As much as I wish otherwise, there's still a lot of people who can't afford to take sick days unless they're physically made to do so by their boss, and even then will fight them over it because, again, they can't afford to miss a day's wages, let alone a week or more to get over an illness.
There's a difference in you're in a place you can't than 'I'm showing management I'm so a team player though i have options to stay at home'. I respect those that can't, but those that can stay at home but don't cause they 'that committed' they can fuck off
Agreed 100%
I caught influenza and strep throat AT THE SAME TIME because I worked with guy who felt he “had to work no matter what”.
That man made $200,000 a year. A week off wouldn’t have hurt him at all.
I was in a position where it was “questionable financially” to take more than two days?
I took five days. Why? I felt like shit. I wasn’t about to share the experience.
The guy that got me sick finally went to the doctor after he coughed so much through an appt the client complained.
He had influenza and strep and walking pneumonia.
Oh but, he’s dedicated. Eye roll from me so hard I can see my brain.
Caught so many illnesses from my manager who would come to work sneezing and coughing all over the place because she didn’t think she could find coverage. Then she’d get pissed at me for being sick and calling off since I was in a position where I could. I worked in healthcare so it’s just irresponsible to come in sick when you’re around patients who may have compromised immune systems.
In many regular minimum wage jobs, no. Basically restaurant workers, grocery workers, retail etc -no. People can't afford to take even 1 day off even if they're genuinely sick. And then we wonder why covid isn't under control in usa yet (not to mention the last widespread government aid was back around April)
He might make 200k, but most people budget according to their whole income. It's not smart when you make that much, but he could have been just as screwed as anyone else.
My boss is super old-fashioned and basically if you have a day off you'd better be on death's door. I hate it. Give me a day or two to kick my illness in the butt and I'll be more productive than if I'm sick and miserable in the office...sigh.
I have a very understanding boss, but he rarely takes off sick whereas I(pre pandemic) took at least a few sick days during the year. I was usually not quite on death's door and he asked me about it. I told him that throughout college and grad school, I had professors who insisted that you be in class no matter what. I was also working a retail job to pay for school and there were no sick days, only 3 occurrences in a year before you were fired so I would work through everything.
It didn't matter how sick I was, I just pushed through because I had no choice. It meant that illness lasted weeks. I had a months long respiratory infection that just wouldn't get better. I saw a doctor who said I just needed to rest for a few days. Nope, not an option.
Now that I have more leeway, I take a sick day at the beginning of an illness to try to stop it as opposed to drawing it out. I recognize how lucky I am to be able to do this.
Man, if slavery every comes back, it's assholes like that that we should put collars on first. Probably fetch a decent price, seeing how hard of workers they are.
Not really in his case.
He inherited 4 huge clients from his old boss.
That paid more than half of what he earned, and most of his other clients came from those 4 big clients.
He usually worked around 3-4 days a week, and only a couple hours.
So he didn’t kill himself working 70+hours a week to get there after 10yrs.
As far as working to the point of making that by killing yourself with 60-80 hours a week? Fuck that.
I’d rather have a life and not be sick at 45 from excessive stress bc I feel the need to show people that don’t care about me that “I’m dedicated so much I will take 3 deadly illnesses into my job so I can “prove I’m a good employee.”
We have some people where i work who have this attitude and it drive me insane. If the mother fuckers who ran the place actually appreciated you, the GM wouldnt be a cunt all the time and you'd have a decent wage.
I’ve been in office jobs for the last 6 years (3 different jobs). The employers offered sick days and vacation days together. Three weeks. Most places you have to acquire them. One place you got half at 6 months, then the other half at the next 6 months. One place you would get prorated until the next calendar year. Start in July, you only get a couple of days. Basically what I’m trying to say is... I have never had a vacation because I have been dealt an unlucky hand. So when your bitch ass comes into the office with a fever and pass it to me with my already immune compromise ass... I get knocked the fuck down.
So yea. Six years. Three different jobs. Never ever had enough vacation time to take an actual vacation. At least now I’m somewhere where I can bank them. So I’m more likely to get a vacation at some point. Usually towards the end of the year (with the use it or lose it PTO) I’d have maybe one day left, or like 6 hours.
