Take Note, Manager

For context, I’m working as an engineer, and all my work is done on my work laptop. Because of this, teleworking is pretty much the way of working ever since the pandemic was a thing.

However, we got a new manager who decided that we had to have a mandatory team day at the office once a week. Basically, he wanted everyone on the team to be present that day. I don’t like the idea of mandatory presence at the office, but whatever; I usually go once a week to the office anyway for various reasons.

Fast forward to today. It’s our mandatory day, and I had been coughing since last night. So, I decided not to risk it and stay at home. I had the symptoms of some illness but felt like I could still work. Besides that, I don’t want half the office to be sick as well by next week and blame me for it.

So, I sent my manager an email to inform him that I wouldn’t be present at the office. Not much later, I got a reply back stating that “agreements must be respected” and that “mandatory days can’t be missed without a doctor’s note.”

So that’s exactly what I did. I went to the doctor the same day, and she gave me three sick days off. I took a picture of the doctor’s note and sent it to HR with the manager CC’d in. I still don’t understand why he made it such a big deal that I wanted to work from home for my own and my team’s well-being, but hey, three days off!