A woman has sparked a fierce debate after claiming she plans to use a sick note to go on holiday. The worker didn't think she was doing anything wrong by asking her doctor for the note - feeling stressed after her boss refused to pay her for "40hrs of overtime".
But having told her boss she'd be going away - and seeing his reaction - she is fearful about what will happen next. And when she took to the internet to ask for advice, people could not agree on whether she had done the right thing. The employee's dilemma came to light after she posted to Mumsnet's "Am I being unreasonable forum?" looking for advice.
She wrote: "Last month I worked at least 40hrs of overtime when my boss kept asking me to 'stay late' or 'just come in a few hours at the weekend' as we had a deadline approaching. I worked it and wrote it all in my time sheet, I work in an office so we don't have clock ins or anything.
"Anyway, I got paid last week and got nothing for my OT [overtime], I asked my boss who said he only asked me to stay to help, he never actually agreed to pay me for it and he was asking me to 'help the company' like we all should be doing.
"I thought about fighting it but people in my office are petty and those above me would probably make things difficult for me. So instead I got a sick note from my doctor for 6 weeks for stress and booked a holiday.
"I've been honest with my work that I've booked the holiday and said it's to help with my stress, now my boss is saying this is clearly out of spite and he'll be giving me a written warning. However if he does that he'd have to formally admit to not paying me OT.
"I do feel nervous after realising I actually get full pay when I thought I'd only get SSP and now I'm worried my boss is going to take it further." In the comments, she added that she has always been paid for working overtime in the past.
Replying to questions about her apparent stress, she wrote: "I am stressed, yes, I should have been clearer. I just worked 40hrs OT in a month, missed on time with my family, overworked myself and then got told I wouldn't even be getting paid.
"I've been on sick with stress before. I was completely honest with my GP and I feel so crushed that all the hard work and late nights I did were for nothing on my part."
And when someone said: "I cannot for the life of me understand why you told them?" she replied: "Because I didn't feel like it was something I needed to hide? I told him how much stress all the OT had caused me and how run down I felt and how much of my time it had taken and I didn't feel like he had any right to be telling me I can't go on holiday when he's the reason I feel the way I do now."
In response, one commenter thought: "This plainly was a vengeful move on your part, because you only decided to do it after your boss didn't want to pay for your overtime.
"Your stress level was clearly about the pay, not about the extra hours. I agree that your boss was cheating you, but I think that should have been handled in other ways."
And a second said: "I think you were silly to tell them you were going on holiday, no you didn't have to hide it but you didn't have tell them either. It does smack of revenge but I doubt there is much they can do."
But another person claimed: "I don't think you've done anything wrong. I think getting paid for the overtime would have eased your stress as you'd have felt valued and not taken for granted. Your boss should not treat his team like s***."
And someone else simply wrote: "Karma. I don’t blame you."
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