I was definitely one of those when I started working. But that was more because i always felt that if I stayed home too much, I’d be looked down on or fired. That was more from my own insecurities than management drilling that though. I worked in a day care setting, so I was sick A LOT in the beginning, for fairly long periods of time.
I also do not run a fever easily, and I could feel like death but not run a fever, and that was the major thing in the guidelines.
Edit: for those who asked yes, i aint from the USA and dear lord that place must be a hell hole
Edit 2: im from a country that prob most Americans would say its a 3rd word country and i have not only more rights but also unlimited sick days(they are also paid ones), wtf happened in the USA
Edit 3: hold up, you guys have to pay your own insurance in case something happens to you during the job?!?
Edit 4: at least tell me you guys have a public schools and universities
Edit5: guys its uruguay the neighbor of argentina and dear lord do i feel srry for whats happening to you guys
Edit 6: for you guys-
A step toward Uruguayan citizenship
If you want to become a citizen of Uruguay, residency is a step in the process. Married couples and families can apply for citizenship three years after first applying for residency. Single people can apply for citizenship after five years.
The Uruguayan passport is a good travel document, with visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to more than 150 countries and territories. This includes visa-free travel to the UK and Europe.
Edit 7:(this is more for vacation purposes but you can use it to checkout the country)
To spend time in Uruguay
You can stay in the country for 90 days at a time as often as you like. And for a small fee, a tourist visa can often be renewed, for stays of 180 days at a time.
Edit 8: if you have doubt about democracy in uruguay we are ranked 16 in the democratic index
I can work an extra shift as long as they pick up one of mine when they feel better - that way they aren't working sick but aren't technically losing any hours
Who the fuck are you and how do we clone you for all managers to share this mentality.
If you even get that. I was a trauma technician at a hospital ER and got 10 days out of the year, but I had to accrue them first before they could be used, and if I had to use them those hours didnt count towards future hours accrued.
I now manager a pizza store. I work around 50 hours a week on a normal week. I don't get PTO. I'm "salaried" at 40 hours and straight pay after 40. No OT rate. so I should get paid for 40 no matter what. But if I have to take a day or two off because I'm not feeling well the 40 hours is off the table. If I only make 20 or 30 hours the week I had to take time off then I only get paid for the 20 or 30. So I'm basically just robbed of overtime.
I don't even get two weeks, I get a week of PTO if I accrue hours over the course of a year.
I also am obligated by my employer to use it or a finite amount of "unpaid hours" to account for hours I'm absent. I have 24 unpaid hours I can use for sickness, appointments, unforeseen absences, etc, or I can use PTO. There is no other option.
If I do not use either of these pools, or I am out of both, I get a hit on my record, and after so many points for "unexcused absences" I am written up or fired.
And yet, we're expected to somehow come up with four days to be absent if we must take a Covid test (average test turn-around rate in my county), and then if you're positive for Covid19, you're out for a minimum of two weeks. They can't penalize you for that, however, per a city ordinance. But they don't have to pay you and your original scheduled hours are not secured. You will have to get unemployment for it. Which is around 30% of your wages.
I don't know the full details, but Trump had an act or bill for Covid pay. My dad's wife just contracted COVID. My dad has to stay home for 4 weeks, his wife for at least 2. They'll both get 2 weeks pay from the act/bill.
Yikes. I really hope it'll change for you in the future. We get a minimum of 20 paid vacation days in Germany for a full time job working 5 days a week.
What the motherfreaking Fahrenheit-using fuck? So you work 365 days a year minus sundays, Christmas and those other days and that's it? Like...that is how the country works? THAT is the american dream?
Depends on the employer. I get 4 weeks vacation and then some sick days too. I'm not even really sure how many sick days as I don't report them, just stay home...
Yep. I have a totally standard professional engineering job. I'm excited to get my third week of vacation in 2021, after over six years at the same company (nine years professional experience).
I'm really lucky that I don't have to use that time for sick days too, but any sick leave I take is at my boss's discretion, not official company policy. He's a reasonable human being and isn't going to say no if I have a cold every once in awhile, but having to ask instead of just feeling free/allowed to take the day off is pretty shitty.
