I (22m) work in a restaurant in Germany. Yesterday in the middle of my shift I felt really weak and my eyes were burning. When I went home in my 3 hour break (having the day broken up in two shifts, from 11:30 to 14:30 and from 17:30 to 22:30, doesn't let me do anything else with my day but according to the boss I can't change that cause “it's the business”) I measured my temperature and discovered I had fever. So naturally I notified my boss and stayed home. Today I went to a doctor and he told me to absolutely stay home as long as I need and that I should be completely healthy before going back to work, as I work in a food-related service. I got a week sick leave and the recommendation to wait 48 hours if I stop having symptoms before going back to work. And until here, everything is fine.
The problem is that my absence has apparently caused my boss to give a bunch of extra shifts to my young colleague M. (24f), which I am friends with. M. texted me today and told me that when the boss was assigning her extra shift (she doesn't want to tell me, but I know for sure over regular time) that everyone was making snark remarks about me staying home. She also told me that a lot of other people are coughing or feel sick at work (which is a restaurant, so while handling other people's food!!)
I understand they have a business to run but if a service worker is sick he shouldn't be handling other people's food. And I shouldn't feel guilty if my colleagues need to work more, because my boss gets a shit ton of money to manage the shifts in the restaurant and it should be their responsibility to find someone to cover. I just wanted to vent with this post, because I know that my boss will try to make life difficult for me cause apparently taking sick leave when you are sick is not being a team player. But honestly, I am being paid 13,50 an hour for a back breaking job where we are constantly understaffed and I work way more than the 20 hour a week that I wanted to work in the beginning ( I am also supposed to study German in the meantime). So this is all my vent, thank you for listening