Extremely American post coming up. I was laid off from my “big boy job” late last year, and to make ends meet, I took a shitty food service job for the time being (I quit the job last month). There was a point earlier this year where I was working four jobs just to make ends meet! I only stayed for a few months because I just kept butting heads with the employer, but I really want to know: should a job that is not giving you health insurance benefits be allowed to demand a doctor’s note from you?
I got COVID for the first time this year and upon letting my boss know at the shit job know, they told me that I could return once I got them a doctor’s note that they could “keep on my file…” and I refused on the basis that they do not provide me with health insurance (or any other benefits…or decent pay), so I would not being going to a doctor to get a note for them. I started doing this after I was sick during my time at the previous “big boy job” and ended up spending a little over 100$ and four hours in the waiting room just for the doctor to say “yes, you are sick” which I already knew before I walked in the door, and that was back when I had insurance.
So, I told them that I would not be going to the doctor and I’ll just provide them with a negative test result instead. It ended up being fine, and I’m not longer at the job because it sucked, but I’m wondering if I’m going to run into trouble with this eventually? I’m on a very specific career path/education plan so I plan to work jobs that provide insurance benefits soon enough, but for the interim, I need to keep working to put food on the table. Am I going to keep running into this line of inquiry in these entry level positions? Is there a stronger way I could enforce this boundary?