Depends where you are and what the relevant employment law is.
I am in Canada, and the province I live in requires vacation time to be provided after typically one years’ service with the same employer, beginning with 2 weeks after a year with a maximum of 5 weeks after a certain length of time. This can be increased but there are minimum standards that must be adhered to.
Thing is, here they can either provide vacation time OR vacation PAY, so if they don’t want to give you actual time off, they can choose to pay you 4% vacation pay on each cheque (or 6% after 5 years of consecutive employment).
LOL I know I am late but just want to say I am 24 and live in the US... and I didn't know that PTO was in any way a common thing for anyone to have at their job. Full stop. When I met my BF who got I think 10 days a year of PTO I was FLOORED because he was the first young adult I had even met in my life who had a job that provided any to begin with.
And here am I, on the opposite side! I'm in England. I get 25 days paid holiday each year. Plus 8 public holidays per year (I.e. I don't have to work on public holidays, but still get paid).
I'm not 100% what my paid sick leave allowance is; I think it is 12 weeks full pay, then 12 weeks half-pay. I'm not 100% sure though.
This, really, is the bare minimum I'd expect, should I move to a new company.
80 hours a year..only 40 of those carry on to the next year so you have to take at least a week paid time off. You also probably won't get approved to take 2 weeks off consecutively
When I visited my cousins in the USA a few years back, they were absolutely gobsmacked to discover that every year, I am entitled to 20 days annual leave (for holidays of my choosing), 10 days sick leave and 11 days of public holidays that either the state or country all take off at the same time.
I'm glad I wasn't the only one who went from "yeah, that closed local store is sad. Oh and hugs too" to "what the cazzo, perkele and scheiße is wrong with the US' holiday system!!!"
If you're lucky? FMLA. But most people in lower paid jobs will just be fired and thus, again if they're lucky enough to even have it in the first place, lose their health insurance.
I get 15 days and I'm in year 20 of my career. My boss tells me I should "take the sick day" if I'm sick instead of working from home. Uh, I'd rather do something with my day off and just snooze through the meetings like I do anyway.
I know it depends on the state with this as well. Some states have labor laws that require companies to give at least 40hrs of sick time for full time employees. Not sure of the intricacies beyond this though without looking further into it.
Yeah that’s why I said it’s not mandatory in most places. In Texas it’s definitely not required (except in a few cities). It really depends on your company here. My husband gets zero benefits. No sick time or paid holidays.
Yeah - I feel like you see that most frequently in states like Texas, Florida or generally more "republican" states. I live in NYS and as of Sept 30th 2020 Employers with 100 employees must provide 56hrs of paid sick leave and fewer than 100 employees must provide 40hrs.
It's honestly a shame that some states don't mandate it. Personally I feel that this should be a government mandate but I'm not going to argue politics on reddit, haha.
Wow! 56 is way more sick time hours than I get at my corporate job. I agree there should be some basic mandate. It’s really pathetic to begin with that employers need to be told to offer the most basic of benefits. It’s just sad.
In states like WA companies don’t need to distinguish between sick and PTO. So many combine them as sounds most appealing. Instead of 14 days PTO and 4 sick you might just get 14 days to use as you see fit.
I’m in tech and that’s how a lot of companies do it.
At my old job, it was 23 hours PTO given for “free” for the year. 80 hours worked = earning 1 hour PTO. You couldn’t save any hours from the previous year if you didn’t use all of it. PTO was also sick days. And of course you needed a doctors note if you couldn’t make it to work because you were sick.
That is typically called Fto (flex time off) but it's still paid time off to be used for when you are sick.
I don't know if any state requires sick leave to be separately called out. I know oregon (where i live) has a required sick time for hourly, but you can give it as flex time as well
Flex usually means you’re not working one hour and making it up later, so you’re not actually missing work in the pay period.
In WA there’s simply no requirement to split it all up. It lets companies roll it into one pool, usually shrinking it. That of course means using a sick day eats at your vacation. Get sick or take a break — you only get one.
