I was terminated from my job last week because I refused to work on the weekend due to a terrible migraine. I informed the company's P&C, but they didn't take my complaint seriously. Since the company is under the influence of managers and extreme groupism, I couldn't do much about it legally, especially since they refused to provide me with a termination letter.
I had been working with the company for over 5 years and 8 months, and I had never had any issues with previous managers. However, I had multiple arguments with my current manager over the past two months due to expectations to work on weekends.
The P&C decided to early release me, but they defamed me in an internal email sent to all employees working currently, which has greatly impacted my mental state. I'm afraid to post anything on LinkedIn until I receive my experience letter, but my past co-workers have been vocal about the incident in Linkedin.
I only didn't inform my acting manager about my migraine, but I told my co-workers about it on the same day. I feel devastated by the whole ordeal, as this company was my first job after graduation, and I had been a loyal employee with consistent growth and promotion over these 5 years.
That said, there is an important lesson here. Tying one's identity to one's place of employment is a losing proposition. You can feel loyalty to your team, your colleagues, perhaps even your manager. But loyalty to the company is misguided, it will not be reciprocated. You need to put yourself first and treat this as a business transaction that it is.
At the end of the day, this situation sucks, but believe me, it won't be long before it starts fading and mattering less and less. Wish you the best.