For context I have been working as a front of house staff for about a year performing roles such as dishwashing, taking food out to tables, packing things up, tidying etc. these past few months I have had some unavailability (I turned 18 so I was having a few parties and my grandparents were doing lunches and dinners) as well as being sick quite a lot, this has caused me to have to call off shifts.
I have just started learning the till (over the counter service) I have received 0 training besides where everything is and how to use the ipad thingy, nothing on product knowledge or how to talk to customers. My manager/owner of the shop told me I do bad service and that I need to do better, to my credit she said that she could see I was working hard. She is a good person that is at times understandable and offers critism (however in this case she just said that places in Italy do it better and so should I calling customer service an art form but proceeded to not tell me how I could actually improve, keeping in mind training is what she promised) so now I am suffering because customers are getitng angry at me, calling me useless and rude when I do not know what I am doing wrong.
There is a lot more but fast forward to the present, I have been sick this past week, I worked last Sunday and felt very under the weather, I had 2 hours of sleep and bags under my eyes, I still worked well tho, when I got back home I started developing some more symptoms (also forgot to add that the past few days before that I had a sore throat), I developed a cough that night after the shift and a runny nose so I text messaged her saying I couldn’t come in for the nexts days shift. Fast forward to today (Saturday 6 days later) I am still very sick, all though at the end of it, I am still contagious to some extent and due to my time sick I haven’t been able to get much holiday hw done so I have to do it all this weekend.
I messaged her today telling her that I cannot come in tomorrow as I am sick, I also gave her a heads up that this term for school for me is going to be quite intensive and I may need some more time on the weekends, this is the response I got, I feel it is unreasonable to put the blame on me for being a casual worker and that it is difficult to put forward sickness unavailability in advance given that you do not know when you are going to be sick and for how long, I looked at the roster and directed her to someone who isn’t working, she fired back and I just played it nice and diplomatic despite wanting to say more. Thougts? Am I in the wrong here?
Source: HCTDMCHALLENGER
2 Comments
As a casual, you have every right to call in sick.
As a business, they have every right to reduce your hours (which is what they’ll do if you piss them off).
It isn’t your fault. This is poor planning on their behalf. Things happen so you need to have a backup plan / person.
As a worker, you have every right to call in sick.
As a business, they have every right to reduce your hours (which is what they’ll do if you piss them off when you’re a casual).
It isn’t your fault. This is poor planning on their behalf. Things happen so you need to have a backup plan / person.