Getting sick is vile, miserable, and a waste of time - so do something about it!
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Theoldguy1 wrote: »Finding fault doesn't make it any easier on the employees who are made to feel the project needs to get done on a deadline "regardless" and work when they are sick. Not showing up when one has the sniffles (which face it is pretty much everyone during the winter) doesn't cut it it upper management. That's the way it is in Corporate America.
That thought does help me though. I'm not in America but I have felt bad about taking sick days I needed before. When I got back the world hadn't ended, I wasn't as important as I thought I was. Someone else had held down the fort or contractors accepted they would get their stuff the next day. Delays happen all the time for many different reasons and genuine illness is a valid one. (I don't think anyone is suggesting taking time off for the sniffles).
And that's the challenge faced by workplaces. What is a "reasonable" level of illness. Some people will try to take sick days if their nose is runny while others would drag the ventilator in next to their workspace.5 -
janejellyroll wrote: »Crafty_camper123 wrote: »Aside from those who are immune-compromised, there is something to be said for exposure and building your immune system. My N=1 expirience here: I only get sick about once or twice a year. Meanwhile, I watch people all around me get sick. I load up on vitamins to support my immune system, and rarely catch the crap that's going around. I think the small levels of exposure while others are sick is a contributing factor to my not being sick all the time. My husband (also a home-schooled kid) seems to get sick every single time he is exposed. Perhaps due to less exposure growing up? Kind of interesting to think about...
Fighting off some sort of crud right now actually.. I have a feeling this will be one of those times that zinc and vitamin C won't help me. Luckily I already have a planned day off tomorrow to head into the weekend.
It would be so interesting to know if this (the homeschool thing) was supported by non-anecdotal evidence. I was also homeschooled and my husband has commented that I seem to get sick more often than he does. He's wondered if that has something to do with it. I was always more inclined to think it's because I commute on the bus and work in an office (while he works from home).
I would be interested to see any type of studies on this. I'm sure they wouldn't find anything conclusive though, since there would be so many variables that could mess with the results. Same with kids being raised in sterile envoronments vs kids who were allowed to be a little "dirty". I think it helps significantly with immune support. But I have no clue if there's any study to confirm this.
I did read an interesting article about the rise in food allergies a couple weeks ago. Basically it was saying that the current reccomendations of waiting until your child is 2 or 3 (as opposed to small exposures from birth) before exposing them to potential allergenic foods such as peanuts and eggs actually caused an increase in children who have food allergies. The advice was based on a small study & even though the results were not able to be replicated, they gave it out as the standard advice "just in case". I can go hunting for the article if need be. But I can't remember where exactly I read it. Just thought it was in interestig point. I feel like the same logic can be applied to virus exposure.0 -
I'm sure you don't get sick much now. Nor do I. That was kinda my point. First few years though were rough.HeliumIsNoble wrote: »
I'm sure that's the case. However, as a former home-schooled kid who's all grown up now, I promise you that all you're doing is storing up illnesses for the future. My mother used to boast about my healthy immune system. Turned out I wasn't catching any bugs, because I wasn't being exposed to them. Ill kids don't go out to play or attend after-school activitiesOneRatGirl wrote: »For most viruses you're contagious for at least a day before, sometimes a few days, and for the first few days of the cold.
Schools (at least here in the UK but I've heard similar complaints from the US) complain if kids have too many days off. If you let your kids stay off every time they're contagious, you'll be getting visits from social services (CPS), possibly fines and even taken to court. We're teaching kids to not take days off from the age of 5 (or earlier).
And frankly I'm prone currently to catching every cold that goes around. If somebody is like that, they'll get fired if they're taking days off every other week.
This is one of the reasons why we ended up pulling our kids from the traditional school setting a few years ago and now do online schooling/homeschooling. My kids were constantly surrounded by sick kids and were getting sick all the time. Now they very rarely get sick (I can't even remember the last time one of them has gotten sick).
When I integrated into college/work/etc, where everyone has to turn up whether they're ill or not, I ended up catching about a cold a month at one point. After a couple of years, it calmed down, because I'd caught up on exposure. Then I had kids and they went to nursery and school. Holy hellfire. I was ill so much. Even got hand, foot and mouth virus.
