A boss has sparked outrage over their shocking text messages to an employee after the worker called in sick two days in a row.
Ben Askins, a managing director of a digital agency in the UK, runs a popular social media account where he reads out the most outrageous anonymous submissions from employees about their “toxic” bosses.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Boss sparks outage over response to employee’s sick leave.
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In one of his latest videos, an unnamed employee shared a series of text messages after his manager took particular issue with him for taking two days of sick leave in one week.
“You are sick again? Come on, pull the other one, no one is sick twice in a week,” the boss said in a text to the worker.
The employee replied: “I am not sick again, I am just still sick.”
However, the boss fired back, saying: “That’s not true, you were in yesterday?”
The worker then explained why they were briefly at work — despite feeling under the weather.
“Yes, that is because you said that you needed me in for the meeting with Steven, so I dragged myself to work, however if anything I now feel worse,” the employee responded.
Refusing to accept his response, the manager replied: “That still counts as two days of sickness, which makes it your third for the year, it just isn’t good enough. The team are going to have to pick up your slack.”
The employee apologised, saying: “I am obviously sorry about that, but I do not have the capacity to work today, I will do my best to be in tomorrow.”
Rather than sympathise with the sick employee, the boss sent a threatening reply.
“You better, or there will be consequences,” they wrote.
Askins weighed in on the appalling messages after he read out the exchange in his now-viral video.
“I cannot begin to describe how much of a cretin this boss is. … Of course, he’s not sick twice, he’s sick once,” he ranted.
“But because you’ve layered on this guilt, he’s obviously dragged himself into work, which speaks for a poor culture if I had to be honest.
“He dragged himself into work, deteriorated because he forced his body to do something it wasn’t ready to do, and now he’s even more sick and this boss has the gall to sit there and be like, ‘Well this isn’t good enough.’
“It’s just not fair … It’s so poor form, and you can never build a successful team if you treat people like this.”
His video has been viewed more than 580,000 times — with many shocked over the manager’s behaviour.
“I’d send that to HR immediately,” one said.
Another suggested: “The only right answer when an employee contacts you and says they’re sick, ‘Rest and feel better!’”
One revealed: “Not a chance do I go out of my way to work when I’m sick. No one is looking out for your health except yourself!”
While one woman shared: “This is why my manager rules. After I dragged myself in, she pulls me aside and very sternly goes, ‘What are you doing here? Go home and rest. We’ll be fine.’ I’d walk through fire for her.”
Meanwhile, others shared their own horror stories about calling in sick.
“I had a manager like that, made one of my colleagues come in for a meeting. She had pneumonia, was coughing her guts out throughout the meeting. No one could understand why he made her come in,” one woman said.
“I found that often managers don’t believe people are sick. It happens all the time, but making someone come in with pneumonia, it’s on another level.”
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