i’ll try and keep this as brief as possible, I’m just feeling incredibly frustrated and honestly a little betrayed.
for some context, my dog died in march and I took a couple of days off because I was completely devastated, I wasn’t in any state to concentrate on work. when I returned to work I was told that those days were being filed as compassionate leave, meaning they’re unpaid but wouldn’t be punishable and no further action would be taken.
about a month ago, I had a week off work due to illness and when I returned I received a letter informing me of an ‘investigation’ into my pattern of absences. I use quotes because this is a company known for their lack of transparency or thoroughness and they’re especially not fair when it comes to treatment of staff (and then wonder why morale is so low).
long story short: they couldn’t find any pattern, turns out they’d just looked at my total absences from 2017 to now without context and assumed wrongdoing and the whole thing gets thrown out.
cut to today, I was called into a meeting and was told that actually, the company will be taking action against me for those days in march because the manager who told me otherwise was simply mistaken and didn’t follow the correct process, completely disregarding the fact it wasn’t my fault whatsoever and stripping away every human element possible. I was given a 3 month verbal warning which strips of you your sick pay entitlement for the duration, essentially a probationary period.
I cannot believe how low they sank just to try and get something on me, like their error was my fault. at the end I even asked the hearing manager if they’re a genuine human person because of how cold it all was. I’m not one to lose my rag with people very often but this crossed a line.
on the advice from my union representative I will be appealing this absolutely disgusting decision and putting in a grievance with the people responsible. not a fucking chance I’m going to let them punish me for this, not one.