this post was submitted on 21 Oct 2023
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[–] nickknack@lemmy.world 190 points 1 year ago (15 children)

the idea that sick days somehow impose a financial burden of the company is a blatant lie of criminal proportions. It is a justification for wage theft

people should use all of their sick days

[–] EinfachUnersetzlich@lemm.ee 68 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Why do you even have an allocation of sick days? It's not really a concept anywhere I've worked (in the UK).

[–] Zerlyna@lemmy.world 57 points 1 year ago (6 children)

I’m in the US and I get 3 paid sick days a year. Anything more and I don’t get paid PLUS I get a point. After 8 points I lose my job. We come to work sick unless we are in the hospital.

[–] LemmysMum@lemmy.world 85 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (8 children)

If Americans knew what workers rights were they'd be very angry to realise they have none.

[–] Caradoc879@lemmy.world 30 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Most Americans still have their hears shoved so far up their asses that they think all of Europe is a freedomless third world region where the governments silence all criticism and doctors still use leeches or something. Just completely delusional and in denial.

Of course most Americans haven't even left their own state, never mind gone to Europe to experience it themselves.

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[–] oatscoop@midwest.social 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

No, we have worker's rights -- not enough, but you do have rights. Federal and state labor law covers a surprisingly broad number of topics.

Shitty employers want you to think you don't have rights, because they want to continue to illegally exploit you.

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[–] MudMan@kbin.social 31 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I'm always amazed by how Americans in particular (sorry if you're not, I'm assuming) tend to go from one end of the spectrum to the other without any middle stops in common sense land. I once had a US friend go straight from "we have bad health care" to "we need a violent revolution" with no consideration to... you know, maybe good health care?

I mean, from my perspective it seems pretty obvious that you should only take as many sick days as you need, but you should take all the ones you need, to an unlimited total amount.

Like, that seems so simple. It's how it's always worked in the multiple countries I've lived in. You're sick? You call in sick. You need to be off for multiple days? You ask your doctor to officially declare that you're sick. The company is taking a hit? The government covers your wages during your long term sickness.

This works. We know this works. It's obvious this works.

[–] Jomega@lemmy.world 30 points 1 year ago (21 children)

We don't believe that the government will let us have good Healthcare without revolution at this point. One side violently opposes it and the other dangles it like a carrot on a stick for votes, with no intention of actually providing it because if they actually improved things somewhat they'd lose a precious bargaining chip. This song and dance has been going on for as long as I've been alive. We're losing hope here.

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[–] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 123 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This starts in school with awards for perfect attendance

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe 71 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Really sums it up tbh. No one gets through school without needing a sick day, but they offer children a worthless piece of paper for being obedient enough to risk everyone else's health.

[–] ThatFembyWho@lemmy.blahaj.zone 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Dont know about other kids, but seems like I had strep throat and conjunctivitis at least twice a year. Thankfully I did NOT have perfect attendance.

Maybe its an award for children with especially strong immune systems? Cool.

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[–] MBM@lemmings.world 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Whoa what, is that a US thing or something?

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[–] Anonymousllama@lemmy.world 88 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Take every single day you're entitled to. The days of working yourself to death so you get a pat on the back by the boss is well over. You come first

[–] yoz@aussie.zone 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Bro there's still so many idiots at my workplace working their life away for a stupid card that says "best performer of the month". I got no problem with that but the issue that I have is they make life hard for guys like me. I know and they know that they can't afford a shitty 4 bedroom house so why the fuck slave so hard. I really don't get it

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[–] pgp@sh.itjust.works 61 points 1 year ago (2 children)

America is something else entirely.

[–] quams69@lemmy.world 32 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Mannimarco@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Have you tried pulling a little harder on your bootstraps?

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[–] penquin@lemm.ee 58 points 1 year ago (1 children)

LOL! Then don't offer it. Let's see who will work for you. Fuckers want to enslave people.

[–] wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

"let them die! I need my 4th yacht!" -CEO and other top-level management, any large co

[–] niktemadur@lemmy.world 56 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Wall street is the psychotic, insatiable, dehumanizing tail that wags the dog, one petulant tantrum-a-minute to the next, and the next, and the next... perpetually.
God forbid anyone in a corporate position of power try and do anything that isn't indecent and corrosively myopic, else the stampeding Dow Jones zombies go on a goddamned short-selling rampage.

But then people have been saying this for ages now, and still here we are.

EDIT: added "insatiable"

[–] Adalast@lemmy.world 39 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I remember a story about a CEO who decided to pay ALL of his employees well. As I remember, all of his middle management left in a huff because they no longer had their higher earnings to hold over their subordinates and feel superior, all of his friends ostracized him and he essentially became a pariah.

