A while ago, I mentioned the fact (or at least, I meant to mention the fact) that my company issued a new leave policy mandating that vacation could only be taken in 4 hour increments, that you could roll over up to 1 week of accrued vacation at the start of each year but you had to use it before the end of the 1st quarter or you'd lose it, and that sick leave was now ineligible to be rolled over.
So, reading that, I determined that I would, by golly, use up my sick leave. I earn it, piddly though it is, so if they're not going to let me save it up, then I will be "sick" as often as I feel like it.
In keeping with my newly formed policy, I took Columbus Day off to do homework and hang out with Tim (whose company gave him the day off). This whittled me down to around 6 hours of sick leave on my last paystub. I was pretty pleased and figured that'd be easy to polish off somewhere right around Christmas.
And all was well until yesterday. Yesterday, the tickle started. You know the one in the back of your throat (the throat which, incidentally, feels like it's packed with cotton balls)? Shortly after the tickle came the throbbing ear. And the pounding head. And the funky, wiggling walls. And the flashes of chills followed by unbearable heat.
That's right, I'm sick. And at work.
Cause, you see? I only have 6 hours of sick leave, so I need to wait til it's so bad that I really need to stay home.
What's that thing about "The best laid plans?"
10 hours ago
Oh my gosh that policy just bites! I've been saving my sick and vacation time because here we don't get maternity leave, you have to use your vacation/sick leave instead. Which imo is not right either because hello, guys don't have babies.....
ReplyDeleteAnyway enough about me, girl I hope you are feeling better soon!!!
♥
Dawn
We lose both our sick and our vacation time if we don't use it by year end. This year, I'm bemoaning the fact that I will likely lose lots of both because I'm not getting all my work done as it is. *sigh* It sux to be me. I really need a good long vacation.
ReplyDeleteEnough about me, I hope you get over what sounds like the flu very soon!
That is so Murphy's law...Take sick leave - get sick!
ReplyDeleteLaura, it may come to that, I fear.
ReplyDeleteDawn, I am so with you on the maternity thing - it's silly to make you use vacation and sick for that (though if you want to use it to extend it, I think they should let you - yes, I want the best of all worlds, please. :) )
Eric - But see, I don't usually get sick, so if I save it up, then I lose it and they have a policy saying you can't use sick leave the week between Christmas and New Year (so you can't just save it for being sick and, if youdon't get sick, use it before you lose it)... so what's a girl to do? :)
Gwynne...ugh. I feel your pain!
Rach - Murphy loves me, I fear.
I imagine they'd be annoyed - but the thing is, they present it as a "benefit". As in "one of the perks of your job is sick leave" - so it seems to me that one should take advantage of all offered "benefits" if one is able to do so. That said, most of the days I've taken off when I haven't been physically ill have been very recuperative mentally. And while it sounds facaetious, I think being sick of one's job is a good enough reason to call in sick.
ReplyDeleteThat all aside, I have worked at two companies who treated their employees like big boys and girls and did just give a lump "x days of annual leave" for you to manage between vacation and sick, with a clear explanation that that was it and you needed to manage it. It was incredibly refreshing.
I think this is another example of a Gen-X/Y amalgamation in the workplace, the need to accommodate an entirely new work-life balance mindset. Sick leave has become a "benefit," to which workers are entitled, instead of a reasonable accommodation when a person (and now a person's family, with the Family Medical Leave Act) is temporarily unable to work for reasons beyond their control.
ReplyDelete*sigh* Kids these days. ;-)