I really felt like I needed to vent and share this horror story. I have a coworker who is severely ill and has been in the hospital for an extended period of time. He is the only person that handles a key role within my team and despite our boss knowing this and being told for several months how this was a bad idea, no one was ever caught up to speed to do what he does.
We continue to get lots of requests for things he does and I am doing my best to fill in despite the stress of large amounts of money being involved in mistakes. This makes me very uncomfortable and despite my protests, it's being forced on me with no other resources to fall back on.
However, the disgusting part is that my boss continues to harass and bug my coworker while he's in the hospital about stuff and then tells me this coworker myself for any questions I have. I've stated multiple times that I do not wish to call anyone in the hospital as I find it very distasteful and want him to be able to rest and get better.
I sent my coworker a text today because I wanted to see how he was doing and to ask him a quick question and got to talking about the situation some. Turns out my boss has been lying and my coworker does not want to be bothered and only said to contact him in dire emergencies or situations. My boss said that he said, “He would love to help with any and all questions.”
The whole situation has me stressed out where I'm not sleeping well at night and don't know what to do beyond applying to as many jobs as I can and getting the hell out ASAP, but I don't know what we can do.
Just wanted to rant and share this story and see what people might suggest we do. I feel like my coworker should go to HR but that's a whole other mess waiting to happen there.