All right, I’m prone to allergies, asthma, and assorted other lung ailments myself. But when I’m contagious, I STAY HOME! Sheesh. I do NOT go out to fancy restaurants, I don’t go on extended shopping trips, I don’t go visit anyone. I DON’T SHARE MY ILLNESS!
Nobody else wants your cold or flu or whatever. If you’re sick, stay home. Believe it or not, the world WILL keep on spinning even if you aren’t there to turn the handle. Stay home from work, don’t go to school, don’t go to any store and handle the merchandise (except for medicine and orange juice and chicken soup), don’t go out to eat and infect the server, don’t go to the dentist…STAY HOME!
I had to leave a very tempting looking lasange sitting on my plate after seeing a chef in my local restaurant sneeze all over one of the dishes he was preparing for another customer (by accident, i must add)… made me worried that it had happened to me too…
Its a mark of society when people are too scared to take sick leave.
John Larrigan
“82.35% of all statistics are made up on the spot”–Vic Reeves
Lynn…it’s a great dream, but most of these people MUST be there. I don’t want to speak in simple terms, but, DAMMIT, how do you thing the world runs?! Yeah, some people should stay home, but a lot of the these people cannot! They are integral to business. I’m not saying that you are off your ass in posting this, but don’t YOU think this belongs in GQ?!
PS. I totally agree with you! I fucking hate getting sick by some bastard who is inconsiderate!
The most rewarding part was when I got my money!
-Dr. Nick Riviera
My former friend was known for sending her son to the sitters(who watches a lot of other kids) sick cause she said God would keep the other kids healthy and not catch anything.
Gee, it’s really funny how one thing can remind you of another. Like, for instance, this thread about calling in sick. This reminded me of the assembly they had at my high school over 30 years ago; it was senior year and they were giving out various b-s ‘certificates’ of merit to students who had ‘accomplished’ certain things. After explaining to the assembled throng that “We think going a single without missing a day – that’s nothing”, our universally-like but well-known-to-be-brain-dead principal started passing out the certificates for ‘perfect attendance’ for two years, three years, yadda-yadda, until one person was called up to receive a certificate for 12 years perfect attendance. I looked around at the students around me. The girl’s most commonly applied sobriquet was “Typhoid Tammy”; we all smirked ruefully and wondered which company would be delighted to hire her, based on that certificate.
The ‘benefit’ of sick time didn’t develop because companies are nice; it grew up (IMHO) out of enlightened self-interest after a few flu/cold epidemics showed the corporate US that it only made economic sense.
If you knew what I know, everything would make sense; and if it didn’t, you’d know enough to know not to worry about it – The God of Somebody Else
Hey, I don’t get sick often. I have sick days to take. I will use them if needed. I may not come back to work perfect the following day, but I will stay in bed, watch tv and play on the net by myself, and relax for a day. If I have to come in to work I will stay only as long as I absolutely have to (less than 2 hours). Sure I am concerned about your health, but I am more concerned about MY health. I feel shitty, I am going to sleep. Unless I am hungover, that I can’t pass on.
Actually, most of my “sick days” are really “hangover days.” 'Cause I hardly ever get sick. And when I do, I get reaalllly sick, to the point where I couldn’t even handle the (downhill) walk to the bus stop. But that only happens about once every other year.
Regarding Satan’s post, I had exactly the same conversation a few times when I was working at Tower Records in the East Village (not handling food, but handling money and loads of CDs that would be picked up by many of our literally hundreds of customers per day). It’s interesting how the companies most likely to give their employees a hard time for calling in sick seem to be the type of industries whose employees have the greatest chance of infecting mass numbers of people.
I love the goody two shoes types who NEVER miss a day - and give wahtever they have to others, when they aren’t doing any work, just typing on some…message… (gotta go, it’s the boss)
Ugh! This is a real bone of contention with me. Working in a school gives new meaning to sucking up other people’s germs. When kids are sick we become a babysitting service.
Other staff used to laugh at me when I washed down my phone with rubbing alcohol after a sick kid used it, now I notice they do it as well. People should just keep their damn kids home in bed where they should be, not out spreading the germs… Its not healthy for anybody.
We are, each of us angels with only one wing,and we can only fly by embracing one another
My neighbor sent her 6 year old to school the day after she was diagnosed with pneumonia. She had little bags under her eyes and had lost a lot of weight. A couple months later she bragged about how her daughter had perfect attendance, and it was all I could do to hold my tongue.
Wench.
Really? My first industry job (sorta) was in the tapes department at that store. It was also my first job after I moved back to NYC after several years in Northern Virginia.
When did you work there? I was there from the end of '89 to mid 1990.
I just love it when people bring their kids in for a cut when they are sick. One day someone brought in her kid and he had a fever and was sneezing and coughing all over the place. The mom told me, “We just got back from the doctor. He’s sick but I thought I’d bring him here while we were out.” H-E-L-L-O?
Or how about if the kid has lice and they know it? Then get mad if we refuse to cut their hair! You tell them and tell them it’s against the law to work on hair if there is lice present but they don’t care! Oh, do I seem bitter? Maybe it’s because I missed work because I got sick from handling people who are sick. Stay home!
MaryAnn
I’m sorry you didn’t win, mom, but I’ll give you a constellation prize! -Greg
My mother volunteers at several charities. Last month she was at her desk and one of her co-workers was sneezing and snuffling miserably at her all day. My Mom got up and moved, as politely as she could. But she caught this chick’s cold, which turned into bronchitis, which turned into pneumonia—and my Mom wound up in the hospital for a week because this bitch had to come in and sneeze on the elderly!
If I ever get my hands on her, she’ll NEED a couple of sick days . . .