I had to take a personal day.

I had enough experience with the HVAC company and their three-hour window policy to know the HVAC technician was not going to be at my house on time.

I called my boss and told her I would not make it in to work that day because I was expecting the HVAC technician to arrive.

I asked her if I could take a personal day. She put me on hold and came back long enough to tell me I didn’t have any personal days. I was three days shy of earning a personal day and they wouldn’t budge on the policy. She told me I could take a sick day, but I would need to bring in a doctor’s excuse since I hadn’t been there the required six months. I told her I would need to take the day off, and I had no other choice. She explained they would need to mark it as a demerit and it would go on my personnel record. I felt like I was back in school; getting demerits because I was late on an assignment, or because I missed a test while out sick. I wasn’t a child, and I had personal things to take care of. One of those personal things was being at the house when the HVAC technician arrived. She told me to choose to take the demerit, or call the HVAC company and cancel my appointment, then make a new one for when I wasn’t working. I was wondering if she was going to pay the after-hour charges for making an appointment on the weekend, but I already knew the answer to that. I told her I would take the demerit, and as soon as the HVAC technician left, I was going job hunting.
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