Retail is a demonic beast of its own. I worked retail all through college and until I got my first degree specific job. Unless you are puking on the sales counter, they want you there. Makes no sense.
That it is.
My great niece worked at Burlington Coat Factory while working her way through college. The kid worked really hard and never missed any time and was even promoted to cash manager working the service desk and opening and closing the store, but she fell down some stairs at school and sprained her ankle severely. She went to the ER, they took x-rays to rule out a break or fracture and put a boot on her, told her stay off of it and to keep it elevated and iced, and told her to follow up with an orthopedic.
The next day her ankle was very swollen and she was in a lot of pain so she called work and the manager accused her of faking it (no sure why since she had never missed a scheduled shift before and had even picked up extra ones often on short notice when someone else called out) and she told her that if she didn’t come in she’d get attendance points.
I remember her mom telling my how my great niece was crying. She didn’t want to lose her job but yet was in a lot of pain and went in. Another manager on duty saw her with her boot and obviously struggling to walk or even stand at a register and asked why she was there. And she told him and he asked “do you have a doctor’s note or your discharge papers from the ER” and she told him she did, she’d brought them with her, and he sent her home saying the other manager was full of it and that she wouldn’t be assessed any attendance points.
I was in retail management many years ago and I know how difficult it is to schedule especially part-time workers and how difficult last minute call outs are and yes, sometimes people calling out just because they don’t want to come to work, but as a manager and a human being, sometimes using common sense is called for - sick is sick and injured is injured and sometimes I’d just have to suck it up myself to cover for them if I couldn’t find anyone else even if that meant running a register, cleaning the bathrooms, taking out the trash. As a manager I never asked any of my ee’s to do anything I wasn’t capable and willing to do.
They let me stay off work when I broke my hip on the sales floor...there fault too. In fact I’m still off work