It seems like you think this is uncommon, but it’s really, really common. Even at places where there’s an official sick leave policy, call in sick a few times (and at some places even once) and the manager will just quit scheduling you. You weren’t fired, “we just don’t need you this week.”
He used “Democrat” as an adjective, which is improper use of the word. “Democrat” is the noun, “Democratic” is the adjective form, for the political party.
How is it improper? I though that words mean whatever people who use the word think it means.
Great cite. As far as I understand, the only people who use “Democrat” as an adjective are using it as a slur. I don’t think the same rule applies for slurs.
Also, the “Democrat” adjective thing is a pet-peeve of mine, and I usually make a point to respond with snark (as I think I did).
For those wondering, not every registered democrat is an idiot who cares about this autistic BS.
I wonder how leave policies that don’t separate sick leave affect presenteeism. I just have paid time off. If I’m not sick, I can use it for vacation.
Sauce, goose, gander. If you can redefine the word gender, then others are free to use the word Democrat as an adjective. Fair enough? 
I get 3 sick days per year. Anymore and I go into vacations days, of which I don’t get many either.
So if I call out sick, it’s because I’m going to the hospital.
I do agree that it shouldn’t be this way.
Of course they’re free to use it, and I’m free to mock it.
I work at a place where we do get sick leave, and it’s OK to take, which means DrDeth’s position is reasonable here: if we’re obviously sick and we come in to work, we’re being an ass.
But you can’t expect people who are barely making it to make the same decision. As people have noted, losing the pay for those days could make or break a tight budget and will jeopardize their job, esp. at shittier employers. If you’re supporting a family, you’re putting their livelihood at risk as well.
I’m definitely supportive of being a team player, but only saints would risk their income and jobs and by extension the well-being of their family, all just to possibly not infect their coworkers. And typically at the low-income jobs where this is a major issue, they’re often being treated like shit anyway, so to expect them to make this sacrifice is ludicrous. The onus is on the employer. If some employee infects half the staff because the employer doesn’t have a sick leave policy, then it’s the employer’s own goddamned fault.
If the employer is in food service and they don’t have a sick leave policy, they’re actively being a public menace. It may be tempting to blame the waiter sneezing on your linguine, but he is merely responding to the massive incentives set up by the restaurant to soldier on.
Not necessarily. people often plug in a noun in that situation.
Cool, thank you, now I don’t have to type all of that.
This, + a whole bunch.
In addition to what DrDeth already posted, I’ll add that in some weird way, the flu vaccine may be making this worse. By which I mean, if you get the vaccine, you are likely to have a shorter and less severe case of influenza if you do catch it. Which is great, except that it means more people can push through it and go to work. See also: Tamiflu. They’re really pimping that one hard this year, and again, if it lessens symptoms without lessening contagiousness, it may be beneficial for the individual, but trouble for the rest of us.
Not really. Not for the duration of a day at a normal retail or office job. Mythbusters did this one, and only if the sick person is extremely vigilant about not touching people, or things that other people will touch, will it reduce the spread of viral laden mucus. You can’t replace that by being careful yourself. Adam was able to keep his snot to himself for an hour and a half, but when the others tried to avoid getting contaminated by him, they failed miserably. (And I’m not even sure Adam could have managed it for an 8 hour work day, moving around the space. He did it for a relatively short period of time, sitting at a table.)
Absolutely. Call me a democrat, call me a democratic, call me a bleeding heart, but I feel like crap being a manager with as much time as I need without question (of course as a manager I also feel obligated to work from home). At my workplace, managers are off all the time, many of them whenever their kid has the slightest sniffle.
However, ever week we discuss how disappointed the management is in the hourly staff. We track how many are close to losing their jobs for taking advantage of the sick policy. These $9-per-hour employees, many of whom have been there 25+ years, get 3 days sick leave, end of story. After that, the first call-in is a write up and the next an automatic dismissal. This in a community where they are grateful for $9 an hour and steady work, which isn’t exactly guaranteed around here.
Damn right they are going to show up whether they are sick or not.
Nobody in the house goes to the grocery store? There are no children - the greatest germ vectors out there - in the home, going to school or daycare? Work isn’t the only place one can get sick, and apparently isn’t the most common place to get germs since my husband and I are rarely ill and he is still working. However, when I was still working, with many mommies, I would get whatever was going around and about half the time pass it on to him. Because the mommies would take their sick time to take care of the sick kid and then come to work and spread it around before they got sick themselves.
You are the asshole of the first degree for insisting that anyone who might be carrying contagious germs must stay home, whether it’s likely to cause them to lose their job or not. Neither the flu nor a cold is dangerous to the average person, and work isn’t the only place you can get them. For you to insist that someone endanger their livelihood so you are safe from some common illness is unbelievably self centered.
Hey moron, you’re missing the point.
If you are determined to go out and about when you have the flu or whatever, you cannot be sure you’re only infecting “average” people. You might spread your flu to someone who could suffer terribly or even die from it, and you can’t control that in any sense if you’re not under voluntary quarantine at home. Also, note that in the not terribly distant past the flu has killed many “average” people.
In short, you and your ilk are not at all qualified to determine for whom the flu may or may not be dangerous. If you have the flu, or flu-like symptoms, of course you should stay the fuck home. Imbecile.
A side note: it’s very well established that having workers stay home when sick is far better for office productivity and profitability overall than letting illness spread in the workplace.
Oh, yes, let’s talk about sick customers…!
Countless times I’m standing there at a cash register when some runny nose/cough/mucus fountain shows up, saying they took the day off work (achoo!) and feel like shit (>snoooooork!<) but since they’re off they’ll get a little shopping done (hork)
DON’T GO TO THE STORE IF YOU’RE SICK!
You’ll just spread the germs all over the store, the shopping carts, the shelves, the boxes, the produce… and I get to handle your germ-laden selections. Which is probably where I catch most of my colds and crap.
One of the supervisors had the amazing notion of putting hand sanitizer at every register. Upper management applauded it - but then griped when it all had to be replaced because, you know, the staff was actually using it. None of us worker bees wants to be sick after all. The customers liked the notion, too, just like they like the sanitizing wipes we provide for them to wipe down the shopping carts. It won’t prevent every illness but surely it’s going to help reduce the spread.
OK, I believe you.
Now, could you please get employers, including those employing people at low wages, to get on board with the concept of paid sick days? Or at least get them to stop firing people who stay home because they’re actually sick?
I wish I could.
I do vote accordingly: best I can do, really, until I’m the boss someday (which actually is a position I do not want.) ETA: But anyway, the policy in my workplace is that you should stay home. I wish more of my cow-orkers followed this policy!