I’m assuming you’re British, and I’m unfamiliar with labor laws and practices over there. I’m mentioning what we have in the US in case there’s any similarities or if Americans reading this find themselves in a similar position.

I am a manager at a large tech company, and I’ve been in similar positions for the majority of my career. I’m mentioning that for context. In the US, laws vary from state to state, with exactly what you’d expect the differences to be between Republican and Democratic states.

Your record is only a thing at your current company. Virtually every large company (and most of the medium and small ones) have a strict policy of discussing employee information if they are called by a company to which you are applying. They will confirm date of hire and departure. Some companies will ask if the candidate is eligible for re-hiring, but in general this is only seen in lower wage positions like retail sales. I think finance and banking have additional things they can (or are legally required to) report on, but “this person was tardy” is not one of them. Most large companies have a dedicated phone number or service that will simply read off the dates but will not give out information regarding salary or work habits. As a manager and someone in a supervisory position, I can and have written glowing letters of recommendation for my students and former employees, but if a person were to be fired for cause I would likely not do so for that individual. Their future employer can take that into account (or not).

This is done to indemnify the former company from a lawsuit from the previously employed person. Even if they have reams of documentation of all of the terrible things you did, it is not worth the time and expense to defend against such a suit. They’ll possibly do it if they are facing a wrongful termination case, but it’s just not worth it to simply keep a former employee from getting another job. Even if you were the worst employee ever, I’m simply happy to have gotten rid of you, and it’s no longer my problem. I’m certainly not being paid by the new company to make sure they hire only the best employees, and they may in fact be a competitor anyway.

So while I think it’s grossly unfair to not have paid sick leave or some other sort of paid time off, the only thing your record is going to affect is your ability to get a raise/promotion or your employer firing you.

Your mileage may vary - again, I don’t know UK practices - but younger employees and those who haven’t been managers or admins might not know all of this, and so can be taken advantage of by their unscrupulous employers.

I agree with this sounding like a toxic work environment and would join the recommendations to seek a position with a different company.

Find out when that record resets. If they've created a system where talent is penalized for living on this planet of bacteria, viruses, and the grossest of all, people...then the system should be exploited to its full potential.

Find out how many days in a row count as one sick day, often times employers will only count multiple consecutive sick days days as one occurence.

With those two pieces in hand; if you're going to be taking a sick day, take the full amount allowed under one occurence, and do that to the maximum allowed until reset.

This write up in your record is nothing more than intimidation being used to "align" your behavior with that of the business, and it's obscenely disgusting.

If you're in the UK, then you're probably well into your work day. I hope this message finds you in better spirits, with the awkward conversation behind you.

Oh yeah?! Well i don't need your company. I'll make my own company. With blackjack. And hookers