I work in an industry where we are legally required to have a certain number of staff working. This, obviously, makes it difficult to take time off and puts pressure on us to work while we are sick from management.
My coworker is one of the hardest working people I have ever known. She goes above and beyond every single day. She requested today off about 4 months ago, and it was approved.
So imagine my surprise when she is at work today. We are short staffed (again), and our manager called to beg her to come into work. I have no idea why she agreed, but she did, and missed her planned day off. Her reward for working hard and being reliable is…more pressure to work on the rare day she has off. Great.
Similarly, I had a similar lesson given to me by our previous manager. When I would call in sick (which is rare and means I actually am too sick to drive), she would beg me to come in and promise she would send me home at the half day, but she just needs me to get through the morning. I was a sucker and agreed 3 times. And 3 times she said she can't send me home, there is no one to cover me, but can't you just hang on a few more hours? So when I called in and she begged me to do a half day, I just said no, can't do it, I'm taking the entire day. Then I would turn off my phone so she couldn't keep calling me.
Our new manager is more reasonable, but probably only because she was aware I stopped playing the game before (she was assistant manager then). But I'm still not going to be reliable enough that she tells me to cancel my planned day off. Or if she does call, I will be “out of town” no matter what I am doing.