When the Algorithm Thinks You're Pulling a Sickie

Thu, 07 May 2026 22:21:51 +1000

There’s a thread doing the rounds that I’ve been mulling over for a few days now, and it touches on something that genuinely gets under my skin — the intersection of bad management, AI-generated nonsense, and the quiet erosion of worker trust.

Someone posted about receiving a fairly formal email from their manager flagging “patterns” in their sick leave. On the surface, sounds reasonable enough. Twenty-six days in twelve months is above the standard ten-day FTE entitlement, the manager wants medical certificates going forward — fine, that’s within their rights. But then you read the details and the whole thing starts to unravel a bit.

Ai-at-Work on Left 4 More

When the Algorithm Thinks You're Pulling a Sickie