Employee stands up for himself after boss refuses him a day's off without doctor's note

Many employers can be insensitive to their employees' health, prioritizing productivity over well-being. Reddit user u/floatingawaste experienced this firsthand after spraining his knee. Without a doctor’s note, his boss forced him to come to work despite the injury. But the employee soon found a clever way to turn the tables.

He started by saying that he got his ankle sprained while packing up the camp from Labor Day weekend. "Having done this a few times in the past I didn’t want to bother to have it checked out (who wants to pay $1,000 for urgent care to tell you to rest and ice it!? Yay America) so I went to work Tuesday," they wrote. The employee was able to get his morning work done and then asked his boss if he could take the day off because his ankle was swollen and painful. "I needed to rest and be off of it for it to heal. He gets in a tizzy because god forbid anyone needs to miss work for anything at all ever and snaps at me for not planning to go to the doctor," he shared. 

The next day when he got to work still limping and wearing Crocs because they could fit into his feet. The first thing they said was, "Don’t you think you should get that checked out? I don’t understand why you don’t want to just pay for it." He explained to him that it was an injury that had happened in the past and it was not that swollen. He shared why he wanted to be at work. "I want to be at work to keep up on things and make everyone’s job less difficult. I would just need to take it easy for a couple of days which isn’t a problem considering I can do 90% of the job from my desk and the 10% slack is beyond easy for everyone to pick up." Instead of understanding the situation, this is how the boss responded: "This gets met with more attitude so I ask if I’ll be getting paid sick time for the day I missed yesterday. He says no, not without a doctor's note," he shared.

By then, the person was so fed up that he decided to go to the doctor's for the note despite knowing what the physician would say to treat it. He also shared that he knew that the doctor would ask him to be off work for 3 to 5 days. "After an X-ray and getting the 'yup it’s sprained, keep doing what you’ve been doing' I let them know my boss asked for a note for missing a day of work to rest it," they said. The doctor asked the person if he wanted to be at work or stay off as much as possible. He told the doctor, "I said that’s what I’ve been trying to do so I’m fine with that. I do have sick time if it would be more beneficial to be off of it for a couple of days. She came back with a note that I may return to work on 9/9 which would be Monday," he explained.

The employee took a picture of the note and sent it off to his boss and when he asked what was wrong with the ankle, he didn't respond because all the boss wanted was a note. "I just wanted a day of sick time, 8 hours. Now he’s paying me 4 days, 32 hours. He can’t refuse a second of it," he concluded. He later posted an update saying, "I have an HSA and I’m on a high deductible health plan by choice, I’m not losing any 'real' money in this situation and it was well worth the price either way." People in the comments weren't happy with the way the employee was treated.

u/generation_WUT commented, "But isn’t that sick leave coming off your own total allowance? America is absolutely insane for tying medical to employment." u/simple-1234 wrote, "I had that happen. Was sick and had to stay home 2 days. HR said, 'You better not come back without a doctor's note.' I said, 'No problem, the doctor wants to see me anyway before I go back.' Told the doctor what happened. He said 'Here's a note for 5 days, have a good rest.' Sent note to HR and enjoyed my break." u/starfury_42 shared, "I had a boss who'd try to guilt trip you to come in. 'Bobby already called in and we're short-staffed.' Well, that's not my problem. Sounds like your slacker buddies on the helpdesk will have to actually work." u/frowny575 said, "Doctors hate these kinds of bosses because they cause people who may actually need the doctor to be delayed. They're usually more than happy to up 1 day to a week or two."