Here’s the situation:
- I work at an institution as a desk clerk in Hungary’s infamous employment program, that barely pays (half of minimum wage to keep the other employees wage barely above minimum), and with very limited leave days. Only 20 days paid, no unpaid leave for “work moral” reasons (!!!), and the doctors barely give out any sick leaves (none for regular check ups!).
- My paid leaves are tied until the kitchen gets rebuilt, due to then they would have to put one of the maintenance guys in my place.
- I’m disabled. I have autism, which makes this kind of work extremely stressful to me, which made even harder by the attitude many Hungarians have towards any office work. In addition I also have epilepsy, and my medication has really strong side effects, many of which are so bad that I should have been given different medication, except my doctor refuses to see me. In theory, I could get some benefits with my autism, but I would have to go through very invasive and humiliating tests to “make sure I’m not lying about my disability” (long story short: Fidesz won the 2010 election on the moral panic of “welfare queens”, because far-right websites found Mercedeses with disability cards). Nothing for the epilepsy stuff though, even if my medication messes up my sleep cycle and it alone disallows me to drive cars, which limits my job options.
On this Saturday (tomorrow) my boss asked me to get to work, because of a “family day”, for no real pay and no additional leaves, especially not for a month at least, because the aforementioned construction work. We will have even more visitors than usual, and live music (which is popular songs sang and played very badly on a keyboard). I’m already very tired and stressed out due to my low tolerance for this kind of work, and on top of it, I have extra home responsibiities on the weekend. However, she negs me to come.
I help whenever I can. I gave them computer equipment as they’re not allowed to spend money on it, or else they would anger the main Fidesz voter base by spending money on “Playstations”. I have stayed on many occassions when I was needed. However, tomorrow, I can’t.
Should I lie about a terrible headache and/or a food poisoning? She wrote in a few paid leaves for such occassions before, so this should work.
if you have predetermined responsibilities you shouldn’t be obligated to work outside of your normal hours. just tell her you have had something scheduled already, you shouldn’t have to argue much if you aren’t usually scheduled to work at that time. you could fake an illness if you felt she wouldn’t grant time for anything else. im sorry about everything else dragging you down. is it possible to find different employment? i dont know too much about hungarys employment program.