Unfiltered Story #292174

I was still young and naive when this happened and I don’t like confrontations. So one January morning, I call in sick but my manager insisted I come in because (colleague) called in sick first and “she was more entitled to being ill as I was”. Yeah, because being ill is a choice. So I went, not sure what I did other than sitting around at my desk.
Come lunch, I take my temp, went to my manager ‘s desk, gave him the thermometer and asked if I was allowed to go home now. It would turn out to be pneumonia and I was running a fever of 40 degr Celsius (that is about 105 degr Fahrenheit). He grudgingly allowed me to leave. Driving home on icy roads. On my own.
When my thoughts were coherent enough – but a week did pass – I realised two things: that I was damn lucky I got to the doctors and home without incident and why drunk people think it is OK to drive. Their state of mind must be similar.
It only went down from there regarding that job. That same manager told me flat out I had to wear shorter skirts, show more cleavage, lose some weight and become “easier” when I wanted to get somewhere in the workplace. My only regret is that I stayed so long.