Death Warmed Over

I\’b thick…

Ahhhchoooo… *hack*…. Ptooey

Sorry…let\’s try that again.

I\’m sick… and I know who gave it to me. Some a-hole at work who showed up on Tuesday looking like death warmed over.

By Friday morning I too felt like death, and I too went in to work. Now why would I do such a thing? Because like many employers these days, my current employer does not have sick days. Your vacation and sick days and personal days and birthday/anniversary day are all wrapped up in one package called Paid Time Off (aka PTO).

So given the option of wasting a vacation day, or showing up at work and getting nothing accomplished besides making others sick, I really can\’t blame someone for showing up.

Maybe I\’ve been spoiled. My first job out of college didn\’t even have sick days. If you were too sick, you stayed home. You still got paid, and you (theoretically) could use as many sick days as you needed. On the other hand, it was a very professional environment and if you abused the system, you\’d find yourself out on your ass.

There has to be some sort of middle ground though…right?

A system that limits abuse, but encourages people to stay home when they are sick. Because the current system is a classic short sighted response by businesses.

People are using their sick days for vacation, so let\’s just take that away from them. So people now come to work sick, and make others sick, who also come to work, and productivity goes down.

Until that time, I\’ll continue to save my vacation days, and I\’ll be at work tomorrow. I\’ll be easy to find, just listen for the guy hacking up a lung.