2019 Novel Coronavirus

[RBHeadge PE]

I've got to wonder if this COVID-19 pandemic will be the end of the whole "paid time off" scam.  I hope it is.  I always thought that the whole PTO thing was a stupid idea, at least from a public health perspective. 

If it gets bad enough, one would think that it would spur change. Maybe even requiring sick leave for all employees. The reality is that the workers usually deprived of sick leave are usually the ones who can't afford to miss work, and tend to work in service sector positions (ie food) where you specifically do NOT want them coming to work sick. 

But there are so many instances in the world lately where one would expect corrective action to occur only for the status quo to remain. Evidentally, as a society, we rather pay for a pound of cure over a penny of prevention.

I'll have to check and see if it's still the case, but I know hoarding sick time was the norm for Gov't people once upon a time because it could be used towards your retirement while regular time off could not. 

Thats still the case. But the ratio of time that SL can counts toward retirement changes every so often. Used to be 2:1., I think it changing to 1:1 soon.

 

[Tiger15]

My last company gave us separate sick and vacation time. They technically called sick time "AIPT" (accident, illness,  and personal time). But management was so strict about how it was used that it was a HUGE pain in the butt. Vacation time was considered your time; you "earned" it like pay. So in theory you could use it however and whenever you wanted. Whereas AIPT time was considered a "benefit". It was the companies time, not yours; you didn't earn it, rather it was given to you. So the company was allowed to dictate how you used it. Managers regularly told people that they weren't allowed to use it in certain situations, and they had to take vacation instead. But the real rub was that vacation requests also had to be approved by your manager. So management could also reject your vacation request if they couldn't afford for you to be out for "business reasons". The whole thing was BS.

My current company combines sick and vacation into Paid Time Off. But they are completely cool about however you want to use it. I've never seen a vacation rejected. (It's just a much better company overall.) So I much rather the current setup than the previous. They also have a really cool policy where if you have to be out for less than 2 hours, then you don't have to use your PTO.

So yeah, management practices and company culture matter much more to me than how the time is named and whether it's combined.

 

[ulua808]

Video showing situation in Iran. Eerily similar to Wuhan. Even shows a collapsed person in NYC; people should be running away fast. Warning: in Chinese.

 

[JayKay PE]

I'll have to check and see if it's still the case, but I know hoarding sick time was the norm for Gov't people once upon a time because it could be used towards your retirement while regular time off could not.  Ironically, we just got the email today about procedures for donating use-or-lose time and the list of people in our department who are eligible.

Yeah, but that's a solid financial reason to hoard sick time.  At other companies, I think I was able to roll over sick time but the accrual was really low, so it was easier to just use it.  But then it sucked because I also didn't have that much vacation time, so I ended up using sick time while on vacation (but since it was consulting, I really ended up billing at least half the vacation because I wasn't allowed to have my phone off/stop doing work because there were deadlines).

 

[kevo_55]

This thread is pretty funny.

 

[Audi Driver P.E.]

My plan to stave this SARS virus off is to simply maintain a high BAC such that any virus that enters the blood stream either dies or has such a party I die before spreading it.

 

[Orchid PE]

My plan to stave this SARS virus off is to simply maintain a high BAC such that any virus that enters the blood stream either dies or has such a party I die before spreading it.

I might have to follow your example.

 

[Tiger15]

I just watched an episode of X-Men cartoon where they intentionally infected Wolverine with a virus so his mutant healing would produce antibodies that could then be used to save everyone. Have we considered that?

 

[Audi Driver P.E.]

I just watched an episode of X-Men cartoon where they intentionally infected Wolverine with a virus so his mutant healing would produce antibodies that could then be used to save everyone. Have we considered that?

The number of available Wolverine individuals is vanishingly small. I may be the only one.

 

[Tiger15]

 

[Tiger15]

The number of available Wolverine individuals is vanishingly small. I may be the only one.

*Kidnaps @Audi driver, P.E. and ships him to Hubei province.*

 

[roadwreck]

The number of available Wolverine individuals is vanishingly small. I may be the only one.

Paging @Wolverine

 

[Road Guy]

I think whats overlooked with PTO is that most employers fund a short term and long term disability for longer periods of being sick, out of work, etc.  Which would kick in for times like this.

Ive been in both systems and in Government I saw more abuse of Sick Leave than I have sick people coming to work in the private world. - We had several people (in government world) who would use it as personal days and not really when sick so we had to implement a lot of time and attendance policies where if you used up a certain % of your sick leave you had to start bringing in doctors notes - and for those people that usually ended the never ending sick leave (but our county government actually had a spine).

People in Denver are thinking the vital need is Toilet Paper, everywhere is out!

 

[Orchid PE]

People in Denver are thinking the vital need is Toilet Paper, everywhere is out!

Well, I can't blame them.

I'd hate to be sitting there only to realize I'm out of tp and can't go out of the house because of the zombie apocalypse.

Like being up shit creek without a paddle.

 

[Tiger15]

On a related note...

Not touching your face is hard!

 

[Booo]

On a related note...

Not touching your face is hard!

Stop touching their face. Or at least get their consent. 

 

[Booo]

We get separate sick and vacation. There's a limit to how many vacation you can roll over each year, but no limit to sick leave. I'll hit 600 hours of sick leave next month if I stay healthy this month. I have more than a few guys with 1000+ hours. I view it as "If/When I get cancer, I'll need a lot of time." We also can get paid for half that amount when we retire, though I think that max is viewed as 1000 hours (so you get paid for 500). We accrue sick at one day a month. Vacation is a sliding scale based on years of experience; I earn two days a month.  

Do we work for the same company? JK, I do understand this would be a common practice. 

I am at 505 sick hrs as of this month. Need to use my vacay balance as I will stop accumulating that after march 15th. But nowhere to travel with this thing going on.

 

[Violator]

I am washing my hands so damn much I had to go out and buy some lotion to keep them from cracking up!

 

[Dleg]

It's taken me a few weeks, but I feel like I have a pretty good awareness now of touching my face.

That's not to say that I have been able to stop it, but at least I am aware when I am doing it.

 

[Audi Driver P.E.]

 


I quit popping bubble wrap because the air is from China.