Just chatted with HR about how I need 2 weeks off for an essential surgery sometime this year. This is my first corporate job (I’ve been a freelancer for years) so I’m not used to having benefits to begin with. But I was just kinda told to save up my vacation and sick days for it? And I asked how I should be expected to use days reserved for sickness and leisure for an essential surgery, and how it didn’t seem fair there wasn’t a separate policy in place for situations like this. And I was just told to file for disability or unemployment if I run out of days. Like,,,, how can we take pride in this? The manager even bragged about how they saved up their days to have a baby, almost as a point of pride that they gave up the minuscule amount of time the company allots for a personal life to take care of their newborn child. It’s all so fucked up.