My co-worker, who can be at times quite unreasonable (I’ll call her Jamie), had to take this week off to have surgery.
So, since a bunch of people had already requested vacation, this put my co-worker Amy and I in a bit of a bind. We are already short on people and ended up another person short. On top of that Amy got suckered, oops I mean persuaded, into working for the Jamie.
A note about Jamie: She has been known to do such things as ask to trade shifts and then try to change the agreement after she has had her day off. Usually what happens is she will trade a full day off for another full day. She will take the day off that she needed and then try and convince whomever she traded with to take 2 1/2 days in return. When the person disagrees and states that they want the whole day off Jamie then complains about how ‘unreasonable’ the person is.
Well, I found out tonight that the surgery Jamie had to have, that HAD to be done the week of Christmas is a Boob Job. Yep, she is having her boobs done over Christmas week. She could have had her boob job done over the week of Valentines Day, that is the only other available time with her doctor, but that wouldn’t work because she has a vacation scheduled that week. Can’t have that, it would interfere with her vacation and she HAS to have her boobs done because she is getting married in about 6 months.
I am absolutely stunned. I thought, and was lead to believe by Jamie, that this was a serious medical issue. Instead it turns out that Jamie is a vain little bitch who has to have everything her way. She couldn’t have her boobs done later because it would interfere with her vacation so she screws Amy and the rest of the swing shift.
Why the hell do you care why she’s taking time off? I know, I know- other coworkers are having to pick up the slack, but that’s what happens when people take days off.
I’m sure EVERY time you’ve taken a day off, it has been for the most NOBLE of reasons. Right?
The way I read the OP, the problem was that “Jamie” was requesting extra time off, in addition to her already-scheduled vacation time, at the particularly busy time of Christmas week, on the plea of needing to have surgery immediately. And then it turned out that the surgery was actually a completely elective cosmetic procedure.
I agree that when it comes to scheduling regular vacation/personal days, the employee’s plans for the time off ought to be completely irrelevant. However, when you’re using the plea of imminent medical necessity (“I have to have surgery!”) to wangle additional time off at one of the busiest seasons of the year, I can see how it would bug your co-workers to find out that the “imminent medical necessity” is actually cosmetic surgery.
The question of whether having cosmetic surgery implies that you’re “vain”, or whether “boob jobs” are automatically less important than other types of elective cosmetic surgery, is irrelevant, though. The point is, AFAICT, that “Jamie” played the medical-urgency card for a procedure that was actually medically unnecessary, thus shafting her co-workers.
I think the argument here is that the person got her time off DESPITE all the vacation time being taken by others, by spinning her elective surgery as “surgery” rather than “elective personal improvement.”
I wouldn’t mind covering work for one of my co-workers to do some sort of personal improvement (day at the spa, breast enhancement, hair coloring, whatever) if they gave me a week or two’s notice. I’ve done things like that.
I also don’t mind staying late or coming in early, or working my day off, with NO notice, because of emergencies (co-worker’s dad put in the hospital by an accident, etc).
Basically though if you call out at my job, you’re asking someone else to cancel THEIR plans for YOUR plans. If you’re sick, your mom is in hospital, or the like, of course your needs are more important than their haircut or whatever. But if you just want a half day off to get your highlights done, while they’ve got weekend plans to see their family, why should you think you’re more important?
Nitpick: Did anybody else have a tough time with the following sentence in the OP?
I initially read that number as “two and a half days” and could not figure out why anybody would fault Jamie for being so generous with her time trading. Only later did it dawn on me that slee must have meant “two half-days”, as opposed to one full day.
Yep. Last time I was sick I went to work and my boss sent me home because I had the flu and looked like hell. I haven’t faked being sick since high school. And I always schedule my vacations with the manager long in advance.
We are a small office. The employee vacation time for Christmas week had been settled months ago. We can only have so many people out during Christmas. We do software support and have to have 24x7 coverage. So my dear co-worker schedules her boob job for Christmas week so that it will not interfere with her vacation later in the year. She tells the boss, me and everyone else that she has to have surgery to fix ‘a female problem’. I am a guy, I hear the phrase ‘female problem’ and instantly do not want to know more. I run to the corner, put my fingers in my ears and start yelling so I don’t have to hear about the ‘female problem’*. The ‘female problem’ turns out that her boobs ain’t big enough. This is elective surgery. There is absolutely no reason to have it now except that if she waits it will interfere with her vacation later. As far as I know she is putting in for sick time during this period. After all, the surgery is to fix a ‘female problem’.