Yeah, Dan Price, just went to look it up. Apparently, he had to resign after some allegations against him, which turned out to be false. Something smells off about a man paying employees fairly suddenly getting trumped-up charges that never got properly investigated before being referred to the prosecutor's office literally the day after he announces the pay stuff.

https://fortune.com/2023/04/19/gravity-payments-dan-price-assault-charges-are-dropped/

[–] ArbiterXero@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

He resigned because someone that has part ownership in the company sued him.

The lawsuit was basically “you’re not acting in a way that is best for the shareholders”

Or in other words “you’re paying the employees more and me less, so I’m mad at you for treating them well”

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[–] Number1SummerJam@lemmy.world 29 points 1 year ago (4 children)

The stock market should be abolished entirely. The driving force behind big business and government decisions should be humanity, not money.

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[–] BeautifulMind@lemmy.world 50 points 1 year ago (5 children)

The whole reason sick days are a thing is that giving employees paid sick time costs you less when they don't come in and make other employees sick. If enough people get sick in a given org, that has a way of really impacting everything about a workplace, it really is cheaper if they stay home until they're not contagious.

The worst part of this situation, to me: that anyone is pressing for sick leave to be tightly audited, or seeking to frame its use as a sort of graft or taking from the employer, or a pretext for preemptively firing employees deemed guilty of being too sick. This kind of talk creates pressure for employees to come to work sick in order to avoid being seen as slackers or thieves, and that in turn (especially in an environment full of flu and covid variants, doubly so on the heels of a fucking pandemic so we should all know better by now) defeats the point of having sick days in the first place.

The whole reason sick days are a thing

Sick days are a thing because unions fought for them.

[–] MrSqueezles@lemm.ee 22 points 1 year ago (5 children)

From the article

Prepandemic, Fleetcor workers in their 20s and 30s took one or two sick days a year, she says. Now, it's more like three to five.

So pandemic taught people how viruses spread and how not to spread them and coming to work sick is shameful, not a badge of honor. Still, 4 days a year isn't enough.

I worked with a guy, Clint, who had been at the company his whole life, worked his way from the factory floor to head of accounting. The thing Clint chose to brag regularly about was that he was 60-something and had never taken a sick day. Instead, he'd roll in obviously sick, sneeze on everyone, everyone he saw that day would get sick, a few of them followed his stellar example and got more people sick. During those times, no actual work got done except Clint lamenting about how everyone was getting sick. "Must be the weather."

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[–] AeonFelis@lemmy.world 48 points 1 year ago (8 children)

I know this couple who contracted COVID during the pandemic but refused to report it and take sick days. He - because his workplace was offering bonuses for employees who weren't taking sick days (don't remember if it was monthly or annually) and he didn't want to miss on that. She - because she already took all her sick days as PTO, without actually being sick.

I can't help but wonder if that's really what sick days are supposed to be...

[–] Powerpoint@lemmy.ca 35 points 1 year ago (15 children)

Perhaps Americans need to learn to call them wellness days and not place some arbitrarily low limit for amount of days on them. Ten or twelve to start a year seems reasonable. Americans are bizarre.

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[–] echodot@feddit.uk 34 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (7 children)

He - because his workplace was offering bonuses for employees who weren't taking sick days

Good god is that illegal in Europe. Employees are entitled to sick pay if they're sick, if no reason other than to ensure they don't come into the office and get everyone else ill as well. Also employees are actually required to take holiday pay, last year I got called into a meeting and got told I had to take more holidays because I wasn't taking enough.

She - because she already took all her sick days as PTO, without actually being sick.

Again illegal in Europe, PTO and sick pay are independent of each other. There's no limit on the number of sick days you can have, although if you go beyond a certain number you do require a doctor's note, but as long as you have that you're golden. In theory this is abusable, but because everyone gets PTO anyway, and actually get a decent number of days, there isn't really the incentive to do that.

It's bizarre the way the United States operates.

[–] hydrospanner@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

Employees are entitled to sick pay if they're sick, if no reason other than to ensure they don't come into the office and get everyone else ill as well.

Two jobs ago (in the States) my employer was extremely stingy with any paid time away from work.

I got six days. Total. (Not counting holidays.)

Six days for any and all purposes that one might need to not be in the office.

They even had the gall to say they offered sick days, "because you can use your PTO to stay home when you're sick".

Fuck that.

I came to work no matter how sick I was. I knew exactly how much I made in a day, and as soon as my boss or anyone else would complain about how I shouldn't be there, I'd ask them if they were willing to pay me my daily wage to go home. Because I only got six days, so fuck me if I was going to use any of them for anything other than my own enjoyment. If I was sick, I was miserable and less productive anyway, might as well get paid for that, and not burn any of my precious PTO.

