My vacation days are capped, but my sick days are not. I'll take my sick days when I retire.
this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2024
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Surgical tech here. We have a couple boomer nurses (nurses... y'know... people who've taken microbiology and made it through nursing school... FUCK!) who think coming in to work when they're sick is some kind of display of godlike work ethic.
One of those fuckers came in with a stomach flu or some shit last fall, and proceeded to infect pretty much the entire department and who knows how many patients.
We had so many call-ins through the following week or so, that we literally had to cancel a TON of surgeries because we just didn't have the staff to do them.
Good job, Nurse Karen. You really are a rockstar for sucking it up and coming in even when you didn't feel good... all it cost was stabbing your entire team in the stomach, costing the hospital probably a few hundred thousand in lost revenue (then again, that shit should be free anyway, so, honestly fuck the hospital), and maybe killed a patient or two after coming to us when their body is already fucked to the point of needing to cut it open to fix something - yeah they don't have the same immune system we do.
Shit pisses me off. If you're sick, stay the fuck at home!
Covid taught me that a nurse’s education is wholly inadequate. I also think they may be becoming irrelevant with so many specialized techs.
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I'm a manager and it infuriates me when I hear someone bragging about not talking sick days and coming in when they aren't feeling well. Even before the pandemic that seemed pretty stupid and I argued against it. How anyone still thinks it's a good idea is beyond me. If you want or need to work, fine, do it from home. Don't come in and make other people have to deal with being sick.
It's especially stupid where I am because sick time is discretionary by manager, and there's no cap. So it's not like anyone is going to run out of it.
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Older coworker here (Xennial). I've always used all of my sick days. One job had a week you could carry over to the next year. I held that week if I didn't need it because next year I'd be making more money. Next job started with sick bank but stripped it away and lumped everything into one PTO bucket that they weren't legally bound to offer carryover from. Oddly enough, they started having trouble with attendance in November and December as people just took days off whenever. Oh well.
A long time ago at a startup, we had a generous vacation time that had no carry over limit. Most of us didn't take the full PTO allotment. The morons that the VC people wanted to change the policy to have carry over limits.
I'd send an email about this time every year to ask if they were going to limit carry over. Because I need to know when in October I have stop working for the year. Most of the founders had similar PTO accrued.
After about 3 years, they finally did it. I had to take 3 separate 4 week vacations in order to finish the year at my max carry over.
My father did similar his last year. He basically worked two days a week and took three days vacation for an entire year or so.
Older Millennial here and because I hang out at websites that Zoomers do, I've also started doing this. Y'all have had a major influence on the way I see life, the universe, and everything. I try to keep my sick, PTO, and UPT hours as close to 0 as I can. I call off several times a month and I've come into work late every single day for almost a year straight now.
If you're going to give me the time, I'm going to use it. Only thing I save up is vacation hours for a yearly trip to wherever.
In your boat and managed university students. Even millennials are dinosaurs and we all just need to get out of the way.
come into work late every single day
That part is questionable, but if you're just working 10a - 6p, it's fine. If you're making another person cover for you until 9:02, it's absolutely not fine.
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I worked really hard at my first year at a big company and didn't take any sick days. During my performance review, I scored 4/5 for attendance, even though I arrived early for every shift and did every overtime opportunity. When I asked my manager, she said it's policy not to hand out 5's because it sends the message that there's no room for improvement.
No one could tell me how I could improve my attendance.
Absolutely rage inducing. Care to name and shame the big company?
This is pretty typical and not related to one specific company.
Naw, it wasn't a bad experience overall, once I fell into the habit of mixing sick days with vacation days.
They had some exploitable policies, doctors notes for 3+ sick days in a row but no questions asked about 1-2 days, vacation days with 2 weeks notice one day at a time with no right of refusal if there's proper coverage.
This meant you could book Wednesday to Friday off two weeks in a row, and call in sick Monday/Tuesday two weeks in a row, giving you 10 days off for the cost of 4 sick/ 6 vacay. Other exploitable shenanigans were possible around Stat holidays.
The front line managers knew what the situation was, but HR never got wind unless something tripped the system,so if everyone works together on their sick days it was pretty good.
Okay well then you don't have to shame it; just name it.
I'm 50. I've never had 10 days off in a row. I tried to plan two weeks last year and left but had to come back early.
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Between the younger generation and COVID redefining the acceptability of coming to work sick, the workplace does look a lot better.
Company has no loyalty at all to the employee. I could let go every day that I go to work. It's not a question of if, but when I will be let go. So, as a consequence, I must ask myself the question: After quitting the game, will I regret sacrificing my health for yet another company?