I work at a restaurant and last night I had an emergency come up with family so I called in several hours before as required. When I talked to my manager all she said was she couldn't afford to be short during spring break(it's not even spring break yet here), to get my shift covered and call her to let her know who's coming in for me. Then she hung up on me. We had 2 extra servers scheduled just in case people call in, so me calling in does not leave them short staffed at all unless 2 others called in as well. And most of the employees were already scheduled, so nobody was able to come in to fill in for me. Since I called in and couldn't go in I didn't.
Then this morning I show up to work and a different manager asked me why I didn't show up to work last night. I told him I called in due to a family emergency. Turns out the manager I called in with told him that I was to get my shift covered or else I'd have to come in despite my family emergency, when at no point did she say I was required to still come in regardless. All I was told was to try to get someone to come in for my spot and let her know who it'd be. While smiling and obviously trying not to laugh in my face he said that having a family emergency is not an excuse to miss work and told me to leave and I could come back tomorrow to speak with the other manager. Every restaurant I've worked at has asked me to try to get shifts covered when I've had to call in so it's normal for her to ask that of me in my experience. But I've never had one actually say a family emergency isn't an excuse to not come in.
I don't plan on going back in to speak with her because I feel there's no point. Please let me know if I'm in the wrong here, but I feel I did everything right by calling in well ahead of my shift, did my best to get someone to fill in even though there were extras, and legitimately was not able to make it in.