Even when sick, workers slog into work

[n2doc]

Many will not call in because they lack of paid sick leave, while others say they worry about losing their jobs

By Bonnie Miller Rubin
Tribune reporter
December 14, 2009

or Veronica Mendoza, the message delivered by memo last month came across loud and clear: If you're sick, stay home.

So, when the 48-year-old food service worker recently came down with a runny nose, itchy eyes and other flulike symptoms, she wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed. But with no paid sick leave, she opted to punch the clock instead.

"I pretty much have to be at death's door before I'll call in sick," said Mendoza, a cafeteria worker for a company that contracts with schools in the Chicago area. "I try to be careful ... to cover my mouth and use hand sanitizer. But the kids look at me as if to say, 'Why are you even here?' "

Despite nationwide concern over the H1N1 virus and a barrage of announcements from public health officials imploring Americans to call in sick, many employees continue to drag themselves into the workplace, powered by Tylenol, lozenges and fistfuls of tissues.

The reasons for such fortitude can range from economic -- as with Mendoza -- to suspicions that the message is merely lip service. Pandemic or not, many staffers say, it's better to show up wheezing and sneezing than be perceived as a slacker, especially when jobs are scarce.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/chi-sick-at-work-14-dec14,0,7721701.story

[Craftsman]

1. I have sick time but can't use it

I am the only one in my company that does my job, even if I take time off I still get calls from others asking questions.

[Brickbat]

2. Part of the reason people do this, I think, is that when there's a big public push for people to

stay home when they're sick, there is little to no public push on employers to be more generous and understanding when it comes to granting sick leave. It's just bullshit.

[endless october]

3. sick food service workers?

that should be illegal. shit, you can get a violation for mishandling the ice scoop. no way someone with H1N1 should be making sandwiches.

[closeupready]

4. Easy for the millionaires in our government to exhort citizens, single parents, with three kids to

feed and diaper, to stay home and take as much needed unpaid sick time as necessary before returning to their jobs, if they still have them when they get better.

[RadiationTherapy]

5. Even fellow employees look at you skeptically when one begins to show symptoms at work.

God forbid you are sick on 'friday' or whatever day comes before a couple of days off. Our work ethic in this country is an undiagnosed mental illness. We think that everyone is trying to get one up on us, which, in a capitalist society, is the truth.

Paid sick time means someone is getting paid for doing nothing; that is anathema to our cultural paradigm.

[abelenkpe]

6. I have pto

but must save the days I use for days my kids are sick and need me to take them to the doctors or stay home with them. We have no family or anyone to babysit (and who would want to babysit sick kids anyway) so sick days are saved for sick kids.

The irony is no one at work wants to be around someone who has a cold, but they also don't want you to miss any days.

[HelenWheels]

7. No replacement

I was a nurse and worked in the correctional system. Often I was the only one scheduled to work so if I called in sick there would be no one there. All the sick leave I used was scheduled (surgery). I never called in sick for over 20 years. I did have to be driven home once with a migraine headache but my boss was there to cover. I did call a replacement when my mom died so I could go home.

[TheWraith]

8. We need fucking mandatory paid sick leave in this country.

More than that, we need bloody, merciless punishments that would make Torquemada blanch for companies that fire people because they called in sick. Let's start with mandatory rehiring and a fine of $1 million dollars for the first offense.

[fascisthunter]

9. Germans have a much better system when it comes to sick time

they do not mess around. You are sick, you stay home and you get paid. Oh and the amount of sick time you get is miles apart from the little our employers give us here in the US.

[TxRider]

10. I've been that way for 34 years of my working life.

Why should I change now?

[RadiationTherapy]

11. Because when we look beyond our own experiences, we learn that we are all more healthy

It is similar to climate change; we need a bigger picture

[intheflow]

12. I've missed a week at work at my two jobs from the flu, 1/4 of my monthly income gone.

And now my boss at one says he wants to close for the holidays, which is another week unpaid for me. I don't know how I'm even going to make rent in January. So I'm back at work today, even though I'm still really pretty sick and ought to be home in bed. :(

[Manifestor_of_Light]

13. Yeah and when they want a doctor's note...

Back when I was a normal menstruating woman, I had severe disabling cramps for two to four days, thirteen times a year. That's 26 to 52 days a year I had no business working.

I would go to work barely able to walk and practically crying while taking lots of ibuprofen. It still did not do anything for the extreme fatigue that went along with the cramps.

They did not come out with NSAIDS until about 1981. Before that I would take codeine and valium together and it would do NOTHING for the pain.

So if they want a doctor's note, what do i do? Go to the doctor, say "I'm menstruating" and pull my pants down and show em a damned stinky pad to prove it??? Why do I need a doctor's note for a normal physiological function that all women go through? Why? It was definitely a recurring disability but I bet no court ruling under the ADA would say it is.

I think we need menstrual huts where women can go be sick and rest for a few days instead of having to deal with the world.

:wtf:

When I was having a custody fight with my ex, his lawyer decided to grill me for two hours in a deposition, about why I did not have a job, since I was supposed to be paying child support.
We went into great detail about my cramps, including looking through my personal day book and telling him the days I was too sick to work. I told him that I knew of no job where you got 1 day off every week, throughout the year.

Eventually my female lawyer started yelling at him about it.

It was the most humiliating experience I believe I have ever been through.


I've been through menopause and don't have to deal with all that crap anymore.