I work for a very large oncology practice. The powers that be recently pulled my team from the pharmacy side of things to the corporate side of the business in a strange unorganized attempt to consolidate teams. The whole team had been completely remote long term (I went remote before COVID). The new S.director dropped the mandate that we have to now be in office Tues Wed Thurs every week for the usual buzz word reasons. No exceptions, no compromise. They even told my supervisor who lives 1600miles away that she had 90 days to move back to our state (while she was on fmla btw).
My mother was recently diagnosed with a very aggressive type of cancer. I am the only one of her children in the same state (but still 6hrs away), the oldest and the only one with any kind of medical experience, so I've stepped up to help her through this.
Since I already wfh two days of the week I asked to wfh the rest of this next week so I can drive the 6hrs and go with mom to her 1st oncology appt and 1st treatments.
I was told no because there was already a precedent set with my teammate. If I wanted off I'd have to take PTO.
Here's the thing, the reason my teammate asked to work from home was that her roof was being repaired. Which was the week after we were told we had to be in office. As in it was pre-planned before the new mandate. And they told her if she wanted to be home she needed to take PTO. Because they feel they need to be consistent, roof repair = cancer treatment
So apparently this is the way to show your team that they are valued and you care about them.
Told them I was needed to go anyway and put in the PTO. They haven't approved the request yet. We have our huge quarterly meeting in about 2 weeks and I do ALL the prep for it. No one else can so if it doesn't get done so be it. Because if they'd rather have me not work then work remote – Fuck'em!
I love what I do, and my original team but I'm not wasting any moment of time I may have with my mother for this job.
Once we have a game plan for treatment I will be putting in an intermittent FMLA req and a req for reasonable accommodation to wfh with adjusted hours. Wish me luck. I'll probably need it.