I'm taking a few days off -- well, they're making me take a few days off; I had deferred some vacation time earlier in the year and it's not as simple as "use it or lose it;" it cannot be carried over and we are required to use it.* So here I am. I'll have to work a half-day tomorrow (a thing that can't be rescheduled) but the rest of the week is free time! I'll be able to stay off my bad knee and work on getting better.
Celebrating with a nice bowl of sausage, fried potatoes and mushrooms plus scrambled eggs.
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* Vacation and sick leave polices at my workplace are byzantine and I'd say they border on punitive, except I have worked many jobs where there was no such thing as "paid sick time:" if you were too sick to work, you didn't get paid. Compared to that, five paid sick days a year and a requirement to burn vacation days for any extended medical absence past that point plus three-quarter pay for really long medical leave is actually pretty decent. And individual sick days once you're over the limit can be taken as unpaid leave or vacation, which I think is fair.
BUILDING A 1:1 BALUN
4 years ago
5 comments:
* Sounds like gubbermint in action.
In some businesses/organizations, the mandatory time off is an anti-fraud measure. Not that they necessarily ever suspected any particular person of fraud, but a lot the schemes people use to illicitly enrich themselves at the expense of their employer tend to fall apart* if the principle fraudster is not there to keep all the juggled pieces juggling.
So it is a common suggestion in corporate-security web-forums that you should have a blanket one-size-fits-all policy on the use of regular paid leave.
It's also (from a big picture view) good practice -- I had employees who hated the burden I placed upon them to document their processes when they were the only one doing a task, right up until the day that I missed due to kidney stones. They were able to follow my notes to do my tasks, and we missed no deadlines. Working out the logistics of "cover" in slow time can be preferable to the alternative, and also working out "who is in charge of X" to minimize the inevitable status-fights during crisis.
*e.g.: The chap in Texas who managed to steal $1.2 million dollars worth of fajitas over 9 years was done in by taking a day off.
(from a big picture view)
It sure is a lot better from the "what needs to get done this week" if the policy can be bent, as most employees won't be too worried about "wrong because it's against the rules" wrongs enough to double-check and remind their supervisor that calling me in today for this crisis means that I'll be gone the entire week that the annual report is due. . .
Perhaps a little time on 40meters or even 15meters might prove restorative.
Naw, Jerry, the gummint is very very generous when it comes to time off.
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