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Antiwork

Team Leader retaliation for seeking another job during sick leave

What happened today is just beyond me. Right now I'm on sick leave due to severe anxiety which goes so heavy on my heart that I ended on the ER few times past month and IBS flare ups. My psychiatrist advised me to look for remote work as it may reduce my stress. My current job provides us with a hybrid model but the work we're doing can be done 100% remotely. It's worth mentioning that I live in Poland and recently remote work got regulated to the point where employees can apply for a 100% remote if there is a valid reason. I decided that I will try to apply for 100% remote work supported by a doctor's certificate at my current company but I will also look for another job in the meantime, it is not forbidden to do so when on sick leave. Several people from my…


What happened today is just beyond me. Right now I'm on sick leave due to severe anxiety which goes so heavy on my heart that I ended on the ER few times past month and IBS flare ups. My psychiatrist advised me to look for remote work as it may reduce my stress. My current job provides us with a hybrid model but the work we're doing can be done 100% remotely. It's worth mentioning that I live in Poland and recently remote work got regulated to the point where employees can apply for a 100% remote if there is a valid reason. I decided that I will try to apply for 100% remote work supported by a doctor's certificate at my current company but I will also look for another job in the meantime, it is not forbidden to do so when on sick leave.

Several people from my company left for let's call it company X as the jobs is the same but for a much better wage. One of my colleagues switched to that company recently and I asked if he could refer me. He did but he also for some unknown reason informed my current team leader about it.

I messaged my team leader if we could have a chat regarding my application for remote work, she knows about my IBS and severe anxiety and that it was always problematic for me, forcing me to go on a sick leave from time to time. Out of a sudden, she said that the manager told her that “my case is not exceptional enough to apply for 100% remote work model” and she said that me applying to company X makes her wonder whether my inability to work right now is legitimate or faked adding that “ofc I'm the last person who would undermine a valid sick leave certificated by a doctor” (basically implying that I'm faking but also trying to keep her hands clean as if she just didn't imply it). When I pointed out that she shouldn't undermine a valid sick leave she said that what I just said is a disgusting lie and that she would never undermine a sick leave (LOL).

(Quick FYI. My IBS is so severe that it's symptoms are nearly as unpleasant as if I had Crohn's disease and she knows it because we've talked several times about it. It's worth mentioning that on several occasions she told me to “get myself together” as if I could cure an incurable disease.)

At that point, I got really annoyed because there is no article in Polish law that forbids a person from applying for job while being on a sick leave. I pointed out that it looks like retaliation for “having the nerve” to apply for another job (which is 100% remote btw).

All of our co-workers were nearly 100% sure that giving me remote work is just formality as they know I'm an extremely efficient employee that keeps our team KPI really high to such a degree that we had a special meeting at one point where my co-workers were informed that at that moment I was responsible for 70% of team's KPI and that they should stop slacking.

So right now I'm in a deep shit and 100% I have to look for another job as my beloved team leader will either fire me after my sick leave is over or will make my life a fucking inferno.

Sorry for the long rant but I had to fucking vent. I'm so sick of that bullshit where despite giving 110% you're treated like a piece of shit for wanting to make your life a bit better. What a shit world to live in.

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