Nm
I am being a jerk at work today. And I probably will be for the rest of the week.
Last Friday afternoon, I started to get a bit of a sore throat. By the time I got home, it was actually really painful. I stayed in that night instead of going out to eat with my husband. Saturday, it got worse. And Sunday, even more so. This morning, I had hoped I would be cured of my cold as I am out of sick days and have WAY too much work to do before the end of the year. But I am not. I sound like shit, I’m coughing a lot, I get winded just walking to the coffee machine. I’m a jerk because I’m at work, around people, spreading my icky germs everywhere. And I just don’t have the option to not be.
No, your employer is a jerk for forcing employees to choose between infecting coworkers and delaying their own recovery or losing pay they can’t afford to lose.
Most employers are jerks that way. If I could find the bean counter who claimed that people only needed 5 days of sick leave a year, I’d beat them about the head and ears with a clue hammer until they learned differently.
That reminds me. Our elementary school sends out several reminders a year that, if your kids show any symptoms of cold or flu, you’re supposed to keep them at home and not let them come back until they’ve been symptom free for 24 straight hours. However, if they’re sick three per quarter, you get a nasty email asking why your kids are missing so many days and don’t you know they need to be at school or the district doesn’t get all it’s funds (or something). KIDS ARE GOING TO BE SICK MORONS.
Of course, now we hear things like “Why can’t I go to school? Hannah was sick and she got to go today.” Thanks Hannah’s mom.
E.T.A.: “KIDS ARE GOING TO BE SICK MORONS.” Actually, I’m not sure if that needs a comma somewhere or not. It works either way…
Yes, you do- stay home. You may have strep thoat, which can kill or hospitalize some people.
Not to mention they all have the same sick leave program as you, now you’re gonna force them to use up their sick leave and maybe stay home without pay.
Just take a day without pay. Better you than a dozen coworkers and maybe one in the hospital… or worse.
“Just take a day without pay.” Who needs to pay rent or buy food anyway?
Yes, I’m sympathetic to that, as I also am nursing a cold right now, but I don’t have that option, either. I need my job to pay my bills. I can only call off a limited number of times before I’m fired and, oh yes, I took a crapload of time off earlier this year to deal with a sick and dying spouse so I’m sort of out of options if I want to maintain my employment.
I have NO “sick leave”. None. Requests for time off have to be made two weeks in advance and no time off is permitted between the second week of December and Christmas. If I take time off for illness it’s “points” against me, which take months to expire, and if I get to many I will be fired for cause. Which will make further employment very difficult. Did I mention all the time I took off to take care of my dying spouse earlier this year?
If I call in sick tomorrow (I actually am off today) there is a good chance I will be fired. Which means no money for either food or the roof over my head. I’m really, really sorry, but unless you or someone else is willing to support me I am going to go to work tomorrow.
This sort of thing is, of course, why colds and flu and rampant this time of year - too many people can’t take time off without screwing up their lives in a major way.
By the way - did I also mention I work in a grocery store? Yes, that’s right - the people who handle your food at the grocery store don’t get sick time, either paid or unpaid. (Well, you can always take a day without pay… but do that too often you’re fired). Wash those fresh fruits and vegetables, people!
I’ll bet the other dozen employees need to pay rent and buy food also, eh?
I seem to remember reading somewhere that the lack of sick pay at many places of employment results in a ton of statistically measurable lost productivity.
I hope you feel better soon.
I will certainly concur that the really evil and stupid people here are the companies without adequate sick leave. :mad:
Thank you.
I have an array of OTC pharmaceuticals to get me through the next few days. Outside of that, I have a stock of soup at home and opportunity to sleep.
That’s pretty much all retail companies. You know, stores. Also the construction industry. And a bunch of others.
There is no requirement that a US employer offer any sick leave whatsoever.
My husband is either going on a medical leave or losing his job. Fun times ahead.
Uh, oh. If you need to vent/rant/share, we’re here.
