Got called in for a “meeting to discuss arlttendance and absence from work”. This has happened predominantly within my company because we're Hobg Kong based, and during COVID we had some of the worst restrictions in the world. My job requires a lot of travelling, and thus a load of employees were subject to some of the most insane quarantine times experienced anywhere.
Most people ended up taking “COVID stress leave” for at least a month to take a break from being stuck in hotels and government facilities. Any of those people who got called in for these meetings subsequently got interrogated in these meetings with the end result being that they were deemed mentally unfit to qualify for promotion.
This is to say that they were being penalized for wanting time off from the insanity that was pushed upon us for almost 2 years longer than it was anywhere else in the world. Bad enough, especially when it was pretty legitimate for loads of people with actual mental health issues. Bear in mind, all of this is legal and within company guidelines RE sick leave.
I didn't take this leave. On the contrary, my physical health declined as a result of being stuck in quarantine ad nauseum. I Gained over 22lbs/10kg and pretty much my entire posterior chain suffered, leading to multiple doctors visits for pain medication as well as physiotherapy sessions. As I was recovering and got back to starting weight, I finally got COVID. My lungs were screwed for over 3 months and I was right back where I started. As of today I'm back on track again.
Today I got called in for this meeting. I'm angry, anxious, and a little scared of how this will impact my career. I'm actually not anti-work, as such. I love my job despite the 3 years of hell. It just started getting great again since Hong Kong dropped so many of the restrictions killing it. What I am anti-, however, is predatory and interrogative practices implemented by management, penalizing people for following company protocol.