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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be asked to ring in work each day when you are off sick..

161 replies

curlysmum · 28/02/2007 14:53

I have been off work for almost two weeks with this sickness bug then it developed into flu and I am off this week my second week. In my first week I rang I think 3 times to state I was ill then finally saw the doctor last Friday who took one look at me and said you need to rest and I 'm signing you off for 1 more week.
I rang my boss on Monday to tell him this put the Certificate in the post and now today he calls me at home , sounding a bit on the sarcastic side 'how are you' etc I explained all of it again he says , 'so when will you be back ' I told him next Monday and he sounded not impressed so I told him well I have sent in my Doctors certificate etc, he says well I still want you to call in each day WTF! am I a child or a 38 year old women, my dd father said I shd ring the Human Resources lady and give her a piece of my mind. By the way this is a very big American City Company who treat most women like idiots anyway, any view on this??

OP posts:
yellowrose · 01/03/2007 18:47

Oh, and how about self-employed women working from home or running a business ? Women do have lots of choices when it comes to work. They don't ALL have to join the corporate cattle ranch. They can be their OWN boss.

Judy1234 · 01/03/2007 18:47

Yes, butit's pathetic the way women want to be the lowest in organisations and have really low pay. How weird are they? Why don't they want to earn a lot and set their own hours? It's being in charge, owning the business, earning the most money that enables you to improve the lot of other women if you're that way inclined or to set a good example to daughters. But no, they want to be not only below the glass ceiling but on their hands and knees against the floor.

I would prefer to see companies with 5 female bosses and 100 men under them in a good few companies. Or a cabinet of 80% women etc. Let us work for that never mind minimum wage and right to slope off home early to iron someone's shirts.

Pann · 01/03/2007 18:49

yes inded Xenia - I know this. I'm not talking party politics at all.

as I said at the top, it's about belief systems and morals - what one thinks is right.

IMO, these things are too precious to leave vulnerable to people who think in a manner how you show yourself to.

yellowrose · 01/03/2007 18:51

So you EMPLOY another woman, a FEMALE nanny to do the floors for you and look after your children instead ?

Wow, now that's what I call dedication to women's Lib !!

I admire your commitment to women, Xenia, but I just don't buy it. Sorry !

Eddas · 01/03/2007 18:58

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

TnOg · 01/03/2007 18:59

For all the years spent fighting for worker's rights we seem to be reverting back to some very old-fashioned boss and employee relationships

Eddas · 01/03/2007 19:03

Actually, can we only set a good example to our daughters by being the boss. Isn't going out to work in the first place, whatever you do just as important? And indeed if these women were not doing these jobs which are the lowest of the low, who would be? They are just as valuable but maybe people need to learn to value them more. Without the cleaners etc an office would be a very horrible place to be. Someone has to do it.

TnOg · 01/03/2007 19:06

Absolutely, and they should be treated with respect and allowed their dignity.
Everyone has value and purpose in the work place from the top to the bottom, male and female

littlemissbossy · 01/03/2007 19:19

good posts eddas

Ceebee74 · 01/03/2007 19:44

Am Xenia that you think that it is wrong of women to be at the bottom without ambitions to be at the top of companies. You make out that women are forced to remain at those levels whereas it is usually out of choice.

Some women (myself included) are just looking for a good work-life balance and accept (rightly or wrongly) that to get that, you have to remain at a certain level in a company. I have no ambitions to move from my middle-management position as I am comfortable there (having been in the job for 5 years), have a 7 month old DS who I can rush home to see at 5 o'clock on the 3 days I work - and to me, that is far far more important than striving to reach senior management positions and subsequently working longer hours, more responsibility etc.

I just want to work my hours, do my job well and then spend as much time with my yummy baby as I possibly can.

VeniVidiVickiQV · 01/03/2007 19:45

Thing is YR, if she employed men to do the work that she currently employs women for, there would be 2 more women out there, in competition with her...