Kimstu nailed it. She got this time off, not because she scheduled it a head of time, but because she claimed medical emergency. Getting bigger boobs ain’t a medical emergency. Note, this is purely cosmetic, there is no underlying reason for the surgery.**
I don’t give a damned what she does with her tits. I do give a damned that she lies to get time off for a medically unnecessary procedure and screws us, her co-workers, in the process. We are a small office. Having her gone cuts our work force by 33%. Yep, there are 3 people total on the shift. Having her gone puts us in a serious bind. At any other time of the year it would be easy to get the schedule covered but everybody who could cover already has the time off. In fact, Amy agreed to cover for Jamie on New Years because she thought it was a real emergency.
If she requested the time off as vacation time it would have been denied. So she claims ‘medical emergency’ so she can get her tits done because she can’t have her tit job interfer with her scheduled vacation.
It’s bullshit.
It’s also stupid. I wonder what she is going to tell everyone when she comes back and her chest is suddenly larger after her ‘medical emergency’.
Slee
Ok, OI am exagerating but I really don’t care to hear about female medical issues unless it impacts a famiily member/loved one and I need to know.
**According to Amy. I believe this as I have heard Jamie talking about getting a boob job in the past just because she wants biger tits. Amy and Jamie were pretty good friends. I believe this little stunt is going to end that. Amy and I are getting screwed so Jamie can have bigger tits.
Well, let this be a lesson to you, then. I respect your delicacy in not prying into the details of other people’s medical conditions. But speaking as a woman and a feminist, I don’t much approve of a situation where a female employee can use coy vague terms like “female problem” to buffalo her co-workers into covering for her extra time off so she can get completely optional elective surgery. And it’s partly (well, a very little bit) her boss’s and co-workers’ fault for being so squeamish about the very concept that they let her get away with it unquestioned.
No, bosses and co-workers aren’t entitled to know the medical details, but she should at least have to explain whether the surgery is elective or urgent.
sleestak’s posts say that she described the surgery as a “medical emergency.” Since there’s really no such thing as an elective emergency, I think that’s enough.
Hopefully, she’ll face some sort of disciplinary action for fraudulently claiming extra time off… such as forfeiture of her scheduled vacation. She already got her week off, after all.
I think that Jamie will find that people are far less likely to trade shifts with her from now on, and her boss might be less flexible about vacation periods and such. People like Jamie can poison a workplace.
Jamie needs to grow up and learn to be a little more considerate of other people. Or even a lot more considerate.
I don’t know what it is about brides but when I’ve had to work with one, it’s been murder, at least in terms of taking time off.
I used to work with a very nice girl who was getting married. But thanks to appointments for shoe-buying, dress-fitting, invitation-ordering, and God alone knows what else, I got to work alone a good bit of the time which restricted my opportunity for days off.
I know that Jamie is bound by the surgeon’s schedule, but exaggerating the need for an elective procedure is unconscionable. I’m surprised her supervisor didn’t ask for some kind of documentation from her on her need for surgery RIGHT NOW.
I had the same thought.
[the bitch in me]When she gets back from her recovery leave, squint in the direction of her chest and say: “they did a good job on the breast reduction, didn’t they?”[/the bitch in me]
You know what? Don’t do this. You get sick days for a reason, and your dragging yourself into the office and exposing everyone else to whatever you have isn’t the act of a good employee.
I’m hardly an expert, but I thought getting the bigger tits usually happened before the screwing.
I respect your delicacy in not prying into the details of other people’s medical conditions. But speaking as a woman and a feminist, I don’t much approve of a situation where a female employee can use coy vague terms like “female problem” to buffalo her co-workers into covering for her extra time off so she can get completely optional elective surgery. And it’s partly (well, a very little bit) her boss’s and co-workers’ fault for being so squeamish about the very concept that they let her get away with it unquestioned.