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incentives
Feb. 28th, 2005 05:29 pmLast week, someone in my research group was out sick for 3 days. He came back on Thursday, and the rest of us said we were glad to see him. "Welcome back! So good to see you feeling better!" He coughed with disturbing vigor and said he wasn't feeling better at all. "Um. Well. At least you're not contagious anymore, right?" No, not even that. He just didn't want to take any more days off. I was unhappy about him exposing the whole group to his cold/flu/whatever (*), but I can understand the set of incentives that made it seem like a good idea for him to make that choice.
My company used to allow everyone 3 days of paid sick leave. (Note to foreign readers: this is actually pretty good. A lot of US companies don't have any.) People who were sick more than that could take vacation days, as I sometimes did. Or go on extended disability leave with partial pay. Or make informal arrangements with their supervisors, taking a day off one week, and working a bunch of evenings the following week to make up for it. (I did a fair amount of that, too.) This year, everyone has a general supply of "leave time," for sick days and vacation, and there's supposed to be a lot less of the informal flexibility.
Considering my overall health, I'm surprised to have made it through 2 months without getting sick enough to need a day off. When I first started working again after a year of unemployment, keeping this job felt like the most important thing in the world. I was relieved to have the option of using vacation time for sick leave...there wasn't anything I could do with vacation time that really mattered to me, not in comparison to clinging to this job like a limpet (or whatever kind of turtle it is that bites hard and doesn't let go.) It feels different now. I have places to go, people to see, life beyond work that matters to me. I like being able to plan vacations, to look at the calender and think I will take 2 days in March and go *there*, and 2 days in May and do *that*, and 2 days in July and go *there*. The new sick leave policy means I don't know how many days of vacation I can plan, because I can't predict how many days I'll be sick. (It must be even worse for people who are directly responsible for a dependent, and need to take off work when someone else gets sick.) People who are generally healthy enough to not need 3 sick days in an average year thought the new policy was a great idea, because it gave them a few more days of vacation time. People who generally need more than 3 sick days thought it would be nice to have the flexibility, and the slight increase in overall leave time. But it's disturbing to have the increased uncertainty about vacation plans, and the nerve-wracking pressure to come to work when sick.
(*) This morning, I realized I had caught the Lab Plague, and I was even more unhappy with my colleague for coming to work and spreading it. As I contemplated staying in bed all day, coughing and feeling sorry for myself, I came to appreciate why he had done it. He has big plans for later this year -- wedding, moving in with his partner, traveling overseas to see family -- all of which need vacation time he can't afford to waste being sick. So he dragged himself to work, coughing and feeling sorry for himself. He didn't accomplish much research Thursday or Friday, but at least he wasn't "out sick" and losing vacation days.
My company used to allow everyone 3 days of paid sick leave. (Note to foreign readers: this is actually pretty good. A lot of US companies don't have any.) People who were sick more than that could take vacation days, as I sometimes did. Or go on extended disability leave with partial pay. Or make informal arrangements with their supervisors, taking a day off one week, and working a bunch of evenings the following week to make up for it. (I did a fair amount of that, too.) This year, everyone has a general supply of "leave time," for sick days and vacation, and there's supposed to be a lot less of the informal flexibility.
Considering my overall health, I'm surprised to have made it through 2 months without getting sick enough to need a day off. When I first started working again after a year of unemployment, keeping this job felt like the most important thing in the world. I was relieved to have the option of using vacation time for sick leave...there wasn't anything I could do with vacation time that really mattered to me, not in comparison to clinging to this job like a limpet (or whatever kind of turtle it is that bites hard and doesn't let go.) It feels different now. I have places to go, people to see, life beyond work that matters to me. I like being able to plan vacations, to look at the calender and think I will take 2 days in March and go *there*, and 2 days in May and do *that*, and 2 days in July and go *there*. The new sick leave policy means I don't know how many days of vacation I can plan, because I can't predict how many days I'll be sick. (It must be even worse for people who are directly responsible for a dependent, and need to take off work when someone else gets sick.) People who are generally healthy enough to not need 3 sick days in an average year thought the new policy was a great idea, because it gave them a few more days of vacation time. People who generally need more than 3 sick days thought it would be nice to have the flexibility, and the slight increase in overall leave time. But it's disturbing to have the increased uncertainty about vacation plans, and the nerve-wracking pressure to come to work when sick.
(*) This morning, I realized I had caught the Lab Plague, and I was even more unhappy with my colleague for coming to work and spreading it. As I contemplated staying in bed all day, coughing and feeling sorry for myself, I came to appreciate why he had done it. He has big plans for later this year -- wedding, moving in with his partner, traveling overseas to see family -- all of which need vacation time he can't afford to waste being sick. So he dragged himself to work, coughing and feeling sorry for himself. He didn't accomplish much research Thursday or Friday, but at least he wasn't "out sick" and losing vacation days.
