Question regarding sick leave (Shitty retail job)

[Meresgi]

Does she have medically diagnosed PTSD or internet-diagnosed PTSD?

If it's the latter, you got problems.

Is this "sick day" she's trying to take a paid day or an unpaid day? If the only ramification is that she doesn't get paid for her internet-PTSD day off, suck it up.

Paid day off, was diagnosed as PTSD but didn't do follow ups. Boss does seem like the type Mojo is referencing though. He just calls people out on things making a huge deal, and then a day later doesn't care about it. Just has to have something to do and show people he's THE MAN.

[Aragon of Odin]

I had one boss like that, he was an old school eastern European who was set on his ways. Anyways, he laughed at me once when I tried talking to him about my situation, we'd had a number of run ins before, mostly due to the fact that I was the shop stewart, but being in my position I felt very insulted by it, so I went over his head to the HR department. HR didn't take to kindly to what they heard, and he was escorted off the premisis that very day(this incident was just the proverbeal straw).

Me personally, I won't stand for that shit and I don't care if I paint a target on my back with "The Man". He's being ignorant, but I guess it would come down to how far your wife is willing to pursue it.

[Kohan]

Paid day off, was diagnosed as PTSD but didn't do follow ups. Boss does seem like the type Mojo is referencing though. He just calls people out on things making a huge deal, and then a day later doesn't care about it. Just has to have something to do and show people he's THE MAN.

Does she have any proof of this (disregarding the lack of follow-ups), and can it be directly correlated to the reasoning (previous horrific accident was cause of PTSD; therefore, she has panic attacks)?

I've told my employer when I was feeling ill the day before, and then called in sick. This is not any different than that if she has PTSD that's related to a terrible driving experience.

[Syntex]

What someone else said. Consult the employee handbook regarding sick days and how you can use them. Depending on what it says she may be able to take a sick day and say fuck you to her boss because it says she can use it whenever ect.

If not then yea she shouldn't say she is sick ahead of time and screwed herself. However she could pull the "womens problems" sick day card if she really needs to. I don't know any boss who will make a woman come in at that time of the month especially if she gives details and grosses him out if he asks why. They usually just say, "okay okay see you when you're better" and hang up lol.

[Nephlite]

I always thought it was illegal to deny sick leave. It's like one of those things where if you request sick, they have to grant it and it's illegal to ask why you're sick. At my job you call requesting sick, supervisor approves it. No questions asked. The catch is they -can- request medical documentation, but ultimately it's up to the discretion of the supervisor. And then it's just a slip stating you were seen at such and such as it's illegal for them to ask what your ailment is. Might be just because we have a union, though.

[Brill Weave]

Employers cannot deny sick leave due to illness. The issue remains that she advised them the day before that if the roads were bad she wasn't coming in. She had no physical documentation that she suffers from PTSD. As far as her boss was concerned she was lying and didn't want to chance driving in bad weather. I manage a large call center in the inner city. I've lost count of how many batshit insane excuses I've heard when someone is calling off. It's the same with retail. You simply cannot afford to give people the benefit of the doubt and take their word on things. It's sad but that's reality. If someone self identifies an ongoing medical issue to me I tell them the same thing. If it's serious contact HR to begin the paperwork for intermittent FMLA coverage. Without the proof of affliction I am going to completely ignore it.

[Meresgi]

@Brill

Are those people using Full time sick days? To me, you're allotted so much time off at a job. What you use them for shouldn't fucking matter. I took a sick day to go take a certification and my boss knew and gave 0 shits. My days are set aside for different values, but it doesn't matter from what pool I draw out of. I can use personal/vacation days if I'm sick if I want.

Paid day off = paid day off. It's not like you missed a final exam and told the teacher you were sick and they want to see a note or documentation.

[Brill Weave]

@Brill

Are those people using Full time sick days? To me, you're allotted so much time off at a job. What you use them for shouldn't fucking matter. I took a sick day to go take a certification and my boss knew and gave 0 shits. My days are set aside for different values, but it doesn't matter from what pool I draw out of. I can use personal/vacation days if I'm sick if I want.

Paid day off = paid day off. It's not like you missed a final exam and told the teacher you were sick and they want to see a note or documentation.

What I'm saying is if someone told me the day before that they had to call off because they had PTSD from an accident, then called off the next day I would react the same. They have presented zero documentation to me that this is something that afflicts them. As such I would use a personal or vacation day for the call off. If they happened to bring in actual medical documentation after the fact then it would retroactively be applied as sick time. Not all companies have the same policy. It sounds like her company has a very similar policy to mine.

That being said if they were out of personal or vacation and called off I would apply the sick time. My company always exhausts all paid time before we go the unpaid route.

[Kohan]

You've stated that she was getting a copy of the company's policies. Did she?

[Meresgi]

Not yet, as much as I want to fight this, wife is far too anxiety ridden to even ask for the handbook because of how her boss treats her. Afraid he's going to explode all over her and fire her ass for questioning him.

[Brill Weave]

Not yet, as much as I want to fight this, wife is far too anxiety ridden to even ask for the handbook because of how her boss treats her. Afraid he's going to explode all over her and fire her ass for questioning him.

