A woman has sparked intense debate after sharing a screenshot of the response she received from her boss after calling in sick.
Ley Sabandal, who lives and works in the Philippines, posted the screenshot to her Threads pixelleyted account writing “This is how my American boss responds to my sick leave request” alongside a teary eye emoji.
The screenshot revealed her boss’s response. “Sorry you’re not feeling well,” it read. “No problem taking the day to rest. Yes, you’re welcome to flex your time to make up hours anytime during the month. No hurry catching back up. Thanks.”
The post quickly went viral, amassing over 16,000 likes and more than 1,200 comments. Sabandal has been surprised by the nature of many of the comments though.
A bad boss can make a big difference to how you perceive a workplace. A LinkedIn survey of just over 10,000 U.S. professionals found nearly 7 in 10 would consider leaving a job if they had a bad manager.
Sabandal has experienced her fair share of bad bosses. “In the Philippines, having a work-from-home setup is often considered a dream job,” she said. “But once you’re in it, you sometimes encounter inconsiderate bosses, lowballers, or micromanagers.”
When she shared the response to her sick leave request, she did it to highlight how good her current boss is. “I just felt happy to share how lucky I am to have a boss who doesn’t micromanage and gives me the flexibility I need whenever I need it,” she said.
“I shared it to remind people, especially those in similar setups, that good leadership still exists, and that it’s okay to hope for a boss who inspires and treats their team well.”
Thinking back to when she first received the response, Sabandal recalled how she “felt relieved” at what he suggested. “We only have five allotted leaves for the year, and I wanted to save those for planned vacations,” she said. “So for him to agree to the compromise I suggested felt like a big hug at the time.. it really meant a lot.”
However, when she posted the response to Threads, it generated a very different feeling among those on social media, particularly users based in Europe.
One responded: “Seeing this as a German is like.. what… catching up work time because I was sick? Hilarious.” Another commented: “Swede here – that sounds terrible. Really. In Sweden, if you are on a planned holiday and get sick, you can actually call in sick and get ‘new’ vacation days.”
A third said: “In the UK you would just get ‘feel better soon.’ You need paid sick leave.”
The surprised reactions were not reserved to Europeans either. “In Brazil, when the doctor hands you a paper saying you need x days to recover from your illness, you deliver this paper to HR and you stay home for x days and still get your money for these days,” one user said.
However, several Americans responding to the post seemed to have a similar setup to Sabandal. One wrote: “Lmao at us Americans here like “Aww what a kind, understanding response” meanwhile the rest of the world is like ‘MAKE UP TIME LOST?!’” Another said: “It’s normal for an American supervisor to ask an employee to flex their time to make up for sick leave (SL) if company policy allows it.”
Sabandal was surprised at first and initially attributed the confusion to her use of the teary eye emoji. “Many didn’t get the right context.. they thought the idea to make up for the hours came from my boss, when in fact, it was mine,” she said.
“My boss doesn’t even track my hours; he’s more focused on output. But because I know he trusts me, I didn’t want to take advantage of that. So I volunteered to make up for the hours instead.”
To Sabandal, making up the hours was a matter of “integrity” rather than anything else and not something that was forced upon her. In any case, she will be sure to carefully word any posts about her worklife in the future.