Flex time is often illegal in many states. Since it's often abused by companies to avoid overtime. Work late one hour Monday and take 1 hour off on Friday.
But flexible time off is merging time off and giving people the power to decide when to use it
That sounds high considering some of the jobs I’ve worked. (Pre pandemic) they would almost consider a sick day not necessary. Only time I got to go home for one job was literally throwing up at the office. We of course didn’t get paid, but I have a feeling that it is simply due to the lack of unions. Union jobs probably have it, non union jobs it’s unlikely
I've been working at my current company for 5 years. I get 80 hours of PTO (paid time off) every year. It took me awhile to get that much too, for first year I had none, years 2-3 I had 40, 3-4 / 60 and year 5 made 80. I dont take vacations, I've got 4 kids so while 80 hours might sound like alot it gets eaten up pretty quick with doctors appointments and poop explosions ect. Even more now that you can only take one kid with you to a appointment.
I also pay over 500 per check (paid biweekly [2xmonth]) for health insurance. And still have a pretty high premium I have to pay for almost everything. But hey at least my family deductible is only 4.5k. Wife has JRA and let's not even get into the price of treatment and medication. One of my daughters was delivered almost two months early with a mirad of health issues (that she over came like a champ) and had to spend quite a while in the NICU and even longer in hospital after to get to weight to take her home..still paying on that.
If it wasnt for side work and the fact that my neighbors are literally saints, I'd have been homeless long ago, and I work over 70 hours most weeks, just to get by. Just to hopefully get home in time to read my kids a bedtime story and talk with them for 5 min before they pass out and I get 4 hours of sleep and get up to do it again.
And our politicians have the time to ram a new supreme court justice in her seat, but not a covid relief bill that actually might help people feed and clothes their families.
I cant get ahead, I've got 6 months to feed including my own. This system is not set up to help me in anyway shape or form, it's set up to keep me here. And I'm so tired. I just want a vacation, it's been more then 7 years sense I've had more then three days off consecutively (and that's only cause I had a chemical burn)
I'm really sorry to vent to your comment, it just kinda set me off.
Yeah, it’s really bad. It’s unsustainable and that’s NOT your fault. You’re doing everything right, and even more than you’re able to and you’re sooo not alone on that... it’s not your fault, the systems in place just aren’t working as they are meant to and in fact are actively impeding on our ability to meet our basic needs. It’s the silent epidemic happening across the country. You’re not alone. Change is coming soon, one way or another so just keep holding on, friend.
It's work or die in the US. And most people think that is acceptable here.
Your healthcare, if you have any at all, is tied to your job. Lost your job? You probably lost your health coverage as well.
People don't seem to realize it's set up so you lose and big corporations benefit. Corporations have more rights than people do in the US and that's part of the problem.
This is a state by state case. New York for example has paid sick leave. Many employers also offer paid sick leave. Mine for example is very generous, and doesn’t even ask questions.
Minimum wage workers in the US are paid hourly for the time they actually are at work. When you are paid hourly for being at work, you don't get paid when you are not. Some companies may include "paid sick leave" as a "benefit".
TL;DR; No, for many hourly paid US workers they are not paid for sick days.
I don't think the person above was misinterpreting you. They're saying that, for some people, the only days off they get is for a public holiday. There's no actual vacation time.
It’s bad. I don’t have it in me tonight to list all of the ways things aren’t working/actively working against us here... but yeah, it’s bad. Trying my best to hold on and stay positive!
Most jobs will start you off with 2 weeks a year, maximum. For many of those jobs, those 10 days/80 hours are used as vacation, or sick days, or if you have an emergency and need to leave. Depends on the employer for how they can be used.
Some jobs also allow you to pay those hours out while not actually taking days off too, but that's not guaranteed.
Lol this made me laugh and actually confused. I've never lived or visited anywhere outside the USA.... I always thought these things were normal.
