Take Your Diseased Carcass Home!

The BBQ Pit
#21

We don’t have sick days, which is a really fucking stupid way to try to keep productivity up. One guy comes in sick, sits at his desk doing no work because he’s miserable, and proceeds to spread his germs to five other people. That way you get six people out of commission instead of just one.

Then you have the management geniuses who worry about sick leave being abused. Listen, fucknuts, if you think an employee would abuse sick leave, why’d you hire him?

Of course, with two kids in school and a wife who sees sick patients, I get every goddamn communicable disease anyway. All it takes is for a new kid to start in my son’s preschool class with his new, out-of-town germs, and within two weeks I’m swimming in a vast ocean of my own nasal discharge. Still waiting for the cure for the common cold.

#22

Definitely the employer’s fault in most cases.

I hate going in to work sick - who doesn’t? - but it’s so true that calling in sick is frowned upon. I have a cold right now and I’m meant to be working tonight - I’ll very probably go in anyway, even though I probably caught the damn thing from a co-worker last week. She came in with a cold, as did the guy the week before who probably gave it to her, so of course I’ll look bad if I stay home :rolleyes:.

Re the Japan thing, when I was first there, on JET, the school I worked for was great - 20,000 yen book allowance per term, 2 months’ paid holiday throughout the year…AND the right to take five days ‘menstrual leave’ every month. I never did, but man, that was probably the most impressive contract clause I’ve ever seen.

#23

I don’t think your employer is very sensible about this—not sure if you were saying that you think they are. But forcing people to use vacation time or not get paid is a sure way to make people decide to come in when they are sick. When I worked a job where I didn’t get paid for sick time, I would try to determine “Am I one hundred dollars worth of sick?” before deciding to call in, and that sucked.

#24

Me: What is your daughter doing here?
Agent: I have a listing appointment, and she’s too sick to go to school.

:eek::confused:

#25

Sure, but this is a *good *thing from the employers POV.

But the fact that most common illnesses are communicable means you’re likely forcing your officemates into the same dilemma next week. So it’s not “Am I one hundred dollars worth of sick?” It’s. “Is my one hundred dollars more worthy than the six hundred dollars to be lost next week?” Not to mention that then those sick coworkers may infect *their *spouses, kids, babysitters, teachers, classrooms… If people would just save a little cash to self-insure against a self-imposed quarantine a few days a year, the money and time lost to the common cold would surely decrease for all of us.

People bitch about parents not vaccinating their kids because of herd immunity, and then they go in and sneeze all over the keyboards and phones at work? This makes no sense.

#26

Our office tends to divide illnesses into “contractor flu” and “permie flu”… i.e. if you are a contractor and don’t get paid when you’re not in, you will be at death’s door before you take a day off; permanent staff on the other hand have sick pay so are more likely to take a day when they just have a bad case of the sniffles.

During my probationary period in my current job I came down with a bad cold - nothing that’ll kill me, but couldn’t focus on work and would have passed it on to the rest of the office. But being on probation meant I didn’t receive sick pay yet, and I simply couldn’t afford to take a couple of unpaid days out.

So I figured if I turned up at the office and sneezed near a few senior managers they’d send me home (on the basis that if I show willing but they send me home, they can’t very well withold payment as it wasn’t my decision). Sure enough, 15 mins after I’d arrived I was sent packing with instructions to return when better and to “forget” to fill out a sickness notification form (which my manager would then “forget” to chase up with me).

Of course, it helps if you don’t take the piss - I can honestly say I’ve never called in sick when I wasn’t genuinely unwell. The move to mobile working also makes it easier - if I’m feeling ill, I’m happy to sit at home in the warm with a laptop and spend a day tidying up my network folders (i.e. the boring jobs you defer 'cos there are more important things to focus on). So the impact of people not coming into the office is somewhat reduced, as operating at 65% efficiency while not infecting your colleagues is better than nothing.

#27

Very true. Now that I work from home 95% of the time, I take less sick time, as I don’t have to worry about getting too sick to drive myself home, and can take a half hour nap if I need it.

Which makes it doubly annoying that I got a call from my immediate superior on Friday to give me “feedback” about that being my third day out sick when she needed me to work on something. At least I think she felt bad today, when I told her that I spent most of Sunday in the ER hooked up to an IV.

