I feel bad for calling in sick because my department is horrifically understaffed and 1 person not showing up for work increases the workload of everyone else by about 50%. And since it’s a hospital, it’s not like we can just continue working like normal and let the company eat the profit loss; if our department is not working at 100% then innocent people’s health suffers.
I mean, every reason you said is just reasons that management should have extreme ire directed towards them. You don’t set the staff, but they DO, and they are CHOOSING to understaff you.
It is harm THEY are causing, not you.
It’s still the same problem, though. Your workplace should be acutely aware humans become unwell. And plan sufficiently. I think that guilt is a relied on in any workplace, it’s going to feel very much more dire in yours. I feel for you. In a perfect world, there would be enough staff that staying home sick, wouldn’t matter. They could take previous years data and project how much coverage they need, and employ more (that’s ignoring shortages, but that’s another story to unpack). Or job share with someone, half the work, same amount of pay, holidays and sick days now don’t matter, take them when you want. No workplaces need to be like this, even the shortage of available staff is a fixable thing, it just lowers profit and puts the balance and focus back on enjoyment of life. Money is the root of all evil.
that’s ignoring shortages, but that’s another story to unpack
Sadly that seems to be the trend these days. Healthcare is still trying to recover from staffing losses during the pandemic.
It is a problem that they are also throwing money at, which is not even really solving anything. A good friend of mine is a travel nurse, who gets paid quite a bit more than the other nurses she works with for her willingness to relocate to work a temporary contract. Ideally, her hospital would just keep her contract up until they reach the staffing they need, after which she would go elsewhere, but they can’t keep people on staff and have to keep upping their ratio of travelers to compensate.
Unfair of the company to provide this service without adequate staff. If the people requiring the service suffer because of short staff, they are suffering because of management, not the workers.
I really hate how management uses their failures to turn the screws on their employees that they often don’t pay enough.
Another part: Being gone for a week to recover means most people come back to a mountain of work because nobody could back them up because they’re all also ungodly busy.
This is always what it is for me. I don’t care so much about leaving the company short-staffed so much as it genuinely makes my life 10x harder and takes weeks for me to get myself in a stable spot again.
Or worse, they’re paid an hourly wage and have to decide between going to work sick or skipping a few meals next pay period.
Feel bad for calling in, or afraid of getting fired for calling in?
The worst part is, I have no idea what generation OP is from.
This could in fact be any generation.
Can we please replace, “a generation of,” with just people? People have been doing that because it’s woven into the genetic fabric of our social existence. We need to find realistic ways to undo this.
I just got written up at work for attendance. I asked them about it, and they said it was because I called out 5 times across 7 months.
I can call out 5 times in 7 months, or I can come in and cause 5 other people to call in five times in 7 months.
Unrelated question - what’s this sick leave for, exactly?
exactly.
it’s supposed to be paid time that you can use to make up for the hours you missed while sick. That way, your paycheck doesn’t take a hit.
Speak for yourself, unless I’m getting payed well, I don’t give a fuck.
I’m paid well and still dgaf. I think I’ve taken at least a month of sick leave this year.
We’re part of the lucky few my friend. And I’m currently unemployed!
I don’t give a shit. What is the company has enough staff or not, I just don’t wanna leave my coworkers picking up my slack.
I know what you mean. When I was in the service industry super loyal friends that were great to work with but that unity is only exploited by management to get shifts covered instead of staffing up. It was like an antiunion.
If your company celebrates good profits, but doesn’t volunteer raises that reflect that, you shouldn’t have to beg if you were part of the machine that made that profit, that should tell you all you need to know.
The fact that just doesn’t happen unless you’re in the strangest of American Workplaces demonstrates where you sit in their universe. A disposable liability. The cost of doing business. You make them multiple times more money than they pay you, and they resent and nickel and dime even what little they have to remit back to you for you to not just walk out solely so the assholes at the top can live larger than they need to. In a sad, sociopathic society where working means life and not working means being tossed into an alley to die, that means your life means absolutely nothing to them, just in case the suicide nets outside the factories where they hire third world slaves to save a dollar didn’t clue you in.
What is this “we” of which you speak?
I don’t
