Flu like symptoms but not severe

Deank wrote:yeah but there is a huge difference between Days off with and without pay. When I (and I am assuming GC) say we dont get sick leave, it means we dont have specific days that we can call in sick that our employer will still pay us for.

unlike many places which earn that at a rate like .6 days per month and that sick days can get "paid out" if you dont actually get sick.

yeah...those are dependent upon the employer.
one big reason i don't get paid hourly .

I thnk it's total BS that paid sick time is not a mandatory paid benefit for all workers like vacation time currently is. In my opnion it would make a lot of sense if all employees had at minimum 0.5 employer paid sick days monthly, just like all workers get 4% of their earnings as vacation pay by law. This would greatly increase the amount of people willing to stay home when sick, and contrary to deank's opinion it would in fact reduce the spread of disease around the workplace by limiting the amount of days a person would be at work while they are contagious.

Although you cant do anything about the spread before they start showing symptoms you CAN limit the amount of time they are in the workplace once they start showing signs, therefore limiting the likelyhood of spreading it to even more coworkers.

As a society we really should get more progressive in our attitudes towards working sick, if people are genuinely sick they shouldnt feel forced to go to work because they can't afford to stay home.

I'm glad I get my 5 sick days a year which are barely enough if you have more than 1 major illness a year. It sucks working at a job with none and facing going to work with a 40 degree fever or not getting paid. My wife get's 1.5 days a month ith the understanding that at any time her employer can require doctors notes for all sick days if people are suspected of abusing them (calling in sick when not sick). Pretty much no one uses more than 5 to 6 a year when they are actually sick cause no one wants to be stuck going to a doctor for a note the next time they have a flu.

And yet while I think it sucks, I am perfectly okay with my situation as I took a job here knowing full well what it was like and would not want anyone to legislate me more days.

Heh heh heh. Exactly what I'd expect from comrade grumpyrom.

fricking evil employers. Let's start a revolution. I want all employers to give 100% of their profits to the workers. And let's allow all workers to take 26 weeks of holidays AND be eligible for 26 weeks of sick leave. That way we can be absolutely certain no one will come in. Sick.

Yeah. That's the ticket...

C'mon GOM...seriously give me a freakin break. Please explain to me the difference between legislating paid sick days and legislating paid vacation for all employees? Should we get rid of mandatory vacation pay too? What about 40 hour work weeks? Or 8 hour work days? All these labour standards we accept as normal today were considered outrageous 100 years ago.

Why not look at changing the labour standards in a progressive way to ensure all employees have the ability to stay home when ill to prevent the spread of diease to coworkers thus reducing overall productivity for all?

Heaven forbid we may lok at changing the way things are done rather than following the status quo. With your kind of thinking we'd all still be working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week with no recourse for illness, accident or injury.

No where in my post above did I ever ONCE attack any employer. I'm simply bringing up the fact that perhaps labour standards could perhaps be progressed to better reflect the knowledge we currently have regarding worker productivity and illness. The Europeans have been doing this for years.....if your sick stay home, we know your not at your optimum and your only going to take out a few more people with you. In the end your costing your employer more by going to work than staying home.

Well, keep lobbying your NDP friends and they may make that happen. That would be real good for the business community wouldn't it. Why not just tell all the businesses to get the hell out of the province? Might be less painful.

It's okay comrade grumpyrom. We've just differing opinions. It's just that every time you post you always want more more more.

I want things to be earned not given. I worked almost my entire career for an employer that allowed paid time off for occasional illnesses and offered short term and long term disability. Many companies do. The last time I looked it was not law.

I found many employees abused the system for that very reason. They were allowed 1.62528934682 days of sick leave each month. And they made sure they were used.

I know letter carriers earn x days a month and build them up over the years. Most use them up in their last year of employment before retirement. Some have more than a year built up. How absurd is that?

I don't have to explain the difference between legislated holidays and legislated sick days. The difference is obvious. Some companies don't provide free parking. Should we legislate that too? Some companies provide free on-site day care. Most don't. Shall we legislate that too? Where do we draw the line?

I don't want to live in your world comrade grumpyrom...

So because x amount of employees abuse the system therefore all employees must be dishonest? I don't follow the logic.

I agree with you that it may seem absurd that some are allowed to carry over their sick pay their entire careers,but that's not what we're talking about here. I don't view having a certain small amount of paid sick days available for all workers as being any different than having a certain amount of statuatory holidays or a certain amount of vacation days. We're talking about 5 or 6 paid days a year, a difference of roughly 2% at most (assuming all days were taken) in annual pay that would ensure all people could actually stay home when sick.

I don't think providing carry over privelleges would make sense in a universal sick pay system nor do I think that having sick days with pay available to all would lead to rampant abuse as you suggest. At my work place I'd say 50% never use their sick time, and we have no carry over privelleges. As it stands it's difficult enough to get a day off at many employers regardless of paid time off or not...do you really think having paid sick time would make it easier for people to avoid coming in to work when not legitimately sick at those types of employers?

All I'm saying is perhaps we should look at how we percieve coming in to work sick. In my opnion it should be frowned upon rather than looked up to (wow Jim's toughing it out, why can't you attitude?). All Jim is doing is getting everyone else sick and costing them money as well. If Jim could have only stayed home a few days without worrying about his mortgage payment we wouldn't have 3 more people off next week with the flu cause Jim was being a hero to the boss.

I know you fail to understand the difference between socialism and communism, but I assure you they are 2 very different things.

All Jim is doing is getting everyone else sick and costing them money as well. If Jim could have only stayed home a few days without worrying about his mortgage payment we wouldn't have 3 more people off next week with the flu cause Jim was being a hero to the boss.

I believe that this is current logic for stopping the spread of diseases...this and washing your frigg'n hands.

Exactly, the problem is that there is a huge financial dissincentive to staying home for a large percentage of people who recieve no paid sick time. It's either got to work sick and get everyone else sick, or stay home and lose your pay for a couple days.

Given the current economic climate I know a lot of people can't afford to stay home, and no one wants to look like the one who's not pulling their weight during times of down-sizing by staying home a couple days. Couple those 2 factors and you have conditions ripe for the spread of disease.

Under the current situation for many not only do you lose your own pay for your lost time, but you increase the chances that your causing others to miss time without pay as well. How exactly is that fair?

Take away the financial incentive to go to work sick and you can start to create a system that breeds a healthier and more productive workplace.

grumpyrom wrote:Take away the financial incentive to go to work sick and you can start to create a system that breeds a healthier and more productive workplace.

Having worked in several workplaces that have provided competitive and good BENEFITS to their staff including paid sick time, I'm still waiting for the healthy and productive workplace you refer to comrade.

It is important to understand some peeps will NEVER be satisfied with their pay or their benefits or the profits employers make. This is what we hear:

I thnk(sic) it's total BS that paid sick time is not a mandatory paid benefit for all workers like vacation time currently is.

Heaven forbid we may lok(sic) at changing the way things are done rather than following the status quo.

See, it is okay to ask for MORE sick days (cost: 2% for every week paid off sick) because that money is not coming out of their pocket.

I like the idea of challenging the status quo. But when things are "total BS" then it is no longer a "nice to have" kinda' discussion but a "confrontational" discussion.

I negotiated my pay, my vacation and other benefits with every one of my employers. They paid me what they felt I was worth. I accepted their terms. If I did not like their terms I would move on.

In some peeps minds they don't really care to be judged on the value they bring to the party. Let's demand everyone get paid the same. With identical benefits. For everyone.

This is okay with some people. Not so much me.