I work in CA. The owners and some of the corporate officers are in NY. My main job is accounting but I do HR on the side. I have a BS in organizational management and Human Resource Management and I have an MBA. Today is the last day of 2019. I'm trying to get corporate to approve leave schedules for 2020. Corporate wants to do some funky thing with sick leave. CA has very strict laws about sick leave and what you can do and what you can't do.


I've sent numerous emails with the laws quoted to corporate and explained how we can handle sick pay in CA. They still came up with some wacky way. I was pretty sure this wasn't legal but I called the DLSE and double checked and sure enough it isn't. I was trying to tell the CFO/Controller but she got annoyed with me and told me we would have to discuss it at another time because she is busy. There is no other time. The first paycheck for 2020 gets submitted on Thursday. We are closed on Wednesday this week for New Years.

So I Skyped and then emailed one of the owners. I attached documents showing how we can legally provide sick leave in CA. I explained that if we do what is being instructed to me, and an employee were to file a claim with the DLSE we would lose the claim and we would have to pay a wage claim and those get expensive fast. We are a small business. We can't afford something like that to happen.


I apologized to the CFO/Controller for annoying her. I asked the owner to get back to me on what we are going to do because I have to submit payroll on Thursday. I'm stressed out. I'm frustrated. I don't feel valued. I don't feel listened to. It won't be my fault if we don't do things properly and we get a wage claim, but I could lose my job because we might not be able to withstand the financial consequences of such a thing.


I'm so anxious about it. I'm trying to do deep breathing. I'm trying to relax and calm down. I'm trying to not get worked up and upset. Its not working.

The owners and most of the corporate people are new to CA so they don't know CA laws. That's fine. I'm here to help. But I'm sick to my stomach over this. I don't know if I will get an answer by Thursday. I hate that I feel like I had to go over the CFO's head. I like her and I want her to like me. I'm just trying to protect the company and do things lawfully in CA. I feel like I'm swimming up current and running out of steam.


I want to cry. I want to SH. I want to throw up. I'm so frustrated and sick over this. I've been trying to get them to pin down what we were going to do for a couple of weeks now. And now it is the 11th hour and the last instructions I have are illegal. Sigh. I'm just overwhelmed and frustrated. I hate myself right now.