A Pox Upon The Manager’s House!

When I was about five, I got chickenpox. No big deal for me; I barely noticed and just had a fun week home from school playing Power Rangers.

My mum, however, realised that at age thirty-three, she had never had chickenpox, and she was pretty sure I had now given it to her.

She was right. So, she called her manager at work — a big supermarket chain — and told her that, although she felt fine, she was pretty sure she had the pox.

Manager: *Tersely* “If you feel fine, come in for work, then!”

So… in my mum went. She spent hours sitting at the checkout, scanning items, and handling money, until a supervisor from the bakery department happened to wander by and physically recoiled as he saw that my mum now had visible spots manifesting on her arms and neck.

Supervisor: “Y-You have chickenpox?!”

Mum: “Yep.”

Supervisor: “Why the h*** are you here?”

Mum: “I told [Manager], but she told me to come in anyway.”

[Supervisor] went straight to [Manager] and demanded she let my mother go home. Obviously pissed at being tattled on and having her stupid actions be made apparent to her coworkers, [Manager] tried to take it out on my mum in some small way by demanding she get a doctor’s note.

My mum went straight from work to the doctor who told her, confused, that she could have just stayed home for a week, maybe even only a few days. She didn’t need to see a doctor for chickenpox.

When my mum told him her manager had demanded a doctor’s note, he said, “Fine,” and signed her off work for TWO weeks. Right before Christmas.

This story is part of our Best Of July 2021 roundup!

Read the next Best Of July 2021 roundup story!

Read the Best Of July 2021 roundup!