Now that would be an issue. If she has questions an employer is obligated by law to provide an employee handbook. You cannot hold employees to a standard if they aren't advised what the standard is.

[Aksannyi]

If not then yea she shouldn't say she is sick ahead of time and screwed herself. However she could pull the "womens problems" sick day card if she really needs to. I don't know any boss who will make a woman come in at that time of the month especially if she gives details and grosses him out if he asks why. They usually just say, "okay okay see you when you're better" and hang up lol.

Women who do this just to get out of working are the worst kind of woman. Suck it up sweetheart, we all have to deal with it and you're no better than the rest of us.

Some women have debilitating symptoms that they absolutely cannot work around, but most experience discomfort and moodiness and should have no real reason to be unable to work. I hate when other women play the "women's problems" card. Don't encourage that shit.

[Acevalefor]

Women who do this just to get out of working are the worst kind of woman. Suck it up sweetheart, we all have to deal with it and you're no better than the rest of us.

Some women have debilitating symptoms that they absolutely cannot work around, but most experience discomfort and moodiness and should have no real reason to be unable to work. I hate when other women play the "women's problems" card. Don't encourage that shit.

Haha. I grew up with 4 sisters and a single (well, mostly single) mom. That shit doesn't work on me. Thankfully, I do not have any female employees to manage anymore, but when I did, I hated calling them on their bullshit. It always made the office a bit hostile on those days because the 2 women that acted like that fed off each others' behavior and loved to make little comments here and there to let me know that they didn't want to be there. They both got themselves canned for emailing their bitchfests to each other using the company email. They said some pretty slanderous shit about the owner and forgot that the owner got every single administration email forwarded to him. Fucking women >.>/

[Nephlite]

What I'm saying is if someone told me the day before that they had to call off because they had PTSD from an accident, then called off the next day I would react the same. They have presented zero documentation to me that this is something that afflicts them. As such I would use a personal or vacation day for the call off. If they happened to bring in actual medical documentation after the fact then it would retroactively be applied as sick time. Not all companies have the same policy. It sounds like her company has a very similar policy to mine.

That being said if they were out of personal or vacation and called off I would apply the sick time. My company always exhausts all paid time before we go the unpaid route.

Yeah that's what I think. I've never had a direct supervisory position in the civilian world so never had to deal with people doing stuff like that but I would definitely be skeptical.

With that being said, the employer still can't ask you questions about your illness, but can ask for documentation so it's like a loophole. Documentation doesn't have to specify an illness, just has to say you were seen by a licensed physician and you can do some background on it to see if it's legit or not. Forces people to think long and hard about taking KMA days, especially if you threaten to fire them if they don't bring in legit documentation.

[Silenka]

Some women have debilitating symptoms that they absolutely cannot work around, but most experience discomfort and moodiness and should have no real reason to be unable to work. I hate when other women play the "women's problems" card. Don't encourage that shit.

Unfortunately for those of us who do experience debilitating symptoms, I think we're in such a minority that no one, not even the women understand. A couple days a month it's like I have a flu but instead of a fever it feels like someone is scooping out my guts with a blunt spoon D: Drugs don't help all that much either. But I have only used it to get out of work once when I literally couldn't stand up to walk around and work anymore and went home early. Otherwise I just suck it up but feel abjectly miserable to the point of near fainting every month. I wonder how many women suffer through it this bad and don't do anything about it because it's viewed by both men and women as a pathetic excuse.

@OP: But seriously, she should learn to stand up for herself and not let her employers push her around just because they're her employers. They have no right to lord it over her or intimidate her. It's very hard to learn to get into that mentality, I know it's easier to cower and feel unsafe and just try to step around the mines and hope they don't blow up. But that's not going to win her any battles in life. It takes courage to look authority in the eye and demand your rights without caving for fear of reprecussions but how can a person get anything done by being stepped on all the time? I've had to learn this lesson myself at work lately and summon up the courage to ask for more hours / tell the store manager when he's wrong about things going on in my department. It's hard but it's necessary.

[Kohan]

Not yet, as much as I want to fight this, wife is far too anxiety ridden to even ask for the handbook because of how her boss treats her. Afraid he's going to explode all over her and fire her ass for questioning him.

Can you go there with her to be her support while she asks? You are not the employee, so you are not entitled, but I imagine you are capable of walking into your wife's workplace and being in her presence.

Considering that this level of anxiety can only be exacerbated by the fact that she's still working there, I do not believe you should let this go.

If she is fired, but is someone with severe anxiety and PTSD, perhaps that will ultimately be for the best. I am definitely aware of how horrifically hard it is to get a job in today's economic climate, but that does not mean that someone with established psychological problems should suffer under the whims of a jackass.

[Brill Weave]

Kohan is right. If she's already fearful for her job due to the manager's treatment of her then this makes for a hostile work environment. As management I've sat through dozens of seminars regarding harassment, discrimination, favoritism, etc. It boggles my mind when I hear about people in management positions causing a toxic environment. She should not let this go. The guy sounds like he's counting on the fact that she will not pursue this further. If she really wants to throw a monkey wrench at the fucker have her contact her company's employee assistance program. If a formal concern is brought up they are obligated to report it and investigate confidentially.