Whether you get sinus infections every three months like clockwork or your immune system deserves a gold medal for keeping you healthy for years, nobody likes being sick. So for the vast majority of us, we won’t take a day off due to illness unless we know we’re incapable of doing our job (or contagious enough to infect others).

One boss, however, decided that he should be the judge of how ill his employees are. Below, you’ll find the full story that was recently shared on the Malicious Compliance subreddit, detailing how one woman managed to end her boss’ “no sick day streak.”

After coming down with a lung infection, this woman alerted her boss that she wouldn’t be able to come in

Image credits: cottonbro studio (not the actual photo)

But instead of giving her the day off, he decided he needed to see her illness with his own eyes

Image credits: RDNE Stock project (not the actaul photo)

Image source: renaissance-Fartist

Despite the fact that adults tend to get sick multiple times a year, many workers in the US aren’t entitled to sick leave at all

According to WebMD, the average adult gets about 2 to 4 colds per year. Women between the age of 20 to 30 tend to get ill slightly more often, and adults over the age of 60 average less than one cold per year. But there are many factors impacting how often we get sick, including chronic illnesses, our overall health and wellness, how strong our immune system is, and unfortunately, we can always randomly get sick from food poisoning or a virus we pick up from someone else. So it’s important that companies understand humans aren’t invincible and allow them to rest when they’re ill. But as far as the United States government is concerned, sick days don’t seem to be a priority. At the moment, federal law in the US does not guarantee employees a single paid day off, and many jobs don’t even provide unpaid days off.

Nearly one in four workers in the US are not entitled to any paid sick leave, and those earning in the smallest 10% of salaries are twice as likely to have no sick days than those working in the private sector. Certain industries are also less likely to provide paid sick days, as barely over half the workers in leisure and hospitality jobs are entitled to sick days. However, 96% of those working in management, business, and financial positions were provided sick leave in 2022. When workers are able to earn paid sick days, however, they still don’t have many. According to CAP, employees in the US typically earn one hour of sick time for every 30 hours they work, but there’s usually also a cap in place, ensuring that they can’t earn more than 40 hours per year.

Toxic managers and hustle culture often discourage employees from taking time off, even when they’re ill

The combination of knowing that sick days will be unpaid in addition to the toxic hustle culture present in many American companies leads plenty of employees to force themselves to work when they’re ill. “Sickness is weakness,” LeaAnne DeRigne, associate professor of social work at Florida Atlantic University, told the BBC. “The attitude is ‘I’m irreplaceable – if I don’t show up, my job won’t get done.’ Some of it is also concern about how you are going to be viewed as an employee – whether you can be counted on or not. Whether by having too many sick days, too many absences, you are not seen as reliable.”

Almost a quarter of workers in the US have been fired or had their jobs threatened for taking time off to get well or for taking leave to care for a sick loved one, the BBC reports. So it’s not surprising that, even when employees are entitled to sick leave, more than a quarter say they’ll just go to work while ill anyway. “Unless you are on your deathbed, chances are you are going to work,” Nicholas Scheeberger, a 30-year-old technology sales executive, from Washington DC, told the BBC. Despite the misconception that workers take advantage of having access to sick days, it seems to be quite the opposite in the United States. Among the people who actually did use any sick days at all, it’s most common to use between 2 and 3 per year. 

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While bosses often can ask sick employees to come in, they shouldn’t

Unfortunately, according to FindLaw, bosses can “technically and legally” ask their employees to come in at any time. And if the company does not provide specified sick days, it is possible to put your job at risk if you don’t come in when you were scheduled to, regardless of how unethical that may sound. However, to keep up morale and prevent employees from running off as soon as they find another opportunity, experts at Ask A Manager recommend that bosses never push back when an employee calls in sick. Unless a pattern develops where they have legitimate reason to be suspicious of an employee, they should just let them stay home and rest. It’ll be best for everyone!

Thankfully, sick employees around the world have been encouraged to stay home more in recent years, due to the pandemic. But clearly, we still have a long way to go in the United States when it comes to ensuring workers get the rest (and compensation) they need while ill. We would love to hear your thoughts on this situation in the comments below, pandas. Have you ever had to deal with a manager who refused to allow you to take sick days? Does your job allow for sick days at all? Feel free to share, and then if you’re interested in reading another Bored Panda article discussing a manager who learned a similar lesson, look no further than right here!

Readers applauded the woman for her malicious compliance and called out the boss for being unreasonable

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Some even shared similar stories of being forced to go to work or school while sick

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