Can you believe it? In the richest country in the world, people are forced to use their hard-earned vacation days just to see a doctor. It's like a bad joke, but it's the reality for so many hardworking Americans. There's something seriously messed up with the way we've set up our system. It's supposed to be the land of opportunity, but it feels more like the land of "fend for yourself." Sure, if you're a billionaire, life is pretty sweet. But for the rest of us? We're left wondering if this is really what the American Dream is supposed to look like. It's time we take a long, hard look at what we value as a society and start putting people first. Because at the end of the day, no one should have to choose between their health and a much-needed break from the daily grind.
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All my vacation time I took this last year went to sickness, death, post-death assistance, and I took the last two weeks off to try and fix things around home that have been broken the entire year, and I felt guilty about all of it. USA! USA!
US Labor Laws suck shit compared to the 1st World EU countries. Whenever my German colleagues complained about stress, I always said, " work in the USA and you will return screaming."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taft-Hartley_Act
Bullshit law from 1947 that outlaws solidarity between unions. It's legalized criminality. It's why I think it's important UAW are lining all their contacts up for May 1st, 2028 and encouraging other unions to do the same.
Among the practices prohibited by the Taft–Hartley act are jurisdictional strikes, wildcat strikes, solidarity or political strikes, secondary boycotts, secondary and mass picketing, closed shops, and monetary donations by unions to federal political campaigns.
Isn't that what the police unions do all the time?
I bring this up every time someone says they're in favor of deregulation. Most of the time they actually aren't.
European here.
Lately at my work, we are actually being asked to submit a vacation plan for the next year at the end of the previous year. I basically had to sit down with my significant other and plan out exactly when we would take time off. My work demands this (and to a lesser degree, hers too) because people apparently have issues with using up their vacation days in the year they are valid for, and that is a real problem for the company, even a legal one. Theoretically, if there is a lot of work, and vacation time is not possible, the company could agree to not let the vacation days expire, but that means they have to put money on the side in case they have to pay out the vacation days, which is a lot of money uselessly bound that cannot be spent.
So yeah, 30 days every year, and when we're sick, we're sick. Some people take a vacation day to see a doctor, but most people just try to do that in the early morning or in the evening and maybe take some overtime hours for that.
I am not telling you this to gloat. I am telling you this to let you know your bosses are taking you for a ride. Demand more, demand better. If that doesn't work, there's always
I'm in Denmark, if I need to go to the doctor, dentist etc during working hours, it is usually counted as sick leave. This means full pay and no deduction in vacation time, and here we don't run out of sick leave.
Although we do have a dury to try doing it outside office hours.
As a European, you should remember that it took 15 years to go from the guillotine to crowning Napoleon emperor with similar powers to the late king.
I agree- demand more, demand better. But don't expect to solve your problems with a guillotine. It takes a hell of a lot more than that.
True, but sometimes it's good to remind the bourgeoise that they should be scared if the mistreatment of the working class grows unacceptable to the latter, with no way to change things from within the system.
This is one of the basic problems - mixing sick leave an vacation.
This thing where you have a certain number of sick days to spend, it often ends up as another kind of vacation. And then when you are out of sick leave, your vacation leave is just another kind of sick leave.
Here in Denmark, there's virtually unlimited sick leave. If you're sick, you take a leave with full pay. No "max 14 days of paid sick leave". If you need to go to the doctor and you can't do it outside working hours, it's sick leave.
Then your vacation leave is for vacation. And sometimes errands, but with 25-30 days per year, there should be time for both.
I get 11 PTO days this year. That includes sick days and vacation days. I love my job and company, but the time off sucks. I can go over that if I need to take care of myself, but it still sucks
Ouch. I give my nanny more time off than that. You may love your job and company but just remember that they do not care about you or your coworkers.
I have plenty of vacation time. I could take over a month off of work right now if I wanted to, and still have enough left to cover any sick days.
The problem is that I work a night shift, which comes with a pay differential at my job. But that differential doesn't get paid out when I use vacation time. So if I take any time off work, my paycheck that week is significantly lower. Which is the reason I have over a month's worth of vacation hours, because using them means getting paid less so I never end up taking any time off. It's a fucking trap that I can't get out of and it's been driving me insane. I Just need some time off, but I also need to pay the rent.
There's always crime! Working the night shift brings all sorts of possibilities!
I’m just burned out doing stupid shit at work. I usually have like 1 real hour of work per day, max. The rest is all horseshit. I don’t need to be there 2 days a week, I don’t need to be at my fucking computer at all, for the most part. It’s all bullshit meetings, bullshit spreadsheets, bullshit emails.
That’s what I’ve come to realize too, I’m burned out by the bullshit not the actual work, if anything I want something more challenging as long as it means less bullshit.
I know all of my leave is relegated to medical care. Recently I got to stay home while hubs and some friends went to new Orleans because I didn't have enough leave to go too. I'm pretty frickin burned out by now
No judgement intended but your comment had me thinking "damn, how often must Americans get sick that this is such a problem?" Then I checked myself and realised I have been taking healthcare for granted, and it's not health that we're talking about really but time for being a human - collapsing when you just can't and helping dependents or family when they do the same. This inhuman profit-driven system in your country is attempting to erode what it is to be a human. We'll have to fight, unfortunately, but they will never win.
Minor improvement I heard of was implemented. A company let employees use sick time for doctors visits, because it is preemptive to employees getting sick and actually resulted in less employees on lengthy sick leave. For example finding cancer before it turns into a major issue, because employees don't have to weigh PTO time off for childcare or selfcare.
There are steps companies can do to improve their employees lives. One miniscule pool of PTO as a catch all doesn't cut it anymore. There is too much demand on our time outside of work.
Wait, using Sick Time for doctor visits isn't the norm? Damn, I guess I've been spoiled by unions my whole career.
... you guys have vocation times?
I encourage my subordinates to take advantage of their salary job and work a few hours in the AM, deal with their personal medical BS, and check their email at the end of the day to see if anything urgent needs to be addressed. I’d rather they work a little bit then take the whole day off. Save that time for a real sick day.