I was actually homeschooled all the way through, k-12. Went onto college afterwards etc. In my 40's now and I never get sick
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HeliumIsNoble wrote: »
I'm sure you don't get sick much now. Nor do I. That was kinda my point. First few years though were rough.HeliumIsNoble wrote: »
I'm sure that's the case. However, as a former home-schooled kid who's all grown up now, I promise you that all you're doing is storing up illnesses for the future. My mother used to boast about my healthy immune system. Turned out I wasn't catching any bugs, because I wasn't being exposed to them. Ill kids don't go out to play or attend after-school activitiesOneRatGirl wrote: »For most viruses you're contagious for at least a day before, sometimes a few days, and for the first few days of the cold.
Schools (at least here in the UK but I've heard similar complaints from the US) complain if kids have too many days off. If you let your kids stay off every time they're contagious, you'll be getting visits from social services (CPS), possibly fines and even taken to court. We're teaching kids to not take days off from the age of 5 (or earlier).
And frankly I'm prone currently to catching every cold that goes around. If somebody is like that, they'll get fired if they're taking days off every other week.
This is one of the reasons why we ended up pulling our kids from the traditional school setting a few years ago and now do online schooling/homeschooling. My kids were constantly surrounded by sick kids and were getting sick all the time. Now they very rarely get sick (I can't even remember the last time one of them has gotten sick).
When I integrated into college/work/etc, where everyone has to turn up whether they're ill or not, I ended up catching about a cold a month at one point. After a couple of years, it calmed down, because I'd caught up on exposure. Then I had kids and they went to nursery and school. Holy hellfire. I was ill so much. Even got hand, foot and mouth virus.
I was actually homeschooled all the way through, k-12. Went onto college afterwards etc. In my 40's now and I never get sick
Thinking back, I actually got 'awarded' for having perfect attendance some semesters at college, I never got sick/never missed classes. I also worked full time while going to college, in retail, and being around lots of other people didn't make me sick, even after being homeschooled (never stepped foot into a 'real' school until drivers ed).
But, there's all sorts of other factors that are at play in these situations. I'm just enjoying not having sick kids all the time anymore 1 -
Fair enough.HeliumIsNoble wrote: »
I'm sure you don't get sick much now. Nor do I. That was kinda my point. First few years though were rough.HeliumIsNoble wrote: »
I'm sure that's the case. However, as a former home-schooled kid who's all grown up now, I promise you that all you're doing is storing up illnesses for the future. My mother used to boast about my healthy immune system. Turned out I wasn't catching any bugs, because I wasn't being exposed to them. Ill kids don't go out to play or attend after-school activitiesOneRatGirl wrote: »For most viruses you're contagious for at least a day before, sometimes a few days, and for the first few days of the cold.
Schools (at least here in the UK but I've heard similar complaints from the US) complain if kids have too many days off. If you let your kids stay off every time they're contagious, you'll be getting visits from social services (CPS), possibly fines and even taken to court. We're teaching kids to not take days off from the age of 5 (or earlier).
And frankly I'm prone currently to catching every cold that goes around. If somebody is like that, they'll get fired if they're taking days off every other week.
This is one of the reasons why we ended up pulling our kids from the traditional school setting a few years ago and now do online schooling/homeschooling. My kids were constantly surrounded by sick kids and were getting sick all the time. Now they very rarely get sick (I can't even remember the last time one of them has gotten sick).
When I integrated into college/work/etc, where everyone has to turn up whether they're ill or not, I ended up catching about a cold a month at one point. After a couple of years, it calmed down, because I'd caught up on exposure. Then I had kids and they went to nursery and school. Holy hellfire. I was ill so much. Even got hand, foot and mouth virus.
I was actually homeschooled all the way through, k-12. Went onto college afterwards etc. In my 40's now and I never get sick
Thinking back, I actually got 'awarded' for having perfect attendance some semesters at college, I never got sick/never missed classes. I also worked full time while going to college, in retail, and being around lots of other people didn't make me sick, even after being homeschooled (never stepped foot into a 'real' school until drivers ed).
But, there's all sorts of other factors that are at play in these situations. I'm just enjoying not having sick kids all the time anymore
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Muscleflex79 wrote: »manderson27 wrote: »Glad I am retired.
