In a post shared on Mumsnet earlier in November, under the username Marleymerm, the worker explained that they did at least 40 hours of overtime over a month, with their boss asking them to “stay late” or “just come in a few hours at the weekend,” as they had a deadline approaching.

The poster wrote: “I worked it and wrote it all in my time sheet, I work in an office so we don’t have clock-ins or anything. Anyway, I got paid last week and got nothing for my [overtime], I asked my boss who said he only asked me to stay to help.”

In the United States, mandatory overtime is legal, and employees cannot refuse to work extra hours. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) does not define a limit to how many hours of overtime a week an employer can ask, but it states that it must be paid, at a rate not less than time-and-a-half at their regular rates of pay.

The worker in the end received a sick note from their doctor, got six weeks off work, and booked a holiday during this time. But their boss wasn’t too happy about it, telling them that it looked like they did this “clearly out of spite” and they would receive a written warning.

Dennis J. Alessi, a partner, and co-chair of the Labor and Employment practice at Mandelbaum Barrett PC, a law firm based in Roseland, New Jersey, told Newsweek that it is perfectly appropriate for the employee to go away on holiday when they are on leave due to work-related stress.

Alessi said: “Being on leave due to work-related stress is, in effect, sick leave due to a psychological illness rather than a physical illness. So, taking the holiday is a legitimate form of medical therapy to alleviate the medical, psychological condition of work-related stress.”

Alessi added that it is not only morally wrong for an employer to have an employee work and then not pay them for the time worked, but it is also illegal under federal law and laws in every state.

“The federal law and, I believe, essentially every state law require payment at 1.5 times your regular hourly rate for all hours worked over 40 work hours in any one seven-day work period,” he said. “This is assuming that the employee is a non-exempt worker entitled to overtime. If the person is exempt, the employer can require extra hours without compensating the employee separately.”

While the Am I being Unreasonable poll found the Mumsnet poster “not unreasonable”, the 421 users who left comments on the thread were split on this issue, and while some didn’t think it was right to go on holiday while off work sick, some thought it wasn’t really that bad.

One user, SlashBeef, commented: “Boss isn’t treating you well but faking stress will never sit well with me.”

KrisAkabusi added: “You wouldn’t have booked a holiday or gotten a sick note if you had been paid.”

Another Mumsnet user, Eggygirl, wrote: “Why couldn’t you have just taken your [overtime] dispute to HR?

“Why not then just book a holiday and use annual leave like normal people do when fed up with work? If you really felt like you had to take six weeks off and book a holiday, why did you feel the need to come clean to work? As long as you weren’t posing all over SM (social media) on a jet ski would they have known? I’m not sure it’s actually against the law to go on holiday while off sick but it could certainly affect your working life/relationships.”

On the other hand, CountZacular, wrote: “You’ve not done anything wrong. Your GP signed you off and [the] best practice for stress or [mental health] is to do things that will make you feel better and able to work again. Holidays are allowed.”

Newsweek reached out to Marleymerm for comment. We could not verify the details of the case.