[Sarcasm]
Don’t listen to the others.
Order the Code Red.
[/Sarcasm]
That amounts to 18 sick days in a year. Have you never had a bad bout of pneumonia? Flu? Broken bones? A sick kid? You know, shit does happen.
I was there 5 years ago when I retired. The only deadline that really matters is your retirement date.
The response to that is "That’s very nice. But until the help comes the schedule will slip.
When I my VP didn’t authorize a contractor to do testing on my project, I told him that there were going to be bugs.
I kept my word. None were that big, but resource starvation has consequences.
Any personnel issues with that employee should be addressed by his manager and HR, and NOT YOU.
I had a boss who loved to play the “You need to talk to So’n’so…” game. Partly from laziness, partly from avoiding the issues, with a dash of “if people are sniping at each other then they’re not sniping at me”.
Hang in there, MMM. This stuff ratchets the stress up many notches.
(Sounds similar to my old work. I ended up putting in 80+ hrs/week for a month… before I quit to go teach.)
I wanna go back to the idea that people on this team are only taking 3 sick days a year or fewer. I had a boss that sat me down once and said that he thought that if I didn’t use most or all of my sick days each year it was no different that not taking vacation or not cashing a bonus check. I’d be leaving the benefits I earned on the table.
My thought: management has made you believe that your enemy is the guy taking advantage of the benefits he’s owed so you don’t have the time to realize that management is the enemy that’s fucking you over.
I think the point of my post was the manager probably doesn’t care what his people think or has no real power to improve the situation.
Not with this guy. He’s been gaming the system for years. Goes golfing when he calls in sick, and only takes sick time when our sponsor is not in the lab. He’s untouchable, so I have to let him get away with it.
Right there was where this entire thread was rendered useless and not really worth replying to outside of the Pit. You don’t know what the reason for the FMLA leave is, do you? So, if he’s taking his deathly sick kid in for chemo, or similar, you’ll begrudge him that?
MYOB. And “your business” does not include someone else’s legally allowed leave.
And yet you reply.
I actually do know a lot of details about his FMLA, as well as his history of gaming the system. I did not seek out this info, it came to me (by someone who knows) uninvited.
And my business actually will be entirely minded, which you would have known had you read the thread.
mmm
Mark Manson makes a lot of sense
Re: the discussion of sick leave. I used to rarely take sick leave. Just didn’t get sick much. And it was just as easy to schedule my dr appts for after work. At some point our admin person observed that I took NO sick leave, and that unless I took more than 1 day a month, it would not even be noticed. So as my work attitude “matured”, I started taking sick leave more liberally. I still have a TON built up, of which I will only get credit for a small percentage when I retire. I anticipate when retirement nears, I might start feeling more ill… 
I knew several folk who used to burn sick leave for ANY reason - going to ballgames, extending vacations, etc. I know of 2 such persons who got screwed when they and their family later experienced severe probs which necessitated leave and they had none built up. (We get sick leave each pay period, which accumulates with no limit. But we have NO short or long term disability bens.) At that point, I learned people got ADVANCED sick leave - a concept I had never known existed.
My take - I never complain about whatever another employee has worked out with management. Don’t care how much leave of what type they take, how much work they produce, or the quality of their work (unless it directly affected me - as in they gave me garbage I had to correct making my job harder then it need be.) My take is, such people are just working out whatever “scam” (my imperfect term) they feel is best for them. I am not their boss, so I have no place to complain. Instead, my only response is to work out whatever scam works best for me. When I worked in the office, my personal scam involved long lunches during which I worked out. I always was a top producer, and figured if anyone ever complained, I would agree to take shorter lunches and would produce less work.
Each person can take whatever leave and benefits the law and company policy allows. I would say NOTHING other than - if it affected bonuses or reviews or something - I’d consider saying something general like “Our team lacks sufficient employee work hours to complete the tasks assigned.”
I said “not really worth it” , that’s not an absolute.
That … doesn’t seem ethical in the slightest if you’re not his manager.
Did you report this someone? Or halt them mid-flow?
Well, you just told me the opposite.
Sort of on topic, as people are able to take sick leave for their kids, I’m able to take it to take care of my home bound mother to take her to the doctor, or just about anything for her really.
When rich people do this it’s called “being savvy” having “business acumen” and “profit maximizing”.
It’s interesting that we change the description when rank and file workers maximize their utility within their contractual employment framework. We expect them to leave money on the table, to voluntarily revert their personal benefits to their employer, benefits their employer agreed to give them in an arms length business transaction.
lol. We’re in a brave new world with this pandemic. I can only reminisce of the days where 3 days off in 3 weeks is a lot.
~Max, manager at a small business
I have a condition covered by FMLA. I have been at my current employer (factory work) for almost 25 years and the job I was doing for 20 of those years did not cause (I questioned this) but contributed to the issue. I have a 40 hour/5 continuous work days limit.
Due to staffing issues Saturdays have been added and 1 coworker in particular noticed I never worked a Saturday and sarcastically and condescending repeatedly asked me why I got out of working Saturdays. I told them to go talk to our supervisor if she had an issue with when I worked. She did and our supervisor, in an open office area so others heard their conversation, tell her “none of your fuc*ing business” why I was or wasn’t working on a Saturday.
I would suggest the same, not your concern and the solution, if there is one, is above your pay grade to figure out.
I have a dim view of anyone gaming the system, regardless of status.
As for this one employee who reports to me… he spends an hour every morning in the office of Mr. Important, just shooting the bull. During this time he asks about Mr. Important’s schedule, and memorizes it. When Mr. Important is not at work (business travel, etc.) this employee will message me that his leg hurts, or his back hurts, or his tummy hurts, or whatever. The correlation is just about perfect. He is also very carful to not exceed three days in a row, else some HR rules will take effect. He’s been doing this for ten years. He has also repeatedly lied on travel reimbursements, claiming expenses when there were none. And there are other things. I could go on and on. At any rate, my point is that, if someone is politically well-connected, your best option is to not do anything. Any attempt to “do the right thing” will get you in trouble. At least that’s been my experience. YMMV.
I don’t recall ever encountering people whose attitude to rich vs poor people is as you describe. The opposite is somewhat common, if anything.
In general, what makes something “gaming the system” is where rules are put in place or laws passed which make sense in Situation A - which is what’s envisioned by those who made the rules - but which inadvertently allow for their usage in Situation B, where they don’t make sense and are not what was anticipated.
In this specific case, the idea is that there are in some cases genuine need for FMLA leave, but it can be difficult who has that genuine need and who doesn’t have that but just figured out that if you simply claim it it’s very hard for anyone to challenge you on it. The latter would be “gaming the system”, and imposing unjustified hardship on their employers and coworkers.
It sounds like those who hired him didn’t do their do diligence in finding out what kind of worker this guy is BEFORE they hired him. It’s like signing a free agent and then finding out he has domestic abuse problems or problems making practices. No excuse.
This very thread is about someone who took 3 days of leave that he is entitled to take under his terms of employment. His coworker wants to pressure that guy to not take leave he is entitled to because the employer deliberately understaffs the department, in order to put more money in the owner’s pocket.
We’re starting this whole thing off by not acknowledging that the owner is ‘gaming the system’ by understaffing a department to the point where they feel the need to pressure other workers to give up benefits they are entitled to, much less give up their own benefits (which they’ve done for years).