The rules in the UK about sick days are complicated and vary from company to company. Firstly you usually have to ensure you call in at least an hour before your shift starts and you usually have to speak to your line manager not leave a message. They also don't accept having other people call in on your behalf and if you don't follow procedure then you are classed absent and can lose pay. Just trying to do this after being up all night puking or something is hard enough.
Then you have to listen to the disaproval in your managers voice because now everyone else has to work harder to cover for you and the manager has to fill out numerous forms for HR.
You need to get a "self certificate" from a doctors office to fill in and send in to HR if you are off for up to 3 days (some companies wont pay for the first 3 days) anything over that and you need a signed doctors certificate to send in to HR to ensure you get sick pay.
Bear in mind that you have organise all this while you are sick.
Then when you get back you have to go to a meeting with HR and go into great detail about your illness and justify why you took the time off. Then you have to discuss the likelihood of this particular event happening again and if there something you can do to avoid it. Not to mention worrying about how this will count against you as you have now had 3 seperate incidents during the year but can't work out the complicated math involved in the yearly sick day calculations. And on and on and on.
It is easier just to take your germ ridden body in so you can puke on the managers shoes and then get sent home because then you qualify for sick pay because everyone sees the proof that you are sick.
Yep glad to be retired and out of all this work stuff. I can be ill and stay home and not spread my bugs.
what kind of job was this? sounds awful! didn't think it was even legal for them to ask details about the specifics of your health condition. here (in Canada) at my job they aren't even allowed to ask for diagnosis or details.
It is legal to ask details regarding illness espcially if it is an ongoing problem. As the company needs to know if it is affecting your ability to do your job as described in your contract. They are supposed to offer help if possible to aid you back to work or to make changes to help you if the illness is affecting your ability to work in a particular department. EG Lifting, standing for long periods etc. It differed slightly from company to company. The one I was with longest was ok with any health issues but one of them was particulalry difficult and used any ongoing issues to get rid of certain people. I know they should not be able to do that but big companies can always find ways to get what they want.
Mostly it was ok if a bit convoluted and annoying but this is also a way of trying to get people to think twice before they decide they are too sick to come in.
I have been retired for almost 3 years now so things may well have changed and as I say, I am glad to be out of it. My time is my own now thank goodness.0 -
I am fortunate enough to work a job that provides generous sick days and my bosses are understanding of needing to be off when sick or kids are sick or for MD appointments for employees and their kids. We also don't have any sort of points system for taking sick days so it shouldn't be that difficult.
However, I am the only one where I work who does what I do, and it is required that someone with same credentials as me be here when I'm out. We do have backups established, but these people have to be background checked and credentials checked, so it's not like I can just call up someone I know and ask if they'll cover for me. Also, these backups are not just for me but for several other sites as well. So, while they are understanding of taking sick days, sometimes the backups are all elsewhere and this makes it hard for taking unplanned sick days and most sick days I take end up being for me or kids to MD appointments that we know about in advance and poor DH ends up having to take off if kids are actually sick.
You can say all you want that management should plan better and hire more backups, but they don't turn down qualified people for this; they have who applies.1 -
HeliumIsNoble wrote: »
That's not quite right. Did you maybe work for a nightmare company? The whole point of the self-certification thing for short periods of illness is that you DON'T need to get a doctor's agreement or involvement. Certainly not a form from your surgery.manderson27 wrote: »Glad I am retired.
The rules in the UK about sick days are complicated and vary from company to company. Firstly you usually have to ensure you call in at least an hour before your shift starts and you usually have to speak to your line manager not leave a message. They also don't accept having other people call in on your behalf and if you don't follow procedure then you are classed absent and can lose pay. Just trying to do this after being up all night puking or something is hard enough.
Then you have to listen to the disaproval in your managers voice because now everyone else has to work harder to cover for you and the manager has to fill out numerous forms for HR.
You need to get a "self certificate" from a doctors office to fill in and send in to HR if you are off for up to 3 days (some companies wont pay for the first 3 days) anything over that and you need a signed doctors certificate to send in to HR to ensure you get sick pay.
Bear in mind that you have organise all this while you are sick.
Then when you get back you have to go to a meeting with HR and go into great detail about your illness and justify why you took the time off. Then you have to discuss the likelihood of this particular event happening again and if there something you can do to avoid it. Not to mention worrying about how this will count against you as you have now had 3 seperate incidents during the year but can't work out the complicated math involved in the yearly sick day calculations. And on and on and on.
