Sunday, October 9

The shenanigans of being sick

Everyone has called in sick to work before some with legit and some not so legit reasons. Some use their accrued sick time purely for leisure because accrued sick time does not roll over. My company has a messed up barometer on this matter. We accrue 56 hours annually which is quite generous, conversely using up many of your sick hours could cost you dearly come the annual performance evaluations. Attendance plays a pivotal deciding factor in an employee's raise which is under a strict budget to begin with. For example, three sick occurrences in a 90 day period mandates a verbal warning and anything over three occurrences is a written warning. A written warning pretty much guarantees a less than admirable raise.

Oh here's a real nice treat. The Company allows/pays sick time for an employee who has an immediate family who needs looking after, I.E. daughter is sick or an ill mother under your custody. I absolutely agree with this rule. In contrary you are not paid sick time for a broken car. If by some reason your vehicle which is your sole transport to work reaches the inevitable threshold of mechanical, electrical or cooling systems failure and you can not make it to work, you're fucked. This is somehow oxymoronic. Seriously... a persons transportation is as important as his or her immediate family. If a Company threw morals out of the window an employee's car is more important.

Two years ago on my way to work my car's head gasket blew up in the 5 freeway. Smoke, coolant and oil were splattered all over the engine bay. If you've ever experienced a gasket blow up then you're familiar with the effects, it basically looks like a big cluster f*ck (not that anyone knows what that actually looks like). To state the obvious I called in sick. I was not familiar with the Company's policy on car breakdowns then. When I found out I surprisingly was more annoyed than anything, sure the money was a big deal but I was more worried about the logic behind the policy. See any sane God fearing, prude and loyal employee would spend the same day their car breaks down fixing it. In my case I was stranded on the side of the highway when I called work and had to tow the car to the mechanic shop. Several hundred dollars later I find out I don't get squat for car problems. So why not pay sick time? Doesn't a broken down car, again an employees sole transport to work equate to or qualify as being sick and deserve pay? You are not able to make it to work because your vehicle is inoperable not because you were too hungover to make it to work and felt like lying to your boss so you could stay home. In retrospect if I was privy to the policy I could have lied and called in sick right there on Interstate 5 and had gotten paid. Yea sure for the sake of ethics I could have stated my actual reasons for not attending work and take the loss income but why would I? God forbid I get physically sick and unable to work twice in a 90 day calendar period and my car breaks down again which then falls under the mandated written warning for more than three sick occurrences and suddenly I'm not eligible for the maximum allowable raise under the budget, I would be more than pissed off and it's not even a fault of my own... So who I do blame for that?
Should my car be responsible for my minimal raise?

I've gotten rid of that faulty Honda since then and now drive a reliable car (another Honda) and have yet to call in sick because of car problems. Does that make me a better employee? Is a maximum raise now quantifiable that my employer wont hear me from the side of the highway saying "Ya this shit is broke I wont make it"?

(Just work nothing personal)

A friend of mine Victor who I also work with was recently engaged with his long time girlfriend Deana. We were both scheduled to work this Sunday 9/9/2005 but on Saturday night on AIM (AOL instant messenger) he said he was leaving work early. Why, I inquired. His reply surprised me at first... then i went into complete hysteria (kidding). His reply reminded me of the Milwaukees Best Men should act like men giant beer can Commercial as seen on the ESPN's WSOP coverage. In these commercials men who do not act like men are subject to a Milwaukees Best giant beer can death. I.E. during a BBQ several men are gathered around the fire drinking Milwaukees Best Beer grilling dogs and steaks when a guy friend who brought cake & holding hands with his girlfriend show up in identical shirts announced his arrival "Hey guys what's going on" he said cheerfully. The guys around the grill turn around to greet the familiar voice only to find the gay spectacle and froze in their gaze. Realizing why the guys were staring in astonishment he let's go of his GF's hand. Suddenly a Giant Milwaukees Best Beer falls from the sky like a meteor crushing him into the Earth as punishment for not acting like a man. LOL. Yes I realize this is stupid. Anyway, Victor said that he was leaving work early because his girlfriend just got her wisdom tooth pulled and is incoherent and needs help around the house. Conveniently Victor is a big Football fan and its Sunday hmm. Haha

So on Sunday he came in to work at 7AM and left when I arrived. I then asked him why he even bothered to come in to work at all. Victor then said that he felt bad for calling in sick on a Sunday because of the increased work load of missing a body so he decided to work for a couple of hours. Pondering the notion it actually annoyed me even more that he'd bothered to show up. First of all if he really cared enough about work load he could have called the boss the day before since he'd already planned not to stay and maybe they could have called someone in. Consequently he is not eligible for sick pay because he wasn't actuality sick. Additionally the girlfriend will not be deemed immediate family so again he will not be eligible for sick pay.

Do I care? Yes I do. I've recently changed my schedule from Wednesday's to Thursday's. I've requested the weekend of Oct 14-16th which is a Friday-Sunday off on top of my regular Thursday off to give me a 4 day weekend. I am attending the American Lemans race in Monterey to see the debut of Porsche's new race car in the LMP2 class. Thursday Oct 13 is Yom Kippur and as I mentioned on my last blog the organizers of my Basketball league are Jewish therefore we have no scheduled games. Recently we lost two employees (they quit) and one is on vacation on the same week. The brunt of this is a real shortage in bodies for Wednesday's and Thursday's, my day off. So what does a dedicated employee like me do? Well I don't have to do anything. But because I care for this Company and especially for my Department and since i have no scheduled basketball game I volunteered to come in on Thursday to appease the work load.

Victor if you are reading this, nothing personal homey. I love you and you're a friend for life. But you are Gay! Haha

1 Comments:

At 9:12 AM, Blogger Marc Gabay said...

Calm down... this additional hours you worked in May paid overtime if i remember right..... lol.. Yer still Gay

 

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