So I started a new job back in December in an office. That’s all I’ll say to keep this a little more anonymous. Something I found to be a good sign about this job is that we are allowed 10 days off per year that we can use for any reason on any day. Sounds pretty cool, right?
Or so I thought! Yesterday while at work, I started feeling sick. It kept me up late last night and I didn’t get a lot of sleep. I woke up feeling worse this morning. So I got a Covid test before my shift — it was NEGATIVE. I told my boss this and offered to come in to the office today regardless of how I was feeling due to the test being negative. He then sent me our company Covid policy, which clearly states that regardless of a negative test I am REQUIRED to stay home until I have no symptoms.
This got me worried about my sick/personal time, because I will be moving in a few months and have other things going on throughout the year that I will need to take time off for. Not to mention if I actually DO get sick with Covid or something else. So I emailed my boss again to ask if this absence will count towards my 10 days off a year. He told me that “yes, today and subsequent days off this week will count”. But I’m not ALLOWED to come in even though I tested negative? How am I using MY sick/personal time if I am being told by my boss that I am REQUIRED to stay home until I don’t have any symptoms, despite the negative test?
Does anyone have any advice on how to handle this? I’m getting screwed out of sick time that I’m not even voluntarily using. I completely understand not wanting me to come in to avoid getting other people sick, but to REQUIRE me to stay home and then forcing me to use my personal days for an arbitrary amount of time until I’m no longer experiencing symptoms? Sorry that this is mostly just a rant, I’m really frustrated and upset.
Just realized I didn’t mention that the 10 days of time off is UNPAID 🙂 I would understand if they didn’t want me racking up more than the 10 days off if it was PTO, but it literally isn’t. It’s just for personal things like going out of town, if you’re sick and YOU want to stay home, etc. I’m so stressed and I don’t know what to do.