It is easier just to take your germ ridden body in so you can puke on the managers shoes and then get sent home because then you qualify for sick pay because everyone sees the proof that you are sick.
Yep glad to be retired and out of all this work stuff. I can be ill and stay home and not spread my bugs.
You might have to fill in a form from your workplace's HR department, but that's individual office procedures.
That's what I said, First 3 days you self certificated then any longer you would need a doctors note.
No the company I worked for the longest was not a nightmare in fact I loved it there and was with them for 15 years. Got to be a Manager and had to do deal with staff sickness and back to work interviews myself. It was just the procedure for getting sick pay and was similar in other companies.
Tesco was the latest one I worked for and it was the same kind of thing. Call in, speak to a manager, get a self certificate, send it in, come back and have "back to work interview" explain your issue, sign a form saying you agree with what ever it was you had discussed and any proposals put forward to "help" avoid it happening again. (If it was more than one instance of the same illness)
The companies did not treat me badly it was just the usual convoluted procedures to protect themselves and to prove they are doing everything by the book. Also to cover you and ensure you are also doing things by the book.
But now I answer to no one I can be ill in peace 0 -
euronorris wrote: »This issue should really be addressed with employers, not employees. The vast majority of employees who go to work whilst sick do so because they will either lose much needed pay, it affects their performance review (unfairly) or they are at risk of losing their job.
I'm in the UK. My company policy is to provide sick pay, BUT, it is at their discretion whether or not this is full pay or just statutory sick pay (a pittance) AND, they can choose not to pay it if they feel it appropriate (ie, they feel you've had too many days off sick).
Also, my company employs a Bradford scoring system for sick days. It's designed to catch patterns of lots of random, one or two days off sick. ie, people who are lying. Unfortunately, it would show the same result for someone who took a couple of days off sick every time they had a cold. If your score gets too high you have to have a meeting with HR, face disciplinary action and possibly even termination of employment (if you haven't got a sick note from the doctor for your illness). Even if it doesn't get that far, loads of sick days will definitely have a negative impact on your performance review.
So guess what? We all come in sick unless we are on deaths door. I've had 3 days off in the last year. One was a nasty cold, and one of the days I just couldn't face it anymore. The other two days were due to labrynthitis - I couldn't even turn over in my bed without spinning out and vomiting, let alone stand up and walk around etc. Luckily for me, after those two sick days I had a weeks holiday already planned, so I was able to rest enough and the tablets I was prescribed eased the dizziness to a point where I could function again. Ironically, I wasn't contagious with that illness.
I'm currently in work now with a mild cold. Again. I've only been free of one for about 2 weeks. It sucks, but if I had taken a day or two off for every cold I've had in the last 12 months I'd be facing disciplinary action!
Ah a fellow UK resident. Yes all of this and then some.0 -
euronorris wrote: »Oh yeah, DD is 2.5 years old. DH is a stay at home dad, so she doesn't go to nursery, but she does go to playgroup and swimming every week so she catches plenty of colds. Which means DH and I also catch plenty of colds. If we're lucky we don't get them at the same time, or one of us escapes getting ill altogether. Sadly for him, even if I am healthy and he is sick, he still has to soldier on at home and look after DD, cos I can't take a day off every time he is ill either (unless he's on death's door). I hate that. It sucks. But the only option for me there would be unpaid leave, which we can't afford.
I'm thinking I've been away from the MFP forums for too long because I cannot for the life of me figure out what these abbreviations mean...0 -
chunky_pinup wrote: »euronorris wrote: »Oh yeah, DD is 2.5 years old. DH is a stay at home dad, so she doesn't go to nursery, but she does go to playgroup and swimming every week so she catches plenty of colds. Which means DH and I also catch plenty of colds. If we're lucky we don't get them at the same time, or one of us escapes getting ill altogether. Sadly for him, even if I am healthy and he is sick, he still has to soldier on at home and look after DD, cos I can't take a day off every time he is ill either (unless he's on death's door). I hate that. It sucks. But the only option for me there would be unpaid leave, which we can't afford.
I'm thinking I've been away from the MFP forums for too long because I cannot for the life of me figure out what these abbreviations mean...
