So, I'm a phlebotomist who mostly works blood drives and such. I work for a nonprofit organization with a ridiculous occurrence (point) system and some questionable PTO policies.
So, working for this organization, you're able to get up to six occurrences. Then you're fired. No if's, ands, or buts. It wouldn't be so bad but they threaten occurrences for a lot of things. To a ridiculous extant, in fact. Many e-mails from management have the tone of, “Do this, or else!”
For an example of how ridiculous it is, I know someone who got an occurrence for clocking in a half-hour early. Scheduling had e-mailed him and asked him to do so but our system auto-deletes e-mails after some time and he couldn't prove he'd ever gotten it to HR when he tried to fight the occurrence.
This organization also has a COVID-19 check-in tool you have to use every morning. If you so much as have a headache or diarrhea it'll fail you and you won't be allowed to work for at least 72 hours, even if you have a negative COVID-19 test. This organization also forces you to use your PTO to cover any sick time. Heaven forbid you actually contract COVID-19 from a sick donor, have a positive test, and can't work. That's a week or more off work and they'll take eight hours of PTO for each and every day of it.
A bunch of my coworkers recently caught COVID-19 from a sick donor, were told they couldn't work for over a week, and HR forced them to use up their PTO to cover it. Several coworkers' summer vacations they'd had planned for months are gone because they're out of PTO and HR never, ever approves unpaid time off requests.
Anyway, on to my story: I got an e-mail from HR the other day letting me know that it was time for me to get my second hepatitis B vaccine, which I suppose is important when you're working with strangers' blood every day. I went in and got it on my day off yesterday. This morning I feel like I got run over by a truck. Fever, chills, fatigue, headache, etc. My arm feels like it got hit with a sledge hammer. Pretty much most of the reactions one could have from that particular vaccine. There's no way I can work like this. Heck, I could barely even muster up the energy to get myself something to drink from the kitchen.
I, of course, called into work.
Despite the fact that they mandated I get the vaccine, and despite the fact that this is a direct result of getting it, my manager let me know that this would count as an occurrence. Oh, and of course, I'm losing eight hours of my PTO as well.
At least I'm only losing one day this way. If I'd decided not to call in the damn COVID-19 tool would have kicked me out for three anyway and I would have had to go get tested.
Things need to change. Where's the humanity or even common sense anymore?
edit: Oh, just to add a bit more about this particular organization, they also pay new hires more than old staff. We have 18 year-old almost-kids coming in who've never held a needle in their lives starting at higher wages than experienced, veteran phlebotomists who've been with us for over 20 years.
edit 2: Oh, I forgot something else I'd like to ramble about, while I'm at it. This particular organization also gives out retention bonuses. They'll give you $2500 cash. If you quit within six months, you owe the entirety of it back. If you quit between six months and a year, you owe half back. It's yours, free and clear, after a year. The thing is that you never get the whole thing because of taxes. I only got around $1700 but I'm now on the hook for $2500. It's super shady.