I'm afraid this not going to be a cheery library work thread.

I have been up sick all night. I'm avoiding food so I can go to work without vomiting into my mask.

Why haven't I called in sick?

Well, our local authority has a 3-strikes policy on sickness over TWO YEARS.

I have had 2 sick days in the past two years. One for when my meds got changed and another for when I had a chest infection back in January this year.

A third strike triggers a formal "investigation meeting." Not disciplinary. An investigation as to why you've been a bad bad defective, unreliable droid.

The first wave of lay-offs hit our sector last week. Hundreds lost their jobs.

All remaining part-time staff are on four-weekly contracts. As in, every four weeks we sign a brand new contract. However, this does not reset your sickness record for some fucking reason.

You see where I'm going with this.

We're also on skeleton staff so if I call in, the library does not open.

So, in order to keep my job and keep the library open, I'm not eating anything so I don't vomit while I go into work when really I should be staying home, especially if this is contagious.

(I don't think it is. I think it's chronic stuff combined with stress but eh.)

Now you could argue that it's unlawful to lay someone off for sickness. You could argue that the "investigations" are discriminatory. You could argue a lot of things but you cannot prove that any of these things are the reason for not getting a new contract.

Especially when a truly enormous number of staff just "stopped being employed" i.e. were laid off by stealth.

And frankly all of this is probably WHY I was up all night throwing up.

Oh and not eating means my medication doesn't work and my stomach lining eats itself and I get sicker.

My favourite part of this is that we couldn't get cover for last-minute absences because half of management are on long-term sick leave

If all of this shocks you then good news! You can help by just not voting for the Tories!

@grumpwitch discovers one cheap trick keeps people in a job, doctors hate her etc etc