I would also like a pony, if we’re asking for the moon and all.
@roz I believe the studies showing that are also the ones showing that people need less vacation time as performance-based benchmarks place much less stress and expectation on the employee, so they no longer feel they need as many 'mental health days' or 'staycations' just to recuperate from daily job stressors.
It would not work for all industries, but for those it does work for? People are less stressed, less depressed, complete work with higher ratings across the board, and tend to get better reviews on their performance. There's less pressure to do X,Y,Z in the next 2 hours OR ELSE. No more having your boss throw you under the bus to finish a report in 10 minutes that they've been sitting on for three days. As long as you hit your benchmarks? You get your salary, and nobody can give you shit if you took two days to deal with a sinus infection. Or your sister is giving birth RIGHT NOW and really wants you there with her. Or you need to work from Butte, Montana for a month to help nurse your mother through an illness. And hey, if you want to take a vacation and just go sit on a beach somewhere? Long as your stuff is done, go jump that plane!
@ganymede said in The Work Thread:
It is far more equitable to make employees salaried without accrued leave. We live in at an age where going to the workplace is getting obsolete. You can use technology to simulate a workplace meeting room, for example. And production is a matter of results, rather than process, in a virtual economy.
Or we could just, y'know, acknowledge that human beings get sick and NEITHER penalize them (expecting them to either take a financial hit or somehow magically achieve their same performance expectations while ill) NOR incentivize them to come in and infect everyone else. Just tell them to STAY HOME, rest, and get well. Yes it's annoying for the employer who has to find someone to fill in or redistribute the work, but I think that should just be considered part of doing business.
There are workplaces that do this. Heck, there are entire countries that do this. It's not a revolutionary concept.
@faraday said in The Work Thread:
There are workplaces that do this. Heck, there are entire countries that do this. It's not a revolutionary concept.
Here in the UK for example we don't have the concept of sick leave in the same way. If you're sick, you're sick, take the day off, there's no bucket of days to use up. You can self certify as unwell for an employer defined period, usually a week, anything more than that and you need to get signed off by a doctor. Your employer will pay you while you're off sick, usually full pay for a contractually defined period, most often 13 weeks, and then you are put onto statutory sick pay, a minimum amount that's mandated by the government.
This is specific to salaried workers, I don't know how it works for non-salaried workers without looking it up!
Our in school covid positivity rate is higher than it has ever been.
But starting Monday we don't have to wear masks any more.
The message from the district is, "It's less serious than just a cold now."
So, yeah.
Teachers are mad. We've fought to keep up the masks all year and now they're just like, "J/K, this wasn't that important any more."
I'm tired.
@silverfox said in The Work Thread:
The message from the district is, "It's less serious than just a cold now."
Are they living on another planet? One where there AREN'T 2000 people dying every day from it (in the US alone)?
(Yes, for those who are healthy and young and fully vaccinated it is thankfully usually on par with a cold, but THAT IS NOT EVERYONE. And also colds don't give you Long Covid.)
Rage.
@faraday Newspapers and TV have stopped headlining the daily deaths, so that means that they aren't happening anymore and EVERYTHING IS FINE.
(Sarcasm, if it needs to be said.)
I worked for Medicaid. I've been ON Medicaid, as well.
You do not get to tell me that saying people on Medicaid have to financially qualify for a medicaid program to have no copays, etc, is incorrect.
Bitch trying to say that by saying people that are lower income on Medicaid don't have a copay or a bill, is wrong. She got all mad "Saying it's poor people is incorrect."
There are many, many levels of medicaid, in my state. But for the level we were discussing, you are damn close to the poverty level, if not beneath it.
Got covid again. Am significantly sick, but not hospital level sick so far this time. There was drama at work over it when they wanted to work me sick. I was covid unit anyway. It's a crazy story I am almost to burnt to talk about. I just couldn't keep going exhaustion was to much. At home. I feel anxious. Let people down. But just can't . I need to rest.
.