#28

Not to mention people who’ve run out of sick days and have no choice but to come to work. I think companies should do what mine does. We accrue sick days and if we dont’ use them, they roll forever. That way, you can actually get paid if you have to have surgery or whatever. You have enough days to stay home whether you’re kind of sick or real sick or at death’s doorstep.

Those of us who work from home actually have to actually BE at death’s doorstep before we’re able to “not work due to illness.” But for everyone else, it’s awesome.

#29

It is the employer. When I worked for a nursing home, they had a policy that would result in you getting a disciplinary write-up for calling in sick. You had to report to work on time with a physicians note and get sent home by management. No one had ever done this ever, the absurdity of the policy is self-evident. By the way, 3 write ups and you would be fired. This resulted in people showing up with a Norovirus-like flu that infected everyone in the PT and OT departments. This is in a place that housed and cared for the ill and frail, the LAST PLACE you want people leaking infection all over the damn building.

#30

Astroboy, those are some of the symptoms of malaria. :eek: :smiley: I should know, I had it, with those exact symptons. Been to any furrin parts lately?

#31

I work in a hospital. When I was hired they gave me a list of illnesses and told me not to come to work if I had any of those. Things like strep, mono, chicken pox, the flu, all the usual easily-transmitted stuff. I don’t work with patients, but I work with people who work with patients, so I understand the importance of not coming in if you’re sneezing and coughing and dripping goo out of your nose.

Can you please tell me why it reflects badly on my performance review when I take a day off work because I’m puking all over from a stomach virus? Why give me a list and say “don’t come to work if you have these, keep our patients safe” and then glare at me over your notepad at the end of the year and tell me that I took three days off for illness (off your list!!) and so that’s going to have to be factored into my merit increase?

Bite me!

#32

Ah, the talk-the-talk but don’t walk-the-walk school of management. Nice.

#33

While I do agree with you in general, the employer at the time was both not paying me for sick time AND getting mad if I took the time unpaid anyhow. So, my self-concern was more like self-protection.

I currently work for one of the good guys—stay at home and be sensible, don’t abuse it, etc. My husband’s work is also like that, but he works for an AIDS advocacy organization, where basically you could kill your coworker if you gave them your germs. Makes sense not to give those workers a hard time.

#34

The job I quit recently, I came in one Monday having not gotten a single bit of sleep the night before. I should not have driven, because I was actually dizzy. And when I got there, I realized being up there was going to be utter hell, and it was better to leave while traffic was light and not risk being on the road during rush hour. So I told my boss I wasn’t feeling well, clocked out, and left. I don’t get paid if I’m not working, so as far as I was concerned, it was my choice to be there or not.

A couple days later, my boss asked if I happened to go to the doctor, because “they” (meaning the owners) want doctor’s notes for any sick leave taken. Since I don’t go to the doctor for just feeling bad, I pretty much scoffed at the idea.

They weren’t paying me for the time I missed, so as far as I was concerned, it was none of their fucking business what was wrong with me. Actually, that philosophy holds true for anything short of something that would qualify under the Family Medical Leave Act, as far as I’m concerned.

#35

Ah, the stomach virus. I had one years ago while working at a weekly newspaper. I called in on a deadline day and my editor begged and pleaded with me to come in. I told him I could barely step away from the toilet to call him and he did NOT want me there. The next day I was better (and no longer puking), but by no means 100%. When I staggered in, he took one look at me and said, “Wow, you really were sick.” No kidding, asshole.

#36

A place I used to work wanted a doctor’s note if you called in sick on a Friday or a Monday. Um, no, I don’t go to a doctor when I have the flu or cold. It just has to run its course. If you think I’m playing hookey that is another discussion but you saw me coughing. You saw the snot dripping out of my nose on Thursday and I told you I probably wouldn’t make it in. So you can bugger off with the shit about the doctor’s note.

This new job we don’t have vacation or sick pay we get PTO–personal time off. When I was sick last year they actually sent me home. They are serious about the “don’t come to work sick” policy. I like this company.

#37

Actually, I posted today BECAUSE I am home sick from some kind of stomach bug I caught from my spouse. If anyone from higher up had thought to give me grief, I would have reported in to THIER office and barfed in the wastebaskets, the hall, the driveways…