My girlfriend called me yesterday: she got fired from her job. It shocked me because Ann had been there eight years. She told me she was thinking about quitting anyway because her employer was mad she took a sick day to be home with her sick child who had a breathing problem. Ann had the time off in both her sick and vacation day banks.
I told her not to worry about it. Just go file for unemployment, lose weight, color your hair, relax, and think very carefully about what she wants to do next. I told her that because things happen for a reason.
This whole scenario rang a bell for me and she knew it. When my youngest daughter was born nine years ago; I had a similar experience. I called in sick because I had to take my then 10-month-old daughter to the doctor: she had pink eye. I was able to get an appointment at noon.
A few minutes, I got a call from my boss telling me he needed me here at work. Why was my question. I had FIVE months worth of sick time in my bank and FIVE weeks of vacation time. He told me that granting sick time was at the discretion of the supervisor. (Our employee handbook said NOTHING about this. I knew this because I read it from cover to cover more than once.)
So I brought my sick daughter in about 35 minutes later and shut my door. I was MAD!! I checked the copy of the manual again and highlighted the policy. Co-workers could see my daughter's eye was red and questioned why I was here. When I told them; they were shocked and had a few choice words for my boss. So did I. But I was going to handle it professionally.
My boss came into my office and saw the baby's eye was red and I let him know that I'd be leaving in an hour for my appoinment and the Pink Eye WAS CONTAGIOUS. Then the dumbest thing came out of his mouth. He asked, "Why didn't I leave my daughter with my neighbor and come into work?"
I just kept my mouth shut. He didn't have any kids and that statement confirmed it. Who leaves a young baby with a stranger? No sensitivity to my situation at all. So, I left 30 minutes later for the doctor.
The next day, as I gave him my weekly report, I reviewed the employee manual with him and showed him that it was NOT written in our employee handbook. He told me there had been admininstration changes to the policy. So I called him on it. Why weren't the changes in writing? Why was there no announcement in our staff newsletter? When would we get new updated manuals?
I took my concerns to Human Resources and the CEO. I worked about 50 hours for the agency including weekends (I brought my daughter in with me and she played on her blanket while the security guard always came by to check on us. Clinic staff would come down and take care of her while I handled media inquiries or held press conferences) and I was told by the CEO herself that since I put in so many hours and was so dedicated I didn't have to deduct doctor's visits for my kids from my bank.
The next day, I found out that I won.
A few weeks later, they sent out new manuals.
However, I was upset that I had to go through that. So I started looking for a new job. I left about a year later because my boss just didn't get it and I didn't trust him anymore. Got an offer that paid more and I would have been a fool to refuse it. I hated leaving. The agency was upset, but my reality was that I was a working mom with two small children and I had to put my family first.
Employers need to understand that to create a healthy-work balance life, they have to work with employees. We talk about the importance of children, but our actions send a very different message. Families only have ONE opportunity to raise their children. Most of workplace sickness quite is caused by stress and no one who is a parent needs this headache. An employee's quality of work suffers. Wake up employers, you can't have your cake and eat it, too.
Posted By: Marsha Jones
Thursday, February 25th 2010 at 10:03AM
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