I feel fallen in battle. I am staying home until I feel better and am not catchy. But it was hard decision. I have covid brain fog and headaches, don't want to risk errors too.
Some people don’t want to take vacations. Or some people like the idea of working on their own time and at their own pace while on vacation.
When I had vacation time, I felt compelled to take it. If I don’t, I lose it. But forcing people to go on vacation is just as fair as taking away their earned benefits … like the vacation time.
Where employment is at-will, I still don’t see the benefit of the existent customary earned-benefit, hourly system.
“It is better to live doing the things that you like. It is foolish to live within this dream of a world seeing unpleasantness and doing only things that you do not like.” -- Yamamoto Tsunetomo.
@ganymede said in The Work Thread:
Some people don’t want to take vacations. Or some people like the idea of working on their own time and at their own pace while on vacation.
That's not a healthy way for people to engage with their workplace.
When I had vacation time, I felt compelled to take it.
That is a good thing.
In your opinion, sure. In my experience, not at all.
Ultimately, it is my choice to work as I see fit. Frankly, the vacations I was forced to take did more to disrupt my flow of work than any sickness.
There are certainly some careers where completely stepping away from day-to-day tasks only causes more of a headache on return from a vacation. I know that I monitor my email and engage with my customers when I'm out of the office, because some timelines are more sensitive than others and projects can't be left unattended. I could have somebody cover for me, yeah, but if they're not as intimately familiar with my customers as I am then it's only unnecessary frustration for the people who pay my bills.
This is the reason that the last and only vacation I have taken in my two years at my job was to attend Gencon.
I know that by the time I get back I'll have a pile of stuff that I'll never get out from under.
I got totally nailed by one of my class kids today, as I was putting myself between her and another child as well as her being able to immediately throw herself backwards onto the floor, and man my collarbone super super hurts. I don't think it's actually an injury injury but...sigh.
Starting to feel a little better. Not 100 percent again. I think partly why I got sick with Omicron despite vaccines and past covid, was overworked, stressed and very high viral load.
Mostly right now I have intense exhaustion, headaches and low grade fevers - but I seem be turning a corner from the worse of it.
I decided that I am taking a little time off work, until I am def off isolation, but also until I feel okay. It will probably come to taking about week off.
It is not ideal and my work will not be happy with that, but I have been with them loyally through the whole pandemic. I was in tears of exhaustion when they called me in and then when they like you are positive, but keep working. I was like.....I had a moment where I was like about to totally break down.
I feel like in order to keep going and in order to be a strong nurse for my patients, I need to rest and get these headaches under control. But I do feel a little bad, because I care about my patients and want to be there for them.
Also is sort of weak, but I have almost PTSD from earlier covid wave and while this one did go better for us in terms of the availability of PPE, survival rate of our patients, illness being much more mild.
There was a psychological reaction to me in finding out as I could barely continue and stand exhaustion, was positive. Like okay it is not only that I worked myself to that point.
And then memories of going down mid shift and ending in the Hospital. I was like, no I can't...work through it, I'm afraid too that I will work until I almost die again and that is partly why I need to rest too. For the mental effect of me going, I was able to take care of myself too, like other people can when they get sick.
Our culture sometimes allows for everyone, but Nurses to rest and take care of themselves when sick.
I was actually bummed that MSB was done, because in the real life section, this is almost a safe space to rant and I needed to rant!
@kk said in The Work Thread:
I was actually bummed that MSB was done, because in the real life section, this is almost a safe space to rant and I needed to rant!
Yeah. I don't need to rant or anything most the time...but when MSB was down I felt something was missing. I didn't realize how much I rely on it for news and such during the day.
Some people don’t want to take vacations. Or some people like the idea of working on their own time and at their own pace while on vacation.
When I had vacation time, I felt compelled to take it. If I don’t, I lose it. But forcing people to go on vacation is just as fair as taking away their earned benefits … like the vacation time.
Where employment is at-will, I still don’t see the benefit of the existent customary earned-benefit, hourly system.
