I help manage a team of 8 full-time staff. Our department lead and I technically have the same title, but she has a few extra responsibilities due to her seniority. I can approve time-off, create schedules, interview/ hire, etc., but technically she is “the boss”.
A few months ago, we had a team member lose a pregnancy, and was having medical issues after. When she reached out to me to let me know she needed time off, I immediately approved and basically told her to shut off her phone, and myself and the rest of the team would handle her duties until she was ready to come back. This all took place while our boss was on vacation.
Boss came back from vacation, and ripped me a new one essentially saying I was helping this coworker “slack off”. She even went so far as to make the comment that “it's not like she actually had the baby”.
I went to our HR person, not really expecting anything, as our company is pretty small, and these kinds of things have been swept under the rug before. After my meeting, I heard nothing, until today when I was called into director's office and was told that following the investigation, the bitch has been let go.
I hope in this sub I don't actually have to say this, but for anyone else who ends up reading this, if you lead any people at your job, treat them like fucking humans. Just because you are “in charge” doesn't excuse from common decency, and it certainly doesn't make you immune to any repercussions of your shitty actions.