I don't want to turn this into a novel, so I'll try to keep it somewhat short.
Throughout the years, my workplace has been toxic with a co-worker chasing me everywhere, literally questioning my every move (bathroom visits, if I went into another room or whatever horrible stuff you can come to think of). This has led to all kinds of fun stuff throughout the years (anxiety attacks, palpitation, physical pain in general, su!cidal tendencies).
Said co-worker has, after over a decade of terror, stopped behaving like this. So another co-worker kind of picked it up, although not to the same extent. There was a fight at work and we sat down with our boss and “cleared the air”.
The constant pressure of being chased, receiving hate for not being more than one human being and not some all seeing God has resulted in many days of sick leave due to being physically in such a bad shape from the aforementioned problems that came after living under this kind of shit for over a decade.
During Easter, both me and my son got sick (flu or Covid, that kind of shit). I called in sick on Tuesday, and last night my boss called me to check on me, to make sure it wasn't because of some drama or anything. Both me and my girlfriend thought he was intrusive, because it was like he didn't believe me. He insisted that I call a doctor if I still had a fever (he thought fever could mean I was in physical danger, it hadn't even been two days) this morning, to which I somewhat reluctantly agreed.
I explained that my boss had said that if I were to wake up without a fever, I had to come into work. The doctor cut me off right there and said that “You are the only one who can possibly know if you're 'recovered' enough to work, fever isn't the only reason to stay home, your boss is in no position to make such a demand.”
I thanked him and we hung up. Not five minutes later, I received a call from a “no ID caller”.I picked up the phone, and it was the doctor that called back to further explain to me that it's never the employer who decides when someone is sick or not, and despite the fact that the restrictions have been removed, if people have symptoms like those I described, apart from not being fit to work, I should definitely stay at home.”
I can't read minds, but based on his tone of voice and what he said (and the fact that he bothered to call me back), I assume that it wasn't the first time he has encountered similar situations where employers do shit like this.
Before we hung up the second time, I told him how annoying it is that the same people who shat their pants because some sneezed a year ago are the same people that think you should come in sick to work. People won't ever learn, indeed.
Edit: I'm not in the US, if that explains it.