Veteran supermarket jockey here. My current employer has mandatory vacation/sick time (also known at PTO) for everybody. If you’re newly part time you have to “put in your time”, of course, before you accrue any. But even then, as long as it’s not a habit, if you come in sick and need to leave, or you need to call in sick they’ll excuse it as long as you have a dr’s note to prove it when you return.
It sucks especially at this time of the year, but really, I’ve worked too many years with too many ailments because I was afraid of repercussions. I finally learned my lesson: They will get along without you but they won’t be happy about it. And yes, your health is more important than a paycheck.
My employer would send you home in that condition, Broomstick. They wouldn’t want you coughing/sneezing/leaking all over the produce any more than you do. I thought that would be common sense across the board, but I guess it isn’t. It always has been no matter what chain I’ve worked for.
My part time retail job has had expanded hours for the holidays. I managed to exhaust myself and catch a case of the dreaded lurgy.
I need to clear this from my system before our daughter comes to visit for Christmas.
Yes, we have PTO. If you want a day off without penalty you have to schedule it two weeks in advance - which is impossible because who knows two weeks in advance you’ll get sick? That is the norm with big box stores in my area.
Where do you live where you can get in to see a doc on short notice? Last time I scheduled an appointment it was a week wait. Oh, yeah, that’s useful.
Well, sure. I try to avoid calling in as much as possible because when I must do so I want the hit to my record to be minimal. But there is a hit. There is not “excused” absence where I work, it’s just a greater or lesser degree of penalty for calling off.
Worst case, I can get another job, right? But forgive me if I’m hesitant to plunge back into poverty.
The current set up encourages sick people to come to work.
I’m self employed, so I guess I could do whatever I want. The thing is, if I stay home sick I just lay around feeling miserable. Instead, I go to work. I stay away from people as much as I can, wash my hands frequently, etc. After my heart-attack/stent I went right back to work instead of waiting for my one week follow-up OK. I survived.
Then, I take “sick days” when I’m feeling great, so I really appreciate the time off.
There are certainly different levels of sick. You can be mildly ill but still capable of doing a desk job. Or you could be dripping mucus, coughing, and have a job handling food which is bad for other people because of contagion. The problem is when you have low level people who interact a great deal with the public or their food whose employment set up encourages them to go to work when sick, thereby exposing others.
As you point out, if you’re self-employed you have a lot more control over things, including perhaps how much your putting others at risk.
As a freelancer for almost 30 years, I can tell you the down side is that when you don’t work there’s NO income. I charged by the hour and billed my clients monthly for all those years. And until I turned 65 and got on Medicare, I had no health insurance. (Glad the breast cancer waited until then.)
A friend of mine is strictly free lance–a private tutor. She charges by the hour. She developed a bowel obstruction, needed surgery, and was out of work for two months. No health insurance. Now she’s on Medicare, but she still hasn’t paid off that surgery. Some of us gave her cash for rent and groceries during that period.
Start with the fact that there is zero evidence that “cell phone radiation” is harmful yet the California Department of Public Health has decided to tell people how to avoid it, anyway. This thing has been in the works since at least April of 2014. In short: they’ve given this bullshit an air of legitimacy and, AIUI, several news outfits have been running with it as if it’s a horror story.
My doctor’s office will schedule same-day appointments if they’re called before 8:30. Not necessarily with one’s usual doctor but one will see somebody that day.
Up yours Ryanair for dropping my suitcase( the one paid extra for because of your stupid carryon only crap) anyway, had to buy anther one. And to the server at the restaurant begging for a tip. I’m not cheap , that’s unnecessary.
I don’t see why an uninsured minimum wage worker should be required to produce a doctor’s note for having a flu that will improve with rest and time. Even a co-pay could be a lot to ask of someone just so they don’t lose their job.
We’ve had peanut butter filled pretzels at work every so often, and everyone likes them. I saw them on sale the other day and bought a few tubs only to discover they are brownie filled pretzels. Taste like crap.
That’s not terribly helpful for someone such as myself who works a late shift and typically doesn’t make it to bed before 2 or 3 am. Unless I’m “blessed” with insomnia I’ll sleep past that deadline most days because getting up that early seriously cuts short my rack time. But hey, people working 2nd and 3rd shift can just suck it up, the losers, right? What does it matter that 8:30 am for them is the equivalent of 3 am for a first shift worker, right? Shift workers don’t need sleep, especially not when they’re sick. :rolleyes:
Yes, that’s the other thing - if I go to my regular doc it will be $30 for that note. If I go to urgent care it’s at least $60 copay, or the better part of a day’s wage. Meaning taking one day off and getting a doc appt (yay, let’s go outside in the cold running a fever and all instead of staying in bed and sucking down fluids) costs me two days of pay and I have to drag my sorry ass outside in the weather. I’m not saying it’s impossible, I’m saying that I’m with Helena: it’s shitty to make low-wage workers do all that when a white-collar worker who calls in sick not only gets a day’s sick pay but also is usually trusted to be telling the truth about being sick.
BTW - the uninsured worker is looking at $80-100 or more for that sick note. Minimum wage for an 8 hour shift comes to $58. So the truly uninsured, minimum wage worker not only loses the day’s wage for not being there, but has to pay MORE than a day’s wage, maybe even two day’s, for that note. So for every day of missed work they lose 3 days pay. How is that NOT a perverse incentive for the sick to go to work?
WTF is urgent care going to tell me? “You have an upper respiratory viral infection, probably a bad cold or a mild flu, go home, get lots of rest and fluids”? I already know that.
Putting pressure on people to either go to work sick or drag themselves out to urgent care/doctor office just spreads disease. It’s not in the public interest, yet it’s the way we do things.