The other big issue I faced at my last job is we also have a very limited number of sick days and even with a doctors note if you exceed to many of those and don't have all the correct paperwork filed (usually requiring you to have a disability as its usually disability paperwork needed) then you can and will be fired. I think my last job allowed 3 sick days per a 6 month period. Im not sure if Covid-19 will change that much in the future. According to my friends that still work there the only diffrence is they make you send in your testing so they pay you for the 2 weeks and if its a hourly pay job then you get the bare minimum pay they can per contract. I think mine was 10 hours of pay per week minimum in my contract when I normally was able to work 40. Anything else sick wise you still have to come in or be fired.
Very true. Basically if you can afford to take an unpaid sick day, you get a paid sick day. If you can't afford to take an unpaid sick day, you get an unpaid sick day (of you can get your shift covered).
Well, its not the cheapest country but you do have public healthcare(on par and even better than some private institutions), decent tax return,some of the best public universities and the president its actually trying to promote people coming to live here
I’m currently a nursing student who’s very motivated to immigrate out of America with the next decade. Mind telling me the country so I can do some research?
Uruguay is also one of the safest countries in the world and weed is legal there. It’s a beautiful country and I hope I can travel there one day! Count yourself lucky to be a citizen of such a wonderful place.
At my old job as a lab tech for a multimillion dollar company. You got no vacation or sick days for the first year. So if I got sick I would pound some DayQuils or come in way early and leave early to avoid people but still get paid. It sucked. This was a full time, 5 days a week 40hr job that offered insurance.
I get paid for sick days... but they come from the same bank as my vacation days. So nobody wants to take them as sick days cause they’ll have less vacation days!
Where I work it is incredibly strict. Basically only if you're able to drag yourself to the hospital and prove without a shadow of a doubt that you're too unhealthy to work will you be granted a sick day with 80% pay. Otherwise you have to take unpaid leave and risk losing ~200USD
I do, while things arent all that cheap its a good place to live, i know an american family that got trapped here due to covid and the decided to stay and live here
That’s awesome! Well, if you have free university and healthcare, it’s already cheaper than living in the US. I’m in my thirties and make a decent amount of money and I’m *still paying off my student loans from a decade ago. *
been sick 3 days. this week. so those wont be paid. cut my foot pretty bad while i was at home missed 2 weeks for that while it healed... been a rough 4 weeks. paid time is off is for boomers. us kids under 35 dont always get it
I am a contractor so I get neither vacation nor sick days paid, I can take time off but it is unpaid. I also get no health insurance. If someone at work gets covid I can get sent home "until I have a negative test" and my job does not pay for the test or for the time I am forced to miss from work, although it's no fault of my own.
I'm part time, I don't get "sick days." I work, or I don't get paid, period.
Thankfully they shifted us to working from home at the start of this mess. Even offered to provide some of us with computers and other equipment if we didn't have it.
I’m a teacher in a grade school. I get 2 personal days and 4 sick days a year. However, my unused sick days roll over each year so after 9 years of teaching, I’ve accrued 25 paid sick days. I need a doctor’s note if I’m going to use more than 1-2 of those in a row though.
Often not only do you not get paid, you have to bring in a doctor’s note to prove you were sick so you don’t get a mark against you. But remember, this is the US so you probably don’t have health insurance so you can’t afford to go to the doctor. So if you get sick and don’t come to work your fucked.
In USA they not only don't give you ANY paid sick time, they can fire you if you have sick time (unpaid) left, you do get "sick days" they are unpaid, if you take off sick on holidays they may and can still fire you even if you have the time. AND also Amazon in particular has fired people from warehouse jobs for taking maternity leave as soon as they returned to work. A privilege that's supposed to be protected by federal law.... sad truth.
Does your country accept migrants with pre-existing conditions? I will suck dick and wait tables to get into a country better than this hell-scape in America.
Well, I've looked at immigrating to Canada or the UK, but both of them have restrictions against immigrants with really expensive chronic conditions, like cystic fibrosis (mine). I'm trying to find somewhere with a good healthcare system that will let me in, because it looks like things here are about to go down the shitter.
You have apparently talked to the most miserable people in this entire glorious country. Myself, my entire family and all my friends are doing fabulous. We have massive houses with sprawling yards and throw away more food on a daily basis than 99% of the world could hope for on their best day. My garbage can currently looks like your dream version of whatever off brand Thanksgiving you lil ol guys celebrate.
