On the night of January 27, the Chicago forecast called for subzero temperatures the next day, with such high winds that it could feel like 30 below at the time when most students would be coming home from school. In light of that, Chicago Public Schools decided to close, saying “subzero temperatures and high winds will make it dangerous for children and families getting to and from school.”
Rhiannon Broschat, a single mother and a part-time Whole Foods worker, tried to find someone to watch her special needs son the next day but came up dry. So she called her supervisor and left a voicemail saying she wouldn’t be able to come in. “I did go back and forth, thinking maybe I should just leave him home alone,” she told ThinkProgress. But in the end, staying home “felt like that was my only option, I wanted to be home so he’s safe.”
The attendance policy for Whole Foods in the Midwest region is on a point system. While workers get some paid vacation days, for unexpected absences it differentiates between excused and unexcused: an excused absence is for an illness, which requires a doctor’s note, a death in the family, jury duty, and “catastrophic events or citywide weather disasters,” according to a company spokesperson. Each worker is also allowed five unexcused absences in a six-month period, and each one counts as a point against the worker. None of the days workers call out are paid.
On January 28, “Our stores were open across the city,” the spokesperson said. “City transportation was running and essential city services were open that day despite school closings.” She pointed out that “fewer than 10 of our more than 1,800 team members across 19 Chicagoland stores ‘called out’ as unexcused absences.”
Rhiannon knew that she was out of points and on a final warning, even though she says she had documentation for all of her other absences. But she assumed that the weather was a mitigating circumstance, and when she spoke with someone in leadership, she was reassured that they supported her staying home with her son. “In no way did I think that I was going to be terminated at all,” she said.
But the story changed later in the day when she was called back and informed she would need a doctor’s note, despite the fact that there was no illness. When she showed up to work a few days later, she was told her absence, and that of seven other coworkers who also called out due to the weather, wouldn’t be excused and she was terminated. (The Whole Foods spokesperson wouldn’t confirm her termination due to confidentiality reasons.)
Rhiannon said she and her coworkers are “just asking they take into consideration things that are not in our control.” She added that while she understands the need to have an attendance policy — “so you don’t have workers that take advantage of the company” — the current one doesn’t give the workers enough room for unexpected events. “We get sick,” she pointed out. “Everyone gets sick. We live in Chicago, look at the weather.”
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