The boss then approved the absence but told her not to \u201ctake too long\u201d as \u201cwe need you on this project\u201d.<\/p>\n
Askins criticised the boss\u2019s poor management skills in the video, saying: \u201cDo you think she wants to be doing this in the morning? She\u2019s got a sick kid, she\u2019s got to take him to the hospital, that\u2019s obviously just quite a stressful situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
A mum\u2019s text exchange with her boss has gone viral. Photo \/ TikTok\/ben.askins<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea that she\u2019s sitting there going, \u2018Ah, well, I could go to work but I quite fancy (taking my child to the hospital instead) is ridiculous\u201d.<\/p>\n
The exchange resonated with Australians, particularly parents and caregivers who often struggle to balance work commitments and family responsibilities.<\/p>\n
Although Australian law provides employees with personal or carer\u2019s leave to look after sick or injured relatives, many workers say the office culture sends a different message.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome bosses are inhumane, and their actions prove it,\u201d said one person.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd they wonder why it\u2019s hard to keep workers,\u201d another added.<\/p>\n
It was branded as “cruel” and “ridiculous” online. Photo \/ TikTok, ben.askins<\/p>\n
Others shared their own horror stories.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to call in sick while I was legit throwing up on the call \u2026 the next day the manager texted me saying she was disappointed no one stepped up over the weekend,\u201d shared another.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the 70s I had to do this, and I was sacked. They said if I really cared about my job, I would have found someone to sit with my daughter in hospital. Horrible that this mindset still exists,\u201d another added.<\/p>\n
One person even said their former employer bizarrely required 24 hours\u2019 notice before an unplanned emergency.<\/p>\n
However, to give others hope, many filled the comments section with positive stories.<\/p>\n
\u201cI took two days off and have been working from home for the last four. My boss is more worried about me getting better than coming in,\u201d shared one.<\/p>\n
It comes after a 2025 national survey by people2people Recruitment found that 63% of workers admitted to not taking sick leave when they needed to, with 22% citing feelings of guilt.<\/p>\n
Eighteen per cent said they still came into work because they were \u201ctoo busy\u201d to take sick leave and 16% said they did it because of a \u201cfeat of judgment\u201d.<\/p>\n
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor\u2019s Picks<\/a>, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week\u2019s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The boss then approved the absence but told her not to \u201ctake too long\u201d as \u201cwe need you…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[74,1135,4282,2511,11687,27914,27915,27917,42,2241,27918,1304,2721,23362,43,6270,19764,5034,3168,27916,199,4758,165,8229,61,40,38,41,39,12767],"class_list":["post-28159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-after","tag-australian","tag-boss","tag-child","tag-criticised","tag-denying","tag-empathy","tag-frustrating","tag-headlines","tag-hospital","tag-informing","tag-morning","tag-mum","tag-needed","tag-news","tag-office","tag-received","tag-response","tag-shared","tag-sick","tag-take","tag-taking","tag-their","tag-they","tag-to","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-worker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}