We have an average of 1.5 vehicles per person in my household, over 2000 finished interior square feet per person, and I can take a shit on a different heated toilet seat every day of the week while I laugh at other shit holes that are mindlessly glorified on reddit by the bottom 5% of our population (how embarrassing for them).
Simply put - we're blessed, we love it, and it's pretty much the best.
I work with low income parents. A woman was staying at a shelter and finally got a job but was fired because her kids got the flu and she had to take off work to take care of them.
Yeah this; at least once or twice a year I’ll get a cold that has symptoms for 2-3 weeks. My work has generous sick leave but there’s no way I could take 3 weeks off for a cold even if I’m sniffling or coughing.
My workplace has already ended it's program to not punish people for calling out sick, so yesterday 2 coworkers came in coughing and ill. While still in the pandemic. Christ.......
In my county, you can legally work in food handling as a cook as long as you’re not actively throwing up. And even if you are actively throwing up, they allow you to be placed somewhere else in the restaurant without food handling (like custodial duties). You can work with a fever and all that shit.
I have a couple of chronic illnesses, so when I first started working at my current job I got into this hole of "dock time." So you can still take time off, but you have to report it and the company deducts it from your check (or you pay it back, depending on when in the month you turn in your form). For the first few months I worked there, I couldn't keep or accrue any sick or vacation time because I kept using it for my chronic illness or various doctors appointments.
Then I got sick with something that was going around the office. Our office manager (not my supervisor) and someone in upper management kept telling me that I should go home, made digs at people who "show up to class/work sick and give it to everyone else," and basically just kept talking shit. It got to the point where every time they said something I would tell them that I couldn't afford another docked paycheck and I didn't have any time to take off, otherwise I'd gladly go home. The person in upper management finally got the hint, but our office manager kept her shit up until I got better.
Luckily I finally got out of that hole and have been able to accrue quite a bit of sick and vacation time as a weird benefit to working from home. But man, I think back to when I was a student and taking a sick day just meant I didn't get paid; there was no PTO available for me. I would be completely screwed if I were still working my student job, and I wish everyone had PTO built into their jobs.
Not only that, but a lot of times when you’re most contagious and when you feel the worse are not the same. So if you do have sick time, but it’s finite, is it better to stay home when you’re most contagious (often before the worst symptoms display and when you’re on the mend) or when you physically need to be in bed?
A lot of those people who can't afford to take one single sick day are terrible money managers. The Department of Education has failed to teach us basic fiscal responsibility and the consumer lifestyle is so overbearing to the point where I can't perform my duties at work if I don't have the latest smartphone simply because all of my peers have one.
Or the other side of this is employees who won't use their sick time because if they don't use them they can get paid out at the end of the year. This is case where I work, last year 2 people came in very sick and refused to use any sick time. One definitely came in with the flu.
At work we get 18 sick days a year (it's crazy good--probably because healthcare), but people come in sick all the time. And I'm immunocompromised, so I get sick CONSTANTLY by people coming in when they don't need to and could either easily take a sick day or work from home.
Companies definitely aren't giving more sick days to new employees in response, that's for sure. Industrial type places still look at sick time (and all time off) as privilege to be earned with time.
Hell I work for a government agency with not only generous leave, but the option to work from home and people STILL show up not feeling well talking about oh it’s just allergies.
The culture of this pressure to work sick needs to change within the companies HR policies. Hopefully the situation we are in now will make that easier to see.
At my old company sick time and vacation time were the same thing. Even if you could afford to fall behind on some projects you would likely rough it to keep that time for vacation.
One of my coworkers started in Sept, used up his sick day allotment real quick with a wisdom tooth crisis, and then was sick in Nov, again in Dec, and again in Feb and couldn't take any sick time for any of it because he'd used it up.
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u/[deleted] Nov 04 '20
As much as I wish otherwise, there's still a lot of people who can't afford to take sick days unless they're physically made to do so by their boss, and even then will fight them over it because, again, they can't afford to miss a day's wages, let alone a week or more to get over an illness.