Ladies and Gentlemen, I welcome you back with open arms. I hope you will welcome me back in the same way. Today I will be posting at least 2 different posts, reason being...I have a lot to say, however, the topics of conversation/ranting differ greatly. I hope you will stick around and enjoy these posts.
I'd like to start off by talking about something that drives me crazy. I know for a fact I am not alone in feeling this way either. One of my biggest pet peeves is when I go to work and the person sitting next to me is coughing, sneezing, and "snotting" all over the place. When this happens -- which is often -- I am pretty much able to pinpoint when I will be in the same position. Why? Because all of that coughing, sneezing, and "snotting" has managed to get me sick as well -- just what I wanted! Now, let me explain to you why going to work while sick is about the worst thing you can do. Employers tend to disagree with my reasoning -- but wait...hold the phone...yes, I in fact have some lovely reasons for employers to think about as well.
Alright, we all know the main reason why we, employees, consistently go to work sick. The reasons are straight forward and understandable. Our employers refuse to pay us an adequate amount of sick time, if they give us any at all, and if we need any significant time off, we get canned. I'd love someone to explain to me how that is in any way right. An employer may argue that "If an employee is staying home for 5 days with the flu, then we are short staffed for a week!" Well holy cow, not short handed for a week!!! Can we look at it at a different way?
Employee comes to work sick with the flu rather than resting at home for the week it takes to run its course. They cough, sneeze, and god knows what else all over their desks and into the air the other employees breathe in ALL day. Alright so, lets say that that one employee gets another five employees sick. Now, we've all had the flu, the kind of flu where your fever is so bad your teeth hurt. Naturally, and understandably, if we attend work in that condition, we aren't going to be very productive. Alright, so now, your office has six sick employees, all at work being hardly productive whatsoever, meanwhile, those six people are potentially getting everyone else sick. If I were an employer, I would prefer to pay that one employee for 5 sick days rather than have them come and infect all of my employees which in turn severely effects production levels.
The next logical argument put forth by employers is "Well, when we offer paid sick time, people abuse it and call in sick when they aren't really ill". That I simply cannot deny. Of course some people will abuse it, however, I personally feel I'd rather a select few individuals abuse it rather than have an office full of sick people for two months of the year.
There are a lot of places that do in fact offer paid sick time, however, 99% of those places are in office environments and the paid sick time offered is often only 2 days a year. 2 days a year! I know when someone I know gets the flu, they are down for the count for at least a week. The simple fact in all of this is that 90% of these employees simply cannot afford to take off sick time. I know people who actually fought their bosses on letting them stay at work. The employer tried sending them home because they were visibly ill, but they had no more paid sick time left. Despite arguing, she was still forced to go home without pay. That is nothing short of wrong.
Now, on to the biggest issue in all of this. I have worked in a lot of different establishments in the food industry, none of them offered any paid sick time. In fact, when someone called in sick, they were required to find someone to cover for them or work it themselves, or risk being fired. Can someone explain to me how it is okay to let sick people handle your food? It disgusts me. The food industry should be forced to offer at least 10 days a year of paid sick time. I think that the few people who would abuse this privilege is well worth the end results -- not having sick people preparing and handling the food we eat.
That is all I have to say on the subject, but I really would like to know if anyone actually disagrees with me here. I find it hard to believe that anyone could disagree, but I whole heartily would like to know if you do and why.
-Drea
