Hi Reddit, I am in a pickle and idk what to about it.
I've been working for a small local store(s) for the past… 4-5 months? Rarely ever call out, only really missed work once because I was sick (not covid) and one of the owners told me I could go home and make up the time later, and then another time when my mother had a stroke.
This morning my fiance who has two heart conditions (neurosyncope, now type 2 AV block) had a heart attack while trying to carry some heavy packages to our apartment. I contacted my manager to tell her that I couldn't come in today because of a family emergency, and was told I had to find coverage or I had to be in by 2:30pm. (Shift started at 1pm.) I explained that I was at the hospital and wanted to be with my fiance while they were there and getting tests run. She responded saying that the owner had taken me off the schedule for the next two days to “give me time”. I told my manager depending on how tests come out I should be fine to come in for my shifts over the next two days, and that she would know before the end of day today what that was looking like.
Fiance is stable and mostly just needs rest and is being set up with a cardiologist, so I told my manager after being discharged that I would be able to come in for my next two shifts. I get told that I won't be coming in, they “found coverage” (according to coworkers there's no one left for them to even contact to cover my shifts because we're running a skeleton crew and everyone else is scheduled throughout our stores), and that they will see me next week.
I can't afford to just be forced off the schedule for two extra days, and this feels like some backwards way of punishing me for calling out over a pretty big emergency. I'm scared to argue with them over it because I can't afford to lose this job, and the job market in my city is atrocious right now. I'm talking, apply to 100 jobs and get declined from all of them bad. I hate this place, but I can't just be unemployed.