On one occasion, I was so sick my boss actually agreed to send me home and pay the rest of my day without taking PTO...but of course the stingy bastard couldn't just give people more sick days.

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[–] nufanman21@lemmy.world 40 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Typical "back in my day" garbage. Why would you even want people to come in and spread their sickness? Wouldn't that cause even more lost production time?

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[–] WindowsEnjoyer@sh.itjust.works 29 points 1 year ago

Well, media controlled and owned by business. What do you expect? 😅

[–] Snapz@lemmy.world 28 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Why do we even hold up the charade of calling WSJ by name when it's obviously just fox news (in ownership and content) with the lightest of filters for outright insanity?

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[–] wintermute_oregon@lemm.ee 28 points 1 year ago

People shouldn’t have to work sick. If we learned one thing from Covid, shut spreads around the office.

If someone is slightly ill let them work from home or take a day off.

[–] NewWorldOverHere@lemmy.world 26 points 1 year ago (8 children)

I’m baffled that people are able to see their doctor quickly enough to get a note for proof that they were sick and need time off.

Where are these easily accessible doctors?

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[–] dingleberry@discuss.tchncs.de 24 points 1 year ago

The boot has now been completely incorporated in the throat.

[–] rauls4@lemm.ee 23 points 1 year ago

I’m an older worker. I have no qualms about using all my sick days.

[–] oldbaldgrumpy@lemmy.world 20 points 1 year ago (4 children)

My work recently changed their policy, we get 48 hours sick time a year. If you use it it's counted as an occurrence against you. Three occurrences in a rolling year and you're put on disciplinary action.

Here's your new benefit ...but you better not use it.

You can't make shit like that up.

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[–] eddietrax@dmv.social 18 points 1 year ago (15 children)

American here. Have unlimited PTO. It’s definitely not the norm but it does exist. I came from a company with only 2 weeks paid time off (total).

[–] ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.com 43 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

Unfortunately a simple "unlimited PTO" policy is fake pro-employee policy.

  • Overall, studies show employees actually take less days off under that policy, likely due to the uncertainty and stress over what is "really" the expectation, and how it will affect the employee's job security.
  • Employees end up working over vacations more often.
  • Since there are no fixed days, employers don't need to pay for unused vacation time periodically or when an employee leaves.

It plays out in a way that actually ends up harming the employee.

Every "unlimited PTO" policy should be combined with a minimum PTO policy. If you're wondering if a company actually cares about its employees' mental health, that's how you know.

[–] jscari@lemmy.world 25 points 1 year ago

I’ve worked at a few places with “unlimited PTO” and I totally agree.

It sounds great in practice: “as long as your work is getting done, take as much PTO as you want!” In reality, it never works out that way because there’s never a “good” time to take a vacation; if you don’t have vacation days that you have to use, you won’t use them.

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[–] AmberPrince@kbin.social 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I hated that article. I don't need all of the charged language or opinion. Here'sthe WSJ article if y'all want to read it of note, the WSJ isn't really making a determination here. Mostly just quoting out of touch executives and labor firms.

I'm all for work reform but how this comes back on the Wall Street Journal is beyond me.

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[–] spittingimage@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

In this thread: Americans bragging that not only have they never used a sick day, they used their lunchbreak to go back and wrestle the bear for their severed arm which they then reattached with staples they paid for themselves so they could put in a full afternoon of work.

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Cool pro-tip that sometimes works to get around the WSJ paywall, especially if you use DDG. Search for the title of the WSJ article and put “msn” after.

It will sometimes send you to Bing’s google Amp-like (ugh, I know) MSN news site where there is no paywall.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yeah, well fuck them. I used up my one week's worth of sick days and all of my PTO and am now on FMLA because I'm dealing with an illness that is causing me to miss work. What the fuck am I supposed to do? They told me to go on FMLA.

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[–] Adalast@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

Know the laws for your state. Most of the states in the union are fucked, but some at least have something on the books.

https://www.patriotsoftware.com/blog/payroll/state-mandated-paid-sick-leave-laws/

Also, remember that paid sick leave is different from paid vacation. In many states, unused paid vacation must be paid upon termination, many times regardless of the reason for the termination. Unfortunately, my state is absolute trash and does not provide any protections for workers' rights or hold employers accountable for a damn thing. Hope this helps someone else though.

https://ask.legalsolutions.thomsonreuters.info/cc-nto-vacation-rolling-pl

[–] magoosh@feddit.nl 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

What kind of company doesn't insure against sickness of their employees? When I mentioned I was sick a lot, my boss at the time laughed and told me the company gets an insurance payment if I'm out, so not to worry. Fyi, I'm in Europe.

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