Almost MPSIMS but…
My Hanukkah candles are burning unevenly. I’m not sure why, they’ve never done it quite like this before.
Also, this morning my apartment looked like the Rodent Apocalypse again. I mean, yay, the rodent control is working, but someone has been practicing the Zen Art of Mouse Corpse Arranging. Dramatic poses, relaxed poses…one little idiot attempted to build a nest in the bait station prior to expiration. Well, sure, good place for a nest, there’s food there, right? Still working to locate that one (I hope) corpse announcing itself by odor, but since I have a cold that’s not as terrible as it might otherwise be, because I can barely smell anything.
Oh yes, and I have a cold.
Thanks - I will almost certainly avail myself of your kindness/tolerance at some point.
I just see a it of rocky road ahead. I wish I meant the ice cream.
One of my teachers was a non-card carrying communist who considered the actual members of PCE a bunch of burgueoises with a skit. The government at the time was rightish. After the government published a law which improved the conditions of people with short-term contracts the teacher came to class ranting that “only here is the right better for the rights of workers than the left! We’re the upside-down country!”
One of my classmates, whose farm had a dozen employees, said “well, us exploiters know that people work better when they’re in better shape, and that means paying them enough to cover more than pasta with nothing, having them stay home when they’re contagious… you know, taking care of them without actually behaving like we’re their mother.”
I mean, hello, government-based Social Security was first implemented by this bastion of marxism!
US businesses aren’t required to keep their employees in working order, but a lot of them behave like they’ve never realized it might be a Good Idea. Are they required to be stupid?
Americans forget how their forebearers fought for actual wages, safer conditions, better food, etc. Sometimes getting machine gunned for their trouble. Now today those same people somehow believe the Republican party, the party of the rich, is better for them, because Jesus. Their great grandparents would weep.
“Socialism” in the West is an adaption. Populations were rising, people were living longer, people got to VOTE!! an they weren’t happy working 18 hours a day 6 days a week in a lung rotting environment for a nickle a week and a company store. Russia fell to communism, there were worker revolts in pretty much every industrialized nation. The French Revolution had been just over a century earlier and it looked possible that every nation could experience that unless they made conditions better for the common people. It amazes the hell out of me when Alt-Right or Conservative people think we’d be better off returning to the governmental and regulatory conditions of 1916-ish. Don’t they realize what a HUGE step backwards that is in wages, worker safety, life expectancy, product and food safety that is? Do they want us to step back from being a first world nation to being second world and eventually, violent revolt?
America won’t remain the sole superpower of the world, or even a major power, by throwing our nation 100 years backwards in regulations, taxes and government responsibilities.
But some people will make a lot of money along the way.
Along those lines, I suffered an injury a few years ago that required me to have surgery. Ruptured 2 discs lifting a patient (I’m an EMT). The company I worked for at the time made me do 6 months of physical therapy before okaying surgery.
That made my back worse, as I’m sure you can understand.
Due to that, I now have arthritis in my spine.
The company I worked for is no longer in business. The company I currently work for doesn’t seem to realize that weather conditions can play a huge role in how I’m able to perform my job duties. The cold and wet weather make it difficult to be able to do certain facets of my job as quickly as others can (I’m referring more to maintenance and sanitation - cleaning and restocking supplies, not the emergency stuff. They seem to understand THAT). And there are times when I just can’t get everything done as quickly as they’d like, if at all.
If it’s too much, and I have to call in, I have to deal with attitude because the nature of my disability (and I’m about 30% permanently disabled due to my spine) isn’t something that is noticeable just by looking at me. So I get accused of milking the injury to get an extra day off, or to not get all of my work done before I have to leave.
And they’re trying to squash overtime, so if I’m not done, I either have to stay over and get bitched at for the overtime, or leave the rest for the oncoming crew to finish.
To their credit, the oncoming crews are aware of my condition, and never bitch to me about having to finish up for me. It’s just management bitching that it’s not fair to the other crews.