DH Dear Husband
DD Dear Daughter
DS Dear son0 -
AoifeFitzy wrote: »So, I run a small business.
What we do is pretty high-skilled work, and every one of my employees is essential to getting things done. And as a small business, barely out of start-up territory, balancing the books every month isn't an easy task. It's essential to the survival of the business that the people who work for me put in their hours so that we bring in the money to keep going.
When one of my employees is ill, I tell them to go-the-*kitten*-home. 90% of the time I'll tell them to go home immediately. The other 10% of the time, we've got something we really need to get out the gate- and then, I'll tell them to do the essential things and then go home. Stop working. Get some *kitten* sleep. Come back to me when they feel better and not a moment sooner.
I don't penalise my employees for taking the time they need. And behind the scenes? When I work on my financial projections, I always include the assumption that we'll lose a couple of days per month to illness or emergencies. Most of the time we don't lose those and- hey, excellent, more money in the bank for the biz.
I've a few reasons for this.
1. I work in a small business and as a human being I care for my coworkers' wellbeing! I know how hard they all work for this company and I want to be a person who appreciates and sees that, and returns the favour by working hard for them. One of the ways I can do this is to not encourage them to come into work sick.
but also:
2. I'd rather lose one employee for a day or two, than lose 2 or 3 employees for a week each. The first of those things is a roadbump I can account for. But if half my employees were out with the flu for a week each at the same time? That's going to be a major problem. The kind of problem where the boss (hello, me!) has to take a serious pay cut for the month to get the bills paid.
3. Most of us work from home though, so most of the time contagion isn't a risk. However... My people are highly skilled workers, and I want them to come to work with their brains sharp. If they show up to work sick? Even if they put in 100% effort, they're not giving me their best work. I'd rather have someone go home for a couple days and then come back feeling refreshed and able to do good quality work, than have them slog it out for the whole week getting more exhausted and run-down every day, and still not be doing the best work. When it comes to keeping our clients happy, I'd always rather give them the best product than something someone just-about managed to push through when half-delirious with the flu.
4. A happy employee is a productive employee. There are times when I need to ask my employees to go to extra lengths to get some work done. I want my employees to feel invested in the success of our business, so they've better morale and are happy and willing to give their all. And one way to contribute to that? Is to make sure they know that the company has their well-being at heart as well.
Like, honestly? Happy, healthy employees are employees who work harder. And employees who work harder are employees who are gonna bring in more profits to the company. It ain't rocket science!
Are you hiring?
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chunky_pinup wrote: »euronorris wrote: »Oh yeah, DD is 2.5 years old. DH is a stay at home dad, so she doesn't go to nursery, but she does go to playgroup and swimming every week so she catches plenty of colds. Which means DH and I also catch plenty of colds. If we're lucky we don't get them at the same time, or one of us escapes getting ill altogether. Sadly for him, even if I am healthy and he is sick, he still has to soldier on at home and look after DD, cos I can't take a day off every time he is ill either (unless he's on death's door). I hate that. It sucks. But the only option for me there would be unpaid leave, which we can't afford.
I'm thinking I've been away from the MFP forums for too long because I cannot for the life of me figure out what these abbreviations mean...
DH Dear Husband
DD Dear Daughter
DS Dear son
Ahhhhh....my brain went straight to bra sizes and I couldn't get past that lol. What are the abbreviations for family members if yours are far from being dear? My husband and child have not earned such an honor, lol.3 -
HeliumIsNoble wrote: »
I'm sure that's the case. However, as a former home-schooled kid who's all grown up now, I promise you that all you're doing is storing up illnesses for the future. My mother used to boast about my healthy immune system. Turned out I wasn't catching any bugs, because I wasn't being exposed to them. Ill kids don't go out to play or attend after-school activitiesOneRatGirl wrote: »For most viruses you're contagious for at least a day before, sometimes a few days, and for the first few days of the cold.
Schools (at least here in the UK but I've heard similar complaints from the US) complain if kids have too many days off. If you let your kids stay off every time they're contagious, you'll be getting visits from social services (CPS), possibly fines and even taken to court. We're teaching kids to not take days off from the age of 5 (or earlier).
And frankly I'm prone currently to catching every cold that goes around. If somebody is like that, they'll get fired if they're taking days off every other week.
