In the morning about two hours before a meeting I messaged by manager to tell them I was going to a doctors appointment and I would miss the morning meeting, and asked to reschedule it (it's a small company). I ended up also missing a 2nd meeting in the afternoon. My manager was upset and said that because I missed half a day, unless I had a sick note, they would apply unpaid leave for that day.

They said that I took an unauthorised absence and after 3 strikes I would be sacked. They also said that I should have told them about the appointment earlier and because the afternoon appointment was with clients, it was important, and that they would have prevented me from going to that doctor's appointment if they knew earlier. This was more of a hospital outpatient appointment, hence why it took so long, and I could not miss it. I joined the company recently.

I had just come back from a one week sick leave and they said that I "took a week off and then missed the first meeting of the week". They were also angry that this was the 3rd time that at short notice I could not make the meeting because of a doctor's appointment. My manager has also missed this same meeting due to their doctors appointments at short notice or being sick, so although I understand why they're upset, I'm not the only one who's done it.

My manager then went on to say that while I was away they set a company-wide rule that if any employee doesn't fill in their timesheet by 5 pm each day, they would apply unpaid leave for that day and not only would the employee not get paid for that day or those days, it would cause problems for that employee's health insurance.

Our conversation was cordial and I was not made to feel my job was under threat. I promised to always tell them about doctors appointments well in advance.

I wanted to know what all this means for me and my job, and if their threats and actions are legal?

In the morning about two hours before a meeting I messaged by manager to tell them I was going to a doctors appointment and I would miss the morning meeting, and asked to reschedule it (it's a small company). I ended up also missing a 2nd meeting in the afternoon. My manager was upset and said that because I missed half a day, unless I had a sick note, they would apply unpaid leave for that day.

They said that I took an unauthorised absence and after 3 strikes I would be sacked. They also said that I should have told them about the appointment earlier and because the afternoon appointment was with clients, it was important, and that they would have prevented me from going to that doctor's appointment if they knew earlier. This was more of a hospital outpatient appointment, hence why it took so long, and I could not miss it. I joined the company recently.

I had just come back from a one week sick leave and they said that I "took a week off and then missed the first meeting of the week". They were also angry that this was the 3rd time that at short notice I could not make the meeting because of a doctor's appointment. My manager has also missed this same meeting due to their doctors appointments at short notice or being sick, so although I understand why they're upset, I'm not the only one who's done it.

My manager then went on to say that while I was away they set a company-wide rule that if any employee doesn't fill in their timesheet by 5 pm each day, they would apply unpaid leave for that day and not only would the employee not get paid for that day or those days, it would cause problems for that employee's health insurance.

Our conversation was cordial and I was not made to feel my job was under threat. I promised to always tell them about doctors appointments well in advance.

I wanted to know what all this means for me and my job, and if their threats and actions are legal?

UPDATE

I had a daily meeting with my manager and was unexpectedly joined by a senior member of the company who mostly stayed silent. I'm not sure why he was there.

My manager started nitpicking a draft pull request I opened (minor issues, a few mistakes not huge problems). Some were valid, others were not. Saying that I'm repeating most of the problems we already fixed, and that if they're gonna spend hours on my pull request, they might as well do the work themselves. Not so subtle hint. My manager asked me whether I'm making these mistakes because I'm sick or something else, and what I can do so that they don't happen again. This is the first time I've seen my manager unhappy with my work. I promised to take more notes to remember stuff we talked about.

My manager also mentioned what time my online status came back online. My online status is now also being monitored. When they opened my pull request, they also made a remark that I started working on this a month ago. The commit history says commits were added last month not that they were added a month ago.

I believe that if a company wants to fire you they'll find a reason to. This feels like they're planting evidence, to use as a pretext. Oh boy, all because of a damn doctors' appointment.

Why can't they be like this guy's boss: I missed an important client meeting and hurt my standing. How can I recover?.

At least in my case I wasn't even aware of the client meeting before it happened.