Sick Of Your Sick Attitude

(I have been with this company for roughly three years. In that time I have called out a total of two times. One of my current coworkers, Coworker #2, has called out at least once every other week since I started this department, a month after he started his job there, and always tries to cheat his breaks and punches. I wake up feeling unwell one morning and, brushing it off as early morning blues, go in anyway. Ten minutes into my shift my coworker calls out claiming to not feel well. Knowing I still have to be at my second job, I’m trying to talk myself through the day now having to juggle my job and my now absent coworker’s. An hour and a half before I’m scheduled to leave, I suddenly get light headed.)

Me: *sitting down* “I need to stop for a moment… I’m going to take my break now.”

Coworker #1: *offering me a piece of chocolate* “Here, you don’t eat enough… Probably why you’re dizzy.”

Me: *feeling worse* “No, I don’t think I should eat anything.”

(Suddenly, I feel really sick and barely make it to the trash can to throw up. Coworker #1 rushes out to the other two working the floor, one who acts as a manager at times.)

Coworker #1: *walking back to me* “You work too hard, you know. That’s why you’re sick. Never taking breaks, working two jobs…”

(Most management here is notorious for giving employees a hard time for saying you don’t feel well or calling out, generally acting as if you’re all lazy kids trying to get out of work, but I’m promptly sent home, with several employees and two managers fussing over me to be certain I’m all right. Two days later I’m back at work, no longer sick but exhausted from it.)

Coworker #2: *upon hearing I was sent home early* “They sent you home?!”

Me: *blinking a few times, not sure why he’s so agitated* “Yeah, I was pretty bad the other day…”

Coworker #2: *scoffs* “Well, aren’t you lucky. They never even CARE when I come in sick.”

(He stomps off past the floor to the bathrooms for a bathroom break, even though he’s been there about 20 minutes.)

Coworker #3: *walking up to me* “Well, of course they don’t care when he comes in sick… That’s how he acts all the time. And he’s not YOU.”

Me: “You mean a self-inflicted workaholic?”

Coworker #3: “Yeah… that.”