Can't Miss Work Even if You Have the Flu?

[Teamster Jeff]

>>>
Chances are everyone around you is sick. Not a pleasant thought, but recent reports show the flu season is one of the worst we've seen in a decade.

While many experts and doctors urge people to stay at home to avoid infecting others, 38% of private-sector workers lack even one paid sick day. This means, many people have to choose between working sick and not being able to pay their rent and utilities. That's a pretty big problem. To make matters worse, many of the workers who don't have paid sick leave are the people cooking and serving our food when we eat out.
>>>

http://www.aflcio.org/Blog/Political-Action-Legislation/Can-t-Miss-Work-Even-if-You-Have-the-Flu-You-re-Not-Alone#.UPBG_p4oIGU.twitter

[orpupilofnature57]

1. Another place where $$$$$$$$$ = Misery .

[Brickbat]

2. Instead of the CDC (or in the past few years, the administration itself) telling workers to stay

home, they should be telling employers to overhaul their leave policies so people can stay home and not get others sick.

But that might dial the profit-making machine down a notch for a month or two, and God knows we can't have that.

[pasto76]

6. go back one step further

everyone should be using simple, practices to avoid becoming infected or spreading the virus. you're a blue collar guy, you KNOW how filthy some guys are at work. In my trade we dont even have a place to eat, we sit on buckets, wherever, and eat.

It should be social practice, and company policies to not allow sick workers on the job. One schmuck can infect the whole workforce, screwing up everything. Sound too "company man"? bullshit. One slob can fuck up my full week's pay. I actually practice hygiene and sanitation so I can pay my bills. This is one of those instances where one lazy person can really affect many people.

Thankfully, my foreman runs you off for the day if you have flu symptoms. Physiologically speaking as well, you simply can not clear an infection without adequate rest sleep and hydration. Not something ironworkers get while on the job.

[hay rick]

3. Even with paid sick leave, many workers come in sick.

Many workers, especially women, use up their sick leave by staying home when their kids are sick. They run out of sick days and come to work when they are sick themselves.

[CrispyQ]

8. State provided child care would go a long way to making families more secure.

I have no idea how much it costs to send a child to daycare. My neighbors across the street are brand new parents. She goes back to work in two weeks - she only had six weeks off! Her baby is going to daycare. My understanding is that infant care is even more expensive.

Government should help the citizens. I believe these things should be provided for all citizens at no cost:

Three hots & a cot
Healthcare
Child/elder care
Education

And no more for-profit prisons.

I saw a documentary on Denmark a few years ago. It had been recently voted as 'happiest country.' Yes their taxes were high, but the benefits they got in return were incredible! I wish more right-wingers would give Michael Moore's movie "Sicko" a chance. It was eye-opening how poor our health system is compared to other western countries. When you realize that the people in his movie are ones WITH health insurance, it's a stunning revelation of our perverted priorities.

[valerief]

4. Well, this is America, after all, not some first world country. Can't expect

insanely rich people to lose a penny.

[wildeyed]

5. Just finsihed Kitchen Confidential, a memoir by a chef.

He insists his employees work sick. I was pretty horrified. Like I really want your line cook coughing up a lung all over my linguine because you are too stressed or cheap to find a sub

[pasto76]

7. this isnt corporate conspiracy; this is american tough guy bullshit

mixed with a dash of attention whoring.

any 18 year old good ole boy will tell you that you 'work until you cant' which means diarrhea or vomiting. Kids that havent even been exposed to corporate overlord type jobs. Its in our american culture. "I aint no pussy". guys love to come to work - which is a primary social outlet for a lot of people - and share their misery. Figuratively and literally.

[intheflow]

9. I had a doctor at a Walgreens wellness clinic tell me once

Last edited Tue Jan 22, 2013, 01:02 AM - Edit history (1)

that people who went to work sick were too ignorant about public health risks. I told her that they couldn't afford the clinic visit and also the loss of wages from taking time off to go to the doctor. She looked skeptical until I told her that her $100 clinic visit was a whole day's pay for me, plus I didn't have paid sick leave - which is why I waited until I was on death's door before going to see her.

[tavalon]

11. There is some ignorance displayed in your story

But it's the doctor's. I'm glad you took the time, while sick, to educate her.

I am a nurse and appalled at my hospital's sick policy - I call it the "on the one hand" policy. On the one hand, Employee health implores us to stay home sick when we are sick, on the other hand, we get written up for more than 3 absences in 6 months, on the third hand (yes, administration is that weird) we have combined PTO, so nurses who want some sort of vacation are tempted to go to work sick to save their vacation.

Fucked up. Yes.

[intheflow]

13. I also work with PTO.

And never seem to get sick on my 4-hour work days, only my 8-hr shifts. My one child and grandchild live 1500 miles away. It's always very tempting to work at least a partial day to save some of that precious vacation time, no matter how much I'm coughing and sniffling.

[prole_for_peace]

10. My office gets 4 weeks of personal-time-off each year and people STILL come to work sick

and is pisses me off. I'm one of those people that catches everything and when some asshole (who I KNOW has many days of leave available) comes to work sick I make a point of spraying Lysol all over my office every few minutes. The main people who do this think that they are so important the place can't go on with out them.

My boss is the worse. He comes in with colds, the flu, pink eye and everything in between and he has the horrible habit of licking his fingers when he goes through papers and then he hands those toxic pieces of wood pulp to someone else and it grosses me out.

[tavalon]

12. I'm not sure how much I get because when our census is down,

we all end up getting mandatory low census, which we can take unpaid (sure, I don't need the money, thanks anyway) or we use up our PTO to cover it. Since my area is seasonal (yes, more babies ARE born in the summer), I rarely have any PTO, ever, for sick or vacation.