Corporate America's Sick

Actually they suck. That's a given, of course. Unfortunately you need a job to take care of your basic needs. They say the U.S. is tops in productivity. But at what price?

I was chatting with Chad last night. He wasn't in the best of moods. He has a possible case of the measles. He mentioned little red bumps appearing all over his body. Surprisingly he didn't have a fever or any cold-like symptoms. But the bumps itched furiously and were hyper sensitive to the cold.

He dreaded having to use another sick occurence at his job. A sick occurence allows a person to take as long as they need to get well. His company allows each employee to have up to six occurences. Unfortunately he's already used two and the year's still young.

He called this morning and the bumps are getting worse. He even feels them on his lips. He still doesn't feel feverish, though. He wants to go into the office to see if he can convince them to let him check things out without using a sick occurence. His fear is if he uses another occurence, that he'll be penalized down the road. Meaning that if there ever was a time they needed to lay off folks, the frequency of time being sick may be taken into account.

I always thought sick occurences were the bomb to have. But maybe he had a point about its potential disadvantages.

My company doesn't have sick occurences. But rather sick days are lumped with your vacation. The system is that you use up a day whenever you need to take care of personal business, take a vacation, or are sick. A lot of folks, myself included, balk at having to use our vacation days as sick time. So people come to work hacking, sneezing, and coughing. Then next thing you know, other people in the office start getting sick. It's annoying. On any given day, someone will be coughing and sneezing incessantly. This annoying dude that sits on the other side of me was sick for nearly a month. I get irritated because I really don't want to start coughing and sneezing again. Unfortunately I do have occasional spells still.

If folks weren't so worried about wasting days being sick, we wouldn't have to deal with sick employees spreading their germs to everyone else. I overheard a couple of ladies talking near my cube, one of them trying to convince the other to stay home because she was really sick. Of course, she didn't want to because of work obligations. Please...girlfriend didn't want to use up any vacation days. And of course, her sick ass was spreading her germs.

The cycle continues.