When Annie’s son fell ill, she took a week off from work to care for him. But when she returned to the office, she was met with a shocking surprise: a police officer and a pair of handcuffs.

You might assume that ten years of dedicated service would make you indispensable to a company, right? Well, that wasn’t the case for me.

Let me explain.

I had been with the company for a decade, starting as a marketing intern straight out of college and gradually climbing the corporate ladder—albeit with only modest pay increases.

One day, my five-year-old son, Kenny, fell seriously ill. His fever spiked, and he was continuously vomiting. Naturally, I was deeply concerned.