Am I getting fired or not?

[Anonymous]

So I've been at the same daycare since end of Sept 2022. In November of 2022 I had a positive genetics test that put me in early prevention for cancer. They were always willing to work with me regarding anything. I had a surgery in June which I was given a month off of work with a surprise basket on my last day before it filled with stuff so I won't be bored. Since coming back my dad had surgery, I had a uti, my sister just had her 4th miscarriage in a row and now im getting over covid. During an exchange where my director wasn't seeing pictures of my tests I sent she casually slid in her boss wants to meet with me. I'm freaking out. Am I overthinking or no.

[MrOracle]

It's possible. As much as they want to have sympathy for you, the bottom line is that if you are out more than you are in, they have to replace you with someone who can get into work the vast majority of the time. It's one thing to take time off for your own health, but when you are taking time off for others, especially when your own health isn't great, that's too much, especially for what a small business.

The reason you were hired is because they need someone THERE, because those kids need someone taking care of them every day.

[BetaBucks]

Get your evidence in order asap. I'm not sure on your jurisdiction's laws, but they might be able to basically put you on disability because you're unable to complete the requirements of physical presence. Reasonable accomodation still means that you show up to work, but the smaller the business, the less likely they are to be able to accommodate. Especially when those accommodations include frequent absence.

[MrOracle]

I don't really know anything about her company, but in the US, generally, if there are 50 or fewer employees, then it's a Small Business and her lack of attendance is plenty of justification to terminate her. Small Businesses don't have to provide the benefits or the slack that bigger businesses are required to - because they simply can't afford to. I could never pay someone's wages to not come to work in my small business, for example - I'd go bankrupt quickly.

Larger businesses have a higher level of requirements before they can terminate - though I suspect that in this case, they'd have enough reason to do so - they would just need to have it documented - and they likely would.

[BetaBucks]

Great points. And an example on the other side of that is at my company (10k employees) HR tried to terminate the contract of a girl that worked under me because she was hospitalized and put in hospice care due to double kidney failure. She was expected to die. Her manager, who reported to me, came to me to complain and I went to HR and got the conversation shut down in a few seconds. If we were a small daycare, she would have been let go. Understandably. But a 10k person company can manage without one person for a year. Hell, my department absorbed the work and it barely affected anyone's quality of life. And the girl made it back to work in less than a year.

[MrOracle]

A very different situation indeed. Not only was your company a Large company by any definition - which has very different rules - but it was also a single event (one major illness). Even at a large company, multiple absences for various different reasons in a short amount of time could be enough to terminate.

[teamvic]

Hmmm, I mean if you have no evidence, then I would say it's definitely a cause foe concern. Maybe they just want proof of what happened

Ir maybe you're getting fired