This is one of the reasons why we ended up pulling our kids from the traditional school setting a few years ago and now do online schooling/homeschooling. My kids were constantly surrounded by sick kids and were getting sick all the time. Now they very rarely get sick (I can't even remember the last time one of them has gotten sick).
When I integrated into college/work/etc, where everyone has to turn up whether they're ill or not, I ended up catching about a cold a month at one point. After a couple of years, it calmed down, because I'd caught up on exposure. Then I had kids and they went to nursery and school. Holy hellfire. I was ill so much. Even got hand, foot and mouth virus.
Hmm, my cousin was home schooled until he was about a sophomore in High School and didn't start experiencing a lot of illnesses once he was exposed to a lot more kids.
FWIW, he grew up on a farm, so far from a sterile environment.4 -
chunky_pinup wrote: »chunky_pinup wrote: »euronorris wrote: »Oh yeah, DD is 2.5 years old. DH is a stay at home dad, so she doesn't go to nursery, but she does go to playgroup and swimming every week so she catches plenty of colds. Which means DH and I also catch plenty of colds. If we're lucky we don't get them at the same time, or one of us escapes getting ill altogether. Sadly for him, even if I am healthy and he is sick, he still has to soldier on at home and look after DD, cos I can't take a day off every time he is ill either (unless he's on death's door). I hate that. It sucks. But the only option for me there would be unpaid leave, which we can't afford.
I'm thinking I've been away from the MFP forums for too long because I cannot for the life of me figure out what these abbreviations mean...
DH Dear Husband
DD Dear Daughter
DS Dear son
Ahhhhh....my brain went straight to bra sizes and I couldn't get past that lol. What are the abbreviations for family members if yours are far from being dear? My husband and child have not earned such an honor, lol.
Dratted? Damned? Dillydallying?2 -
chunky_pinup wrote: »chunky_pinup wrote: »euronorris wrote: »Oh yeah, DD is 2.5 years old. DH is a stay at home dad, so she doesn't go to nursery, but she does go to playgroup and swimming every week so she catches plenty of colds. Which means DH and I also catch plenty of colds. If we're lucky we don't get them at the same time, or one of us escapes getting ill altogether. Sadly for him, even if I am healthy and he is sick, he still has to soldier on at home and look after DD, cos I can't take a day off every time he is ill either (unless he's on death's door). I hate that. It sucks. But the only option for me there would be unpaid leave, which we can't afford.
I'm thinking I've been away from the MFP forums for too long because I cannot for the life of me figure out what these abbreviations mean...
DH Dear Husband
DD Dear Daughter
DS Dear son
Ahhhhh....my brain went straight to bra sizes and I couldn't get past that lol. What are the abbreviations for family members if yours are far from being dear? My husband and child have not earned such an honor, lol.
Literally just choked on my coffee laughing
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I was the kid always being sent to school sick. We had limited number of sick days. I stayed home sometimes but my mom hated me missing school and would tell me to go if I wasn't on death's door and if I didn't feel better I could call home. I would never go to the office to call home even if I felt horrible because I would have to walk home or it seemed too much of a bother after I was there. Given the choice I would have stayed home much more but it was not my decision or option.
As an adult I have been pretty healthy... much healthier than others I know. I'm surprised by how often other people get sick sometimes because it is maybe once a year for my household to get sick and usually seem to get a mild form of whatever is going around. My better health is probably in large part due to being a SAHP and having a homeschooled kid although dh has always worked outside the home and is pretty social and never gets sick. When I am sick I usually don't have to go out and I would definitely not go somewhere unnecessary like the gym. I don't take extreme measures like using hand sanitizer every time I touch something, wiping down everything with bleach, wiping down store carts, not touching public toilets, avoiding people, demanding people wear masks or not breathe near me. I don't feel hostile towards someone for going to the store, job or school sick. I know often people don't have much choice. I just wash hands, try to get enough rest and take care of myself and my family.
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I was homeschooled and tend to get sick at the same rate or less than other people around me. I also seem to not get as sick, which could be genetics, or diet, or general health. We played outside a ton and did lots of social events at church and homeschool groups though. We weren't secluded. My kid's are homeschooled, they attend Mothers Day Out (the littles) and enrichment day school (K), as well as gym childcare. They aren't secluded either and we have the colds and stomach bugs to prove it.
