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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/cynical-mage on 2025-08-08 12:46:37+00:00.
The background here is that during work, I had an accident that damaged my back; slipped discs that didn't resolve, and subsequent additional damage due to unnatural wear and tear from compensating poor posture and gait. I had a fit note that cleared me for light duties.
Now, most of my store team were (and are, these guys are my family even years later) incredibly supportive of my various limitations. Depending on whether I was having a good day or bad, they'd shuffle things around. We did that for everyone, we worked to accommodate whoever needed a helping hand, just to clarify that I wasn't given special treatment. My main difficulty is standing still; sitting, walking, moving, those are fine. On a good day, I can stand at the self checkouts for a couple of hours (with some pacing). On a bad day, not at all. Good days I can work delivery or backstock, bad days I did decarding, facing up, put backs, writeoffs and sitting on tills.
However, one colleague was not. She considered it drastically unfair that everyone worked around my damage. So much so that she went above everyone to file a complaint to the store manager that I should be forced to do self checkouts too.
Sunday evening, a charming message was sent to the work WhatsApp group by one of the lower managers stating that going forward, 'having pain here so you can't do self checkouts, having pain there so you can't do delivery, will no longer be accepted. Unless you have a fit note, you can't refuse to do your tasks.' I was scheduled to work on the Monday, thankfully a closing shift, so I had a narrow window to work with.
Monday 8am, the stars aligned; I was blessed to snag a telephone call back from a GP. If you're in the UK, you'll know how hard it is to talk to a doctor, let alone see one since the plague. It's a nightmare. Anyway, I explained the situation to her. And she was furious. Emailed me an amended fit note to hand in to work.
That afternoon, I cheerfully went in and handed it to the duty manager for the shift, who read it and then promptly started pissing herself laughing before letting me get started.
A 3mth fit note that prohibited me from any lifting, pulling, standing, anything remotely strenuous whatsoever, and stated frequent, regular breaks. Effectively barring me from allllll the tasks I did on good days.
Apparently that colleague blew a gasket; filed a complaint with the area manager, who dismissed it, whereupon she told him she'd go to HR about this, as well as his inaction, and was promptly told that this would constitute harassment and disability discrimination if she insisted.
Well, you did want a fit note 🤷♀️