My daughter was in the hospital back in May, as some of you might remember reading, and she was diagnosed with systemic juvenile arthritis. Obviously, a chronic disease, and she doesn't have a light case... She had fever daily for a month before they put her on pretty high doses of medecine containingn cortisone.
She saw the specialist (rhumatologist) for the first time today and I couldn't be there. I might have written about how my boss yelled at me last time when I had to miss 2 hours of work one afternoon to go to an appointment. I've taken up my 5 paid sick days so far this year, plus an extra half day (that was deducted from my pay that week) and when I asked for those 2 hours, he told me the situation had to fall into place, "or else". Well... I know what my priorities are and that's my daughter, but I got bullied into missing all the appointments she has had since I got yelled at. And now the specialist appointment she had today. I will end up getting all the information I need to have by having my husband tell me the gist of it and then calling myself for all the info, but I should have been there.
I feel so bad for letting him make me sit and shut up when I knew I needed to be there. I got bullied into shutting up this time, but next time I get a chance, I'm talking to him, or to the big boss, and letting them know that it won't happen again. That I WILL be missing days or hours of work here and there that they will deduct from my pay, and that I won't be told to straighten myself out "or else". I know how valuable I am there as an employee and they will have nothing else to do than shut up and let it be.
I'm an accomodating type so I don't ask for much from them, and even if I feel they are asking for a bit too much sometimes, I just do it. Asking me to take care of an extra part of the workload in the company is a bit too much, but telling me I can't miss any more days, even if the reason is my daughter -- that is more than a bit too much, it's UNACCEPTABLE and I have all the right to miss those days. So I'm done getting bullied and I'm standing up to that boss.