When you work for a great company in a job that you love, it can be heartbreaking when a large corporation buys the company out and starts making lots of changes.

What would you do if the new company started harassing everyone and giving them problems whenever they want to take some  personal time off?

That is what happened to the researcher in this story, so he recorded the call and made sure everyone knew what they were doing was not legal, so they finally left him alone.

Check it out.

“You Don’t Sound Sick to Me”

I used to work as a researcher in an in-bound call center.

I loved the work, and the company was FANTASTIC when I started.

But after 4 years they got bought out by a big international corp (a pretty standard hack and slash corp = buy up a profitable company, strip it of all assets, cut costs, slash quality, make good money until our well-deserved fantastic reputation is destroyed, then sell off and move on).

It is so sad when this type of thing happens.

Within weeks, the company went from being fantastic to work for to just yet another bad, tense work environment where the bosses take advantage of the employees.

One quick example of how badly they nerfed the bonus structure – one particular bonus went from being able to earn up to a thousand extra dollars in 3 days to a single $50 Boston Pizza gift card.

Previously, all employees got paid varying bonuses under this scheme, but in the new system, only one person gets the gift card.

And they had the nerve to get mad at us when the new, slap-in-the-face “bonus” failed to motivate anyone.

I was good at my job, and not to brag but I was the most productive employee on the floor.

We were given 15 PTO (Paid Time Off) days to use every year, which according to our employment contracts and company handbook were to be used for sick days, mental health days, and other personal reasons.

No explanation was ever asked for, use them as and when you will.

I always made sure to use up all my PTO by the end of the year as it didn’t bank, previous management encouraged us to do so, and also there was no bonus for not using it.

I followed the company rules, always gave plenty of notice, and only once left the team dangling with no notice (as I got seriously ill that time).

How do people live with themselves acting like this.

The new management takes over and right away they start trying to intimidate us into not taking PTO.

I hear a lot of this from my fellow employees, how when they call in the supervisors have started grilling them, challenging them, saying they “don’t sound sick”, etc.

A lot of intimidation and bullying.

So, by the time I need to use a PTO day, I’m ready. I call in one day and tell them I won’t be in tomorrow.

They want to know “Why?”, so I tell them I’m not feeling well.

Their voice grows immediately cold, and they get a rude tone.

“You don’t sound sick to me”.

Great comeback!

Being a smarty pants, I said, “Not even doctors try to diagnose illnesses over the phone” but they kept trying to push me. “Can you come in in the afternoon? You don’t sound sick. You’ve been using a lot of sick days, way more than other employees.”

I got tired of being treated like a criminal for obeying the rules, so I got a recording app for my phone.

I live in a one-party consent area so it’s perfectly legal to record phone calls.

Next time I felt sick I called in to work.

Now they always began every call with a disclaimer “Thank you for calling XXX, for your information this call may be monitored or recorded for quality purposes”.

He doesn’t need to tell them, but it is good that he did.

I say hello, give them my name, and say “BTW, just so you know on my end, this call may be monitored or recorded for quality purposes.”

Because I am recording the call, and I think it’s only fair to let them know.

The supervisor gives a perfunctory laugh, then says”So why are you calling in sick? You don’t sound sick to me. I’ll put you down as sick for the morning but you’ll be in for the afternoon.”

I inform them that no, I am calling in for at least 1 day and will update if I don’t feel better.

She says “No, I’ll put you down for half a day, you can call in again if you don’t feel better.”

He is taking what he is entitled to.

Once again I say no, restate my position, and tell them that is that.

She gets really mad and and starts insinuating that this might cause me to lose my job. “Why do you take so much more PTO than the other employees?”

I take what my employment contract says I am entitled to.

No more, no less.

Of course, they want employees to work hard while the company does nothing for them.

“Well, you should have a better team spirit, we’ll have to review this with HR.” Threatening tone, classical bullying playbook.

I’m off the next day, come in for my following shift. “Go see HR”.

I sit down at Art’s desk in HR (he’s very much a corporate HR lapdog).

He starts going on about how they’re going to have to review my employment contract and consider whether or not going forward I am a “good fit” at XXX corp.

This is a great position to be in.

Now, in case I seem too calm in this scenario, bear in mind that, while I do prefer to remain at XXX for the time being, I do not care if they want to fire me.

I’m very good at my job, I have had several job offers from competing companies, so the threat of being fired does not faze me.

While Art is berating me, I take out my phone, and start playing the recording I made when calling in sick.

Art stops, starts to get annoyed, then realizing he’s listening to a recording of an employee verbally berating and intimidating a worker for exercising their contractual, legal rights.

Oh, they aren’t happy that he recorded that call.

He excuses himself, and is gone for about 10 minutes, before returning, visibly angry but restrained.

He tried to dress me down, scare me, intimidate me into thinking I had violated the law with an illegal recording.

I told that, working as I did as a professional researcher, I had, to no surprise, done my research.

And single party consent is all that was required.

He shifted gears, starting saying the recording “didn’t count” because the supervisor thought I was joking.

“I wasn’t.”

As if it matters what she thought.

“But she thought you were!”

“And she was wrong. So it doesn’t really matter what she thought, Art. I told her the truth, she made a mistake, and recording my own phone conversations is 100% legal … and admissible.”

He knew he lost this battle.

Art leaves, and returns a few minutes later, ever more red-faced. “You can go back to your desk”.

I did as instructed, and that was all I ever heard again about using my PTO.

Whenever I called in from then on they were always very precise and professional.

Their tone was as cold as politician’s promise, but that was a lot better than the bullying from before.

He needed to show them that he wasn’t going to take the abuse laying down to get them to back off. Classic bullies.

Let’s read on to see what the people in the comments say about this.

This is the perfect response.

Yeah, if they can record, so can he.

I’m sure it was an attorney.

Correct, he didn’t even need to tell them he was recording.

This is a really good point.

Companies think they can get away with anything, but that is not always the case.

It pays to know the policies and employment laws in your area.

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.