Hello,
I am privileged enough to work in a corporate office that is fairly progressive (in multiple ways) and pays me well enough. I have chronic health problems and I'm a trans person so being in this position is a relief.
Today is the first day of my period and I started to feel faint at work while also being in extreme pain. I knew when I woke up this morning that I should stay home but I got covid about three weeks ago and had to take off several days so I was anxious to tell them. I managed to do about four hours and then messaged my boss saying I needed to go home. Instead of being passive aggressive or mean he just said 'feel better! go home if you need to'.
This interaction got me thinking about all of the terrible, low wage jobs I've had where asking to go home or needing time off was treated like a 'problem'. Generally my supervisor would be pissed off, passive aggressive and suspicious when I told them. I understood somewhat in that people would always be no-call-no-showing or quitting but it was so stressful trying to convey to them that I was not feeling well and could not work. The less you get paid, the worse you are treated and it's mind boggling how true that is!
I also am always reading comments on here where people recant stories of employees only being 'allowed' to go home because the boss saw them vomiting or they were literally in the hospital. It's insane that our culture allows workplaces to treat you like this.
If these low wage jobs paid better and treated better then perhaps they wouldn't have an issue with people never showing up or trying to get days off. And I'm sure many of these supervisors are genuinely stressed and under pressure (if they aren't merely having a power trip). It doesn't need to be like that though because I've had low wage jobs that were fine! And people showed up and the managers weren't an asshole about time off.
All I'm trying to say is, time off flexibility should be talked about more.