I've been looking for work for a few months now and finally got hired. After going through the background checks and drug screens, I was given my starting date from HR. Unfortunately, I got extremely ill from food poisoning and had to leave my first day early. I get the number to my supervisor, but he only speaks Spanish so I have to resort to texts in order to communicate.
Before I leave, I asked for the contact information of my supervisor so I can communicate with him how I'm feeling and what I need to do before I return to work. The next morning I'm still feeling ill, so I try calling but get instantly forwarded to a full voicemail. I try texting with a Spanish translator, I get no response.
A few days of trying to get in contact goes by before I decide to email HR and let them know what's going on. They give me the number to another supervisor, but every attempt at contacting them is failing.
A week goes by, and I finally get a hold of my 1st supervisor who tells me to come in and see the 2nd one. They tell me it's considered job abandonment because I didn't get a doctor's note (had they told me I needed one, I would've gotten it). I mean I didn't even know I was on the schedule for that week, because they haven't even made one yet, so technically I wasn't even told what days I was supposed to come in. How can I abandon a job that I don't even have a schedule for? They said they will contact HR and figure something out, in the meantime I will be on standby waiting for their call.
I contact HR and tell them I feel like I'm being unfairly treated because I don't speak Spanish in an English-speaking country, and if my lack of Spanish speaking skills was a problem, they shouldn't have hired me and wasted my time. I immediately get a call from management telling me that I wasn't fired and that I can come in tomorrow, it was just a misunderstanding. I believe I would have lost my job if I didn't stand up for myself and contact HR instead of waiting for my supervisors to do it.
I'm going to pretend like I didn't get the call from management and email HR next week asking about the status of my employment. I already got several promising job interviews lined up so I'm not desperate to work for these people, I'll survive with or without this job. But I refuse to let them walk all over me in retaliation for bringing this to HR. I do not feel secure with my job at this company if I'm being threatened with punishment for the lack of communication from management.