I started a new job almost 3 months ago. It is what I wanted which is a day job from Monday to Friday, and it's very close to home. It is a small company with only about seven of us and it was only recently they hired me, an extra. Before that it was just the six of them for fifteen years.
The second week I worked there I started throwing up halfway through the day. I was so nervous of being fired I didn't say anyting at first, but the bathroom is not private and you can hear everything. My coworker was super paranoid because she has kids so they sent me home. I felt better the next day and went in. My manager asked me to leave and said that my coworker would be uncomfortable with me coming back so soon. My manager kept asking me the same questions like what I thought it was- I said I didn't know, maybe a flu? It got a little invasive but whatever.
The next week we had a meeting and the owner ever so nicely centers me out about being sick. They kept asking why I came to work sick- and I kept giving the same answer- because I wasn't sick in the morning. It's like they think my body sends out an alarm saying “you will be sick today.” He said I should never ever come to work with any symptoms whatsoever and how dangerous it is (the father works there too and he is elderly) and my coworker was mad for a few days thinking I endangered people. They treated me like I was dirty for days. This made me so paranoid. So, two weeks later my husband is Covid positive. I tell them, tell them I have no symptoms and did a test that was negative. They made me stay home for five days anyways.
I never got sick in that isolation period. But then I did. It was weird. I got a sore throat, I texted my manager and very honestly told her I had a sore throat but nothing else and that I was fine to come in. She said ok. My oher coworker was also of sick that week. The next day they made me do a test for a cough. It was negative. The following Saturday I woke up and was actually sick. I knew I had until Monday so I waited. I thought I was feeling better and was scared to say anything because even though they made a big deal about being at work with symptoms, she seemed irritated by the whole thing. I came in the Monday and worked. I let her know I was unwell and she interrogated me. She kept asking me what my symptoms were and I mentioned I was very dizzy. She basically accused me of lying because I drove to work. I stayed and worked but the next day it was all in my chest. I still went in but they made me go home because of the cough. She then told me that the third woman woke up super ill and they were shutting down the office for five days.
I came back on the Monday, and she called me into her office and accused me of taking advantage. She said I “have no sick days left” (I never though I had any, I was new, hence why I kept coming in) and she was the one who made me stay home??? I don't get why they guilt tripped me and made me feel like a leper. In addition, I don't get why I was accused of lying when the other two ladies I work with also were sick and its very evident we all had the same thing?
As some kind of punishment I guess, I got moved to the front at a desk near the window where it was hot as balls. I sat there for a week or two until she moved me back. In that time, everyone was so weird and standoffish with me. My other coworker is sick all the time but she said it's no big deal because “she can work from home” (my job could be done at home to the same capacity and there are aspects they can't do from home)
The drama seems to have blown over but it left a really bad taste in my mouth. I have been staying away from everyone in fear of getting sick but I'm not telling them a thing unless I'm dying.