I'm going in for a surgery. Relatively complicated procedure but not life-threatening. Long recovery, though, ca 6 months. I work in game development and can start working again one week post-op, barring complications. (If I had any kind of standing/higher mobility job I'd be on sick leave for over a month.)
Boss knows I am going in for surgery. I informed him and others personally at least twice before leaving. Surgery is in another city so I have to travel 6+ hours by train to get there and back, including overnight stays in sealed post-op wards at the hospital.
Literally the day of my surgery, once I'm awake and in my hospital room. I get one msg from my boss. The only thing he says is demanding to know why [minor record-keeping task that has zero urgency and can easily be considered subsumed under an extensive report I gave him just days prior] hasn't been done.
That's it. No “hope you're doing well,” the man doesn't even know if I survived or am in stable condition. This is the only thing on his mind, though, apparently.
The last thing in our chat history before this message he sent me was him thanking me for doing a good job on [thing] and saying the company would do everything they can to help me post-op.
I didn't answer him for several days because I was on scheduled leave off work while post-op. (I saw the notif but wisely did not open the message while in the hospital.) That message is still the only thing he's written me in over a week. He's probably been stewing that I didn't leap out of general anaesthetic to answer him on the spot, or something.
This honestly completely pathological swinging from one extreme to another with no forewarning or identifiable cause is too much. I know the problem is with “them” not me, but all I expect is the standard baseline of human decency and still they seem to wriggle under it. I try not to let it affect me emotionally but it's still hurtful, it feels so dehumanizing. Not to mention I don't feel any better whenever I get praise because a week later the boss will have another personality change and decide s/he hates everything suddenly.
I don't know how much more of this shittiness I can handle. Definitely looking for new jobs but no takers yet.
[For reference, I am in Europe, but my employer is American. Sorry to any US comrades out there, but I'll never make this mistake again.]