My husband (who attended both public and private school growing up) gets sick a lot more than me. But he hardly eats any veg, no fruit, and doesn't even take a multivitamin. I try to eat a balanced diet, take a multivitamin, fish oil, and probiotics regularly.
We both had colds (I mentioned earlier) I was sick half as long, and I was never miserable. I can't remember being sick and being "miserable" except when pregnant. I have never had the flu. I don't tend to get "miserable" sick, I think it may just be my constitution because I was that way as a child too. My sister and I could get the same illness, she'd be lying around feverous eating chicken noodle soup, and I'd be annoyed because I wanted to play. Even with the chicken pox. DH tends to get like this every time he's sick. He can't do chores. He can't help with the kids. I used to think he was just playing it up but I honestly believe he's miserable. Not fair to me of course, now I have to do my work and his portion, while I'm sick. Not my fault I handle "sick" better than he does.0 -
Aaron_K123 wrote: »
Honestly there are professions where it isnt feasible for an employee to have a backup. Someone gave an example of a college professor who if they dont show up something like 200 people dont get the class they essentially paid $300 each for. They can't just replace them that day and that doesn't represent a "failure of management". Science is similar...you are specialized in your field and you can't just be replaced if you dont show.
I get you are talking from your own personal experience but honestly when you overgeneralize like you are doing...your going to be wrong. There are legitimate cases where the cost of coming in sick is less than the cost of not.
This is coming from someone who literally works in developing therapies for infectious diseases by the way so yeah I do care about illness and human suffering.
I worked at a university for two years (PhD studies) and professors are, and should be replaceable and definitely take sick days. I know there are 3-4 faculty members off on long term sick due to stress right now in that department (because my partner works there now) and their classes are being taught by others using their lecture materials and the occasional email. You can also just reschedule classes, send the class notes round to everyone, maybe see if they want an extra tutorial session when the staff member is back in. The world doesn't end and they are entitled to their leave.
I don't think there is any person in the world who is so valuable that people can't do without them for a day. The person who is going to cure cancer (or your chosen infectious disease) still deserves their days off when they're sick. You need workarounds and back up systems in place or management hasn't done their job properly. I know this isn't the case in a lot of places but rather than making my statement untrue I would say there are a lot of very badly managed companies around.
Okay so just to sum up here...you know faculty members taking multiple weeks off of work because of "stress" having other less experienced people take on their job (presumably then doing less of their own job) and that sounds good to you but if a person dares show up to work despite having a cold then that person is worthy of your hatred (your words).
See my issue here isnt that I think people dont deserve sick time...of course people deserve to be able to take sick time. My issue from the beginning was "hate" being applied to people who decide that their work is of sufficient value that they should come in despite being sick. You seem to assume that regardless of circumstances that is an act worthy of hatred. That is what I took issue with. trying to act like I dont think people deserve sick time is a deflection from what you actually said that I took issue with.
People who sneer at those who show up to do their job despite being sick arent being good people in that moment...that is not behavior I think we should promote.
Promoting sick leave for workers...sure, absolutely. Promoting vitriol at anyone who seems not to take advantage of that time....no.9 -
chunky_pinup wrote: »chunky_pinup wrote: »euronorris wrote: »Oh yeah, DD is 2.5 years old. DH is a stay at home dad, so she doesn't go to nursery, but she does go to playgroup and swimming every week so she catches plenty of colds. Which means DH and I also catch plenty of colds. If we're lucky we don't get them at the same time, or one of us escapes getting ill altogether. Sadly for him, even if I am healthy and he is sick, he still has to soldier on at home and look after DD, cos I can't take a day off every time he is ill either (unless he's on death's door). I hate that. It sucks. But the only option for me there would be unpaid leave, which we can't afford.
I'm thinking I've been away from the MFP forums for too long because I cannot for the life of me figure out what these abbreviations mean...
DH Dear Husband
DD Dear Daughter
DS Dear son
Ahhhhh....my brain went straight to bra sizes and I couldn't get past that lol. What are the abbreviations for family members if yours are far from being dear? My husband and child have not earned such an honor, lol.
I had a friend in IT at a middle school and referred to the kids as "Precious Treasures".
(She was using that ironically ) 1
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