Back when I was working at Shmapplebees, I had a handful of cold symptoms and I was a server so I didn’t want to be sneezing and coughing and having my nose run all over people’s food. I would later find out that I had a low grade fever, but this was afterwards.
I tried calling out from the restaurant. We already had an outbreak of Hep A which caused us to close for a while and unable to open until we were cleared by the health department. We all had to get our vaccines and everything before returning to work.
I called my general manager (I was working exclusively night shift at the time) and told them that I couldn’t make it in because I was genuinely sick and had a doctors appointment the next morning to get a note. They GUILTED me so badly. Claimed that they were depending on me and that several other people had already called out. When I tried to explain that I was sick, they brushed me off with “it’s just a little cold. Just put on your mask and don’t cough around the guests!” Mind you, my voice was GONE too.
So I eventually got guilted into coming in for my shift and wore a mask my entire shift. Guess who got a complaint for being sick around the guests? You guessed it. Me.
They still didn’t send me home.