ScummyMummy · 01/03/2007 20:17

And my goodness some of those private providers of public services are poor, Xenia. We didn't have MRSI and clostridium difficile before cleaning was contracted out to companies unequivocally interested in profit rather than health, as I recall. Admittedly the trains didn't run on time before privatisation but they still don't and at least then no one was taking home obscene bonuses as a reward for this failure. And please don't start me on care homes and other social care provision for the most vulnerable people in our communities. I have seen some dreadful examples. A market place approach (simplistically) relies on competition between profit making companies pushing up standards because customers can choose between products and vote with their feet when services are not up to scratch. The trouble is that so many of the "customers" in social services are far too vulnerable and poor to do that directly or even to shout very loudly to commissioners about the lack of resources available to meet their needs and, frankly, that shows in the standards of some of the 'care' they receive. In any case, so few businesses outside the not for profit sector actually want to provide innovative dedicated services to those with the most profound needs, ime. I'm not saying it's all bad but on the whole the market place in the public sector has everything to prove, imo.

Eddas · 01/03/2007 20:42

Thanks littlemissbossy

That's exactly what i meant too ceebee. Find what some people beleive astonishing.

I am very much of the work to live not live to work mentality.

Might die tomorrow so rather have a lovely family and friends than be the boss everyone hates

littlemissbossy · 01/03/2007 20:44

LOL Eddas - abso-bloody-lutely!!!

yellowrose · 01/03/2007 20:52

lol - VVV - reminds me of that horrid depiction of two German men wearing only G-strings and holding feather dusters on Eurotrash - not that's what Xenia needs around the house !

nightowl · 01/03/2007 21:05

work is work. its to pay my bills and feed my children. that's it.

Eddas · 01/03/2007 21:05

Ah Eurotrash, what fabulous tv lovely image though

yellowrose · 01/03/2007 21:23

Eddas - lol - used to be my favourite tv show - I also loved the Belgian who lived in a penguin suit - remember ? Brilliant fun ! A bit shall we say prejudiced re certain nationalities, but there was enough about mad Brits. in there to make it balance out !

Judy1234 · 01/03/2007 21:28

It's a huge great shame it's always women who aren't bothered about getting to the top and men usually are, isn't it? What a coincidence adn then it's women stuck on low pay who wish they earned more or could do XYZ or didn't have to kow tow to the boss.

They tried to find out in one survey of an MBA set of graduates why 100% of the men started on a higher salary than the women? Do you know why? Every single man asked for more pay then e was offered. Every woman accepted what she was offered and thought she was lucky to get the job at all. They are their own worse enemy in all this. Pathetic and then they hardly turn up to work proper hours and expect to be treated like people who do? Are they idiots too? I despair of them sometimes.

WhatIsItWithHim · 01/03/2007 21:36

i have no desire to get to the top! (whatever the top is.) i want to have enough money to give my kids a happy life and the things they want. that's not wrong. its what i want and i dont really care what anyone else thinks.

yellowrose · 01/03/2007 21:36

It is bizarre that you think that ALL women are pathetic little house wives who are put there by their own lack of ambition. Even if it were true, so what ?

A great many women CHOOSE not to compete, not to be in the rat race, not to put work above all else. Believe it or not many men don't wish to compete either, they are not wimps, they have just opted out, usually because they have been there, done that, got the t-shirt and got out before they got a heart attack.

littlemissbossy · 01/03/2007 21:38

Xenia, just remind me why you're divorced
you're so hard Xenia, very sad, very sad

nightowl · 01/03/2007 21:51

aha i get it now. only ambitious women deserve to be treated equally at work. not just your bog standard woman who cant be arsed to turn up and work "reasonable hours" because she has plenty of responsibilities at home and may not be lucky enough to have a nanny, cleaner, housekeeper or even a husband. it all makes sense suddenly .

even the least ambitious of us can be hard and committed workers, with little reward. some people would do well to realise that.

VeniVidiVickiQV · 01/03/2007 21:54

"they"?

You speak like you aren't a woman, Xenia.

Do you consider yourself to be more like a man, than a woman?

ScummyMummy · 01/03/2007 21:58

lmb- that's a cheap shot, imo.