm was broken, and couldn't get ahold of either of our parents, just me.

She called me at work, and they wouldn't let me leave. The kicker? 'They' was my aunt. That's right, a family member. She wouldn't let me leave because she didn't want to have to stay on a Friday night. I should have walked out, and it still pisses me off to think about it.

[BethB]

I was under the impression that if you called in sick to work, as much as they pull the "you need to come in whether or not you're sick", they cannot force you to. Don't know if this is the same in all places but when you call in and they try to guilt you into coming in, you don't have to.

[Peppergirl]

I was under the impression that if you called in sick to work, as much as they pull the "you need to come in whether or not you're sick", they cannot force you to. Don't know if this is the same in all places but when you call in and they try to guilt you into coming in, you don't have to.

I think it depends on the state you're in, at least here in the US. Since this is a multi-national board, other posters might be better versed in the rules of their particular country. Maybe they can share

I'm far from an expert, but here in the US, it seems as if the 'at will' states are the absolute worst as far as employee rights. If you call in sick, and they attempt to force you to come in and you dont, I think they can pretty much find a way to fire you and get away with it, in most cases.

Sad but true.

Although I get incredibly frustrated with my company sometimes, reading these stories about these bottom-feeder managers always makes me feel alot better about mine.

[NightAngel]

These two gems are from my last job.

They made me work when:

My husband was hit by a car. His shoulder was dislocated and he was missing chunks of flesh but that wasn't reason enough for me to leave work.

Completely alone on a busy Saturday night with a severe back injury. In so much pain that I was heaving, gasping crying with tears streaming down my face all night. My back would spasm so hard it would literally take me to the ground... and that was AFTER medication.

[Reyneth]

The one I remember was when I was the assistant manager at a mall store. I had an 8AM final for my last semester at college the next morning and had requested an earlier shift but I was scheduled to close. The new manager wanted me to make sure the store was perfect before I left because the person he was opening with was next to useless. And heaven forbid he have to do any work.

He bitched me out the next day because there were pens on the counter.

I specifically asked not to close. I had to close. I wasn't able to switch.
He didn't want to have to do any work or compensate for the lazy employee he was opening with. Yet he kept her.
The rest of the store was clean. Not even the DM would have found any problems with it. There were like 2 pens on the counter - the ones we had used for the closing checklists.


When I quit a few weeks later, I made sure ALL of the pens were left on the counter.

[AlmightyALT]

Even though the kids didn't have to come to school, my school made me walk through a raging TYPHOON (Pacific Ocean name for hurricane) to work for only three hours. They made all their teachers come to school that day! Even the ones who had to DRIVE about an hour! What makes them think that if ridiculously fast winds could knock down Takeshi-kun, who's almost twice my size, that I'd be fine?! That the other teachers would be fine!? But I did it, by George. And they did too. I put on jeans, a t-shirt, wrapped my things up in trash bags, slipped into beach sandals, threw on my lousy excuse for a rain jacket, and walked to school.

I wound up screaming and cursing at the wind and rain for about 3/4 of the trip and I came into the building looking like a drowned rat, my hair all over the place, soaked from the thighs down. Changed my pants, sat at my desk for three hours, glowering at people who were looking at me funny because, as a form of protest, I left my hair as it was. Got up, changed back into my still soaked jeans and rain jacket and started back for home. I have <i>never</i> been so happy to strip in my life.

And here's a story that I heard: In 1999 there was a girl who used to live in Tokaimura up north of me. She used to be the ALT of a school in a town that holds one of Japan's nuclear facilities (apparently it was a plan on North Korea to go all around Japan to my side of the country, hold the facility hostage while attacking the Self Defense Force base near my town). Well a couple of guys were doing something and well... disaster. Government and local authorities told people to stay indoors for a period of 24 hours and this girls school calls her to tell her to come in the next morning. In the middle of a quarantine period of a nuclear disaster! She told them where they can put it and soon after left halfway through her contract (there were other reasons, but this is what broke the camel's back). Or so I've heard. Here's info on the incident: http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf37.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokaimura_nuclear_accident or Google Tokaimura.