to plan illness on any other days…

Last saturday, my stomach started cramping up. I spent the whole morning sitting on the toilet bowl while trying not to doze off. for some reason, i have been extremely exhausted in the past couple of weeks, so every single minute and hour counted when it comes to bed time.

I couldn’t find the medication, and felt too weak and tired to get out of house, so i just called work sick, and went back to bed. Considering the past few months, not to mention the busy seasons… this shouldn’t be a problem right? I mean, with my new boss i have no history of deliberate missed days before. zilch, nada… not to mention, i have no life outside of work and school + some gaming.
About 6 hours i later, i woke up. I was still exhausted, and also realised i probably slept anywhere between 12-16 hours. and… i was still tired?!?! stomach was now churning air inside me, and whilst i do have pills for digestion and stuff, i highly doubt they would help. People who know me, also know that i am highly susceptible to stomachaches, diarrheas, in and especially around my PMS time.

The next morning, i found a missed call and a text message for work, asking me if i could come in to work *the night before*. Those messages were placed about an hour after i called into work sick. I must have missed it while i slept. It shouldn’t have been a problem though, but i called and apologise anyways for not picking up the phone.

When i got into work, after setting up, i was pulled aside to be talked to. They were disappointed and felt stressed by my absence. That i would do so when i knew the boss was going to be away, on a Saturday night no less, was the biggest disappointment and let down. “Your absence caused some stress on the team.” I was told. and the other problem was, i didn’t pick up the call from my Restaurant manager. And every time i tried to say something, “don’t argue with me, i am just passing on a message from the boss…” no, i can’t defend myself, but when i tried to explain stuff, he told me it’s a load of shit.

Sirs, i don’t know about you, but people fall sick. We don’t choose when we fall sick, we just fall sick. No one in this restaurant is indispensable, not even you sirs. I could be the first to go, but at no point in time would i be sorely missed. The business ran well long before my existence, and so it should run along fine after i have left. If by my absence on one night out of so many, could cause “stress on the team”, then some things have gone wrong, and someone’s not doing their job.

I have, on record and through everyone’s knowledge of me, do not go out, come to work most days on time and have never needed to call in sick for any other reason but for being really sick. I love my workplace, there is no need for me to be anywhere else but home and school and work.

The fact is, I have let you down less times unknowingly than you have let me down knowingly.

And it is heart breaking that i can’t even be sick, and not have to come to work.

My knees shook on Sunday night when i work, from dehydration. and yet you were still so hung up over thinking that i possibly faked my illness on Saturday night that you failed to see that. Instead, you keep harping on the small mistakes that happened, that were never big on your agenda before.

So, whether you were just having a big weekend, or truly felt i was doing something else that’s not work, please… just sit down and think through by history with this company. And then grow up. Don’t tell me people work despite being “crooked”, because we serve food sirs, not lingerie, and because I would never let you guys down when it’s really that serious, unlike yous.