Work Status Update

[UAEebs86]

The beatings will continue until morale improves.

[Merkin]

[UAEebs86]

[UAEebs86]

Just accepted an offer to go back to my old company in Scottsdale. Our kids graduated from UofA/NAU in 2020, both got married this spring, both moved away, and my wife is homesick (born and raised in Phoenix and there until we moved to Vail 16 years ago). Almost her whole family and my mom & son/daughter-in-law are up there.

Not ready for the heat but at least we are moving in the fall this time.

[Merkin]

Well done Eebs! Hopefully you are vested in the pension system of your prior employer.

[scumdevils86]

Since I've been working from home for 3 years, I received a 15 year anniversary gift from my company in the mail today. Some kind of glass plaque paperweight thing. Wtf do I do with it. -_-

[Chicat]

Just got a Christmas bonus. I did not think that was still a thing.

No, it wasn’t a Jelly of the Month Club membership.

“Clark, it’s the gift that keeps on giving all year long…”

[CatsbyAZ]

Wtf do I do with it. -_-

[dovecanyoncat]

Just got a Christmas bonus. I did not think that was still a thing.

No, it wasn’t a Jelly of the Month Club membership.

“Clark, it’s the gift that keeps on giving all year long…”

Bourbon of the Month Club?

[Chicat]

Just got a Christmas bonus. I did not think that was still a thing.

No, it wasn’t a Jelly of the Month Club membership.

“Clark, it’s the gift that keeps on giving all year long…”

Bourbon of the Month Club?

Damn, I wish. Although what I got can buy a lot of bourbon monthly.

[dovecanyoncat]

Just got a Christmas bonus. I did not think that was still a thing.

No, it wasn’t a Jelly of the Month Club membership.

“Clark, it’s the gift that keeps on giving all year long…”

Bourbon of the Month Club?

Damn, I wish. Although what I got can buy a lot of bourbon monthly.

Here's to a well funded Mastery of Your Own Domain.

[ASUHATER!]

Hah my work doesn't even acknowledge our existence much less give us anything for the holidays

[azgreg]

A friend of mine has a whiskey advent calendar. He said according to it Christmas was last Wednesday.

[dovecanyoncat]

Hah my work doesn't even acknowledge our existence much less give us anything for the holidays

In our hearts we all wish we could be Chicat.

[Alieberman]

Last year my company gave everyone the week off paid between Christmas and New Years

This year (2 weeks ago) they told us we better have PTO if we want the whole week off (even though our company effectively shuts down that week

[ASUHATER!]

Last year my company gave everyone the week off paid between Christmas and New Years

This year (2 weeks ago) they told us we better have PTO if we want the whole week off (even though our company effectively shuts down that week

We work every holiday and don't get any extra pay or anything. Closed 2 days a year and if you're scheduled off that day then too bad you just lose the pay. Hooray pharmacy work.

[Chicat]

Last year my company gave everyone the week off paid between Christmas and New Years

This year (2 weeks ago) they told us we better have PTO if we want the whole week off (even though our company effectively shuts down that week

We work every holiday and don't get any extra pay or anything. Closed 2 days a year and id you're scheduled off that day then too bad you just lose the pay. Hooray pharmacy work.

My company takes off the week between Christmas and New Years every year. But in fairness, so does the rest of my industry.

Last year I did put in a few hours work over that week, but only out of absolute necessity. Usually though it’s quiet and nothing has to get handled until after the new year.

[Merkin]

The CA university I used to work for moves holidays around so they close the week between Christmas and New Years. Not that anyone worked anyway before they did that with all the vacation we received. Just saves so much money for the campus to shut everything down.


December 25 - Christmas Day holiday
December 26 - Washington’s Birthday observed (2/20/23)
December 27 - California Admission Day observed (9/9/23)
December 28 - Indigenous Peoples’ Day observed (10/9/23)
December 29 - Campus closed (anticipated Governor/President holiday)

Hooray pharmacy work.

Don't think you are a pharmacist, but the pharmacist at Walgreens here told me they fight over who gets to work on Christmas since they get 2.5 times pay, getting $240 an hour or something like that.

[dovecanyoncat]

We self employed grunts just can't relate. Bourbon for Chi; Oxy for Hater; Co-eds for Merkin. I guess the straight world has some perks.

"Let's go crash that party down in Normaltown tonight ......."

[scumdevils86]

I was off last week for my septoplasty and will be off next week too. Yay 11 holidays and 28 days of PTO. I'm paying for it this week working nearly 60 hours.

[ASUHATER!]

The CA university I used to work for moves holidays around so they close the week between Christmas and New Years. Not that anyone worked anyway before they did that with all the vacation we received. Just saves so much money for the campus to shut everything down.


December 25 - Christmas Day holiday
December 26 - Washington’s Birthday observed (2/20/23)
December 27 - California Admission Day observed (9/9/23)
December 28 - Indigenous Peoples’ Day observed (10/9/23)
December 29 - Campus closed (anticipated Governor/President holiday)

Hooray pharmacy work.

Don't think you are a pharmacist, but the pharmacist at Walgreens here told me they fight over who gets to work on Christmas since they get 2.5 times pay, getting $240 an hour or something like that.

We aren't open on Christmas but yeah pharmacists get all the extra pay and bonuses and stuff when the techs that actually do the work get nothing.

[azgreg]

My company gives us 10 holiday days off a year. They used to use a lot of them for the last two weeks of the year. We would need to use a couple of PTO days for complete pay. This year we only Christmas day and New Years day off, but we still get the 10 days, they just have been distributed throughout the year. For example, we now get Juneteenth off and a couple of extra days around the 4th of July and Thanksgiving.

[Chicat]

Just got an email that we are changing our PTO policy to include 5 days of sick leave and 2 floating holidays. Before if you were sick it came out of your vacation PTO.

So next year I could conceivably take 20 days vacation, 5 sick days, 2 floating holidays, plus 9 observed holidays and the week off between Christmas and New Years (4 days). That’s 40 days off. Not too shabby…

[EastCoastCat]

Just got a Christmas bonus. I did not think that was still a thing.

No, it wasn’t a Jelly of the Month Club membership.

“Clark, it’s the gift that keeps on giving all year long…”

With this news I hope you are buying the first round of Bourbon's whenever we connect...

[scumdevils86]

Just got an email that we are changing our PTO policy to include 5 days of sick leave and 2 floating holidays. Before if you were sick it came out of your vacation PTO.

So next year I could conceivably take 20 days vacation, 5 sick days, 2 floating holidays, plus 9 observed holidays and the week off between Christmas and New Years (4 days). That’s 40 days off. Not too shabby…

This is kinda how my work does it now too. 28 days PTO, 6 days sick time, 11 paid holidays. So technically 45 days off.

[pc in NM]

Just got an email that we are changing our PTO policy to include 5 days of sick leave and 2 floating holidays. Before if you were sick it came out of your vacation PTO.

So next year I could conceivably take 20 days vacation, 5 sick days, 2 floating holidays, plus 9 observed holidays and the week off between Christmas and New Years (4 days). That’s 40 days off. Not too shabby…

This is kinda how my work does it now too. 28 days PTO, 6 days sick time, 11 paid holidays. So technically 45 days off.

Taking sick leave out of PTO is grossly unfair, not to mention, likely a cause of more illness communicated at work! Off the oppressors!!!

[azgreg]

When Obamacare took affect my company converted one week of everyone's PTO to sick time to "comply with the law."

[pc in NM]

When Obamacare took affect my company converted one week of everyone's PTO to sick time to "comply with the law."

That sucks too!! Sick leave can't be planned ahead, at least not visibly, so you were actually cheated out of discretionary time off.

And, of course, they blamed "Obamacare" for their thievery!!

I remember early in the APA, during an "annual benefits review", the insurance reps complained that APA caused a price increase, but then bragged on some of the "new benefits added for next year"... They were all built into the APA. Working for a small non-profit, insurance was a steadily shrinking, increasingly expensive benefit, that really could be unaffordable for lower income staff - universal healthcare would have been so much more beneficial

[gronk4heisman]

I have not taken a sick day since I can not remember, especially with remote working an option now it is near impossible because taking that unexpected day off and coming back to a flood of emails is more stressful than fighting through it.

With my company I get 7 fixed holidays, 3 floating and 26 days of PTO. But they also offer PTB and PTO is by the hour so even when I take a Monday or Friday off I rarely actually touch my PTO because I am around or over 80 hours for the two week pay periods. I am at a constant struggle to keep under my PTO cap of 400 hours taking random days to just sit on my ass so I don't go over.

[Chicat]

The big thing for me is now I can take a mental health day and label it as “Sick” as opposed to feeling like I don’t want to dip into my vacation so I should just tough it out. Happens extremely rarely, but sometimes with personal stuff in the background, working a day can be a torture that’s better avoided.

[Merkin]

Even when I was had medical issues, I took vacation days. Any unused sick days gets added to your time in service, and when I retired I had enough sick days to add an extra year to my time in service which affects my pension for life.

When Obamacare took affect my company converted one week of everyone's PTO to sick time to "comply with the law."

Raytheon? One of my RWNJ brothers blamed ObamaCare for Raytheon cutting way back on health coverage. And not Raytheon.

[dovecanyoncat]

My naivete and lack of straight world experience makes this a fascinating discussion, especially coming from folks I respect, people who are far more representative of aggregate labor reality. There's a lot of consideration and execution y'all have to put into managing the nuances of company structure, and I never had that burden. To emerge at the end of a professional career with stability, security, and capital sufficient to have raised families and to have met/achieved retirement goals impresses the fuck out of a guy like me.

Perhaps I sound infantile, but y'all are fluent in a language of life not native to my brain. I would have failed miserably, with all my disabilities exposed.

[Chicat]

It can definitely be difficult to navigate, ethically, emotionally, politically and more. For instance, I worked at a company that provided unlimited PTO, but very few people actually used it. It disincentivized taking time off because you didn’t want to be seen as abusing the system. But then others would straight up abuse the system and earn the wrath of their coworkers. When you haven’t taken a day off in months because you want to prove to management that you’re Johnny Try Hard but then you look over at Becky’s desk collecting dust because she’s on her third week in Portugal, you end up hating everyone including yourself.

The Euro model is probably best. You have a lot of time off and you’re required to take it. Then there’s no question about whether the team can live without you for 8 days while you’re on your honeymoon, or 1 day because you’re about to snap and take Becky’s dusty stapler hostage.

[UAEebs86]

The Euro model is probably best. You have a lot of time off and you’re required to take it. Then there’s no question about whether the team can live without you for 8 days while you’re on your honeymoon, or 1 day because you’re about to snap and take Becky’s dusty stapler hostage.

I had a coworker who used to say if you have an employee who is indispensable, fire them, because sooner or later they will be gone for one reason or another and you'll be fucked because the rest of the company can't perform the responsibilities of that person who left.

[Alieberman]

Am I a bad person because I don't give a shit if my company can live without me for a couple weeks?

[dovecanyoncat]

Chi and Eebs, thanks for populating scenarios I can't imagine. In what you describe I would be paralyzed in a broad spectrum of petty resentment and actual personal dilution. If productivity is important to personal industry, any fucking industry, how does one reckon this shit? Seriously, I must not be an actual adult if this context was naturally of my incubation as a worker.

[scumdevils86]

Just got an email that we are changing our PTO policy to include 5 days of sick leave and 2 floating holidays. Before if you were sick it came out of your vacation PTO.

So next year I could conceivably take 20 days vacation, 5 sick days, 2 floating holidays, plus 9 observed holidays and the week off between Christmas and New Years (4 days). That’s 40 days off. Not too shabby…

I already had 28 days of PTO and no sick time. They just added 6 days on top of the already existing PTO. Win win
This is kinda how my work does it now too. 28 days PTO, 6 days sick time, 11 paid holidays. So technically 45 days off.

Taking sick leave out of PTO is grossly unfair, not to mention, likely a cause of more illness communicated at work! Off the oppressors!!!

[Carcassdragger]

In 39 years of full time professional life, I've taken a total of less than three days off as sick leave. Just wasn't raised that way.

To me, if you have the sniffles, get your ass up and go to work.

[pc in NM]

In 39 years of full time professional life, I've taken a total of less than three days off as sick leave. Just wasn't raised that way.

To me, if you have the sniffles, get your ass up and go to work.

"if you have the sniffles, get your ass up and go to work." - not if you're contagious, you shouldn't - and at some places, I've worked, you'd be sent home...

At one of the mental health centers where I worked, we had some employees like you, but, there was a max accumulation of sick leave, so they'd lose some of their accrued leave every year. We also had many more who maxed out on sick leave every year; many of the latter were regarded to be abusing the privilege. So we instituted a policy where each year, if one was about to max out their accrual, they'd get 50% of the potential "loss" converted to PTO.

FYI, we also had a maximum on accrual of PTO, and the CEO often had to assist the some folks actually take some PTO each year - it was not only a "benefit", but also something that contributed to one's health/mental health...

Another interesting practice that I saw a couple of times, when an employee had a serious illness (e.g., cancer), staff were allowed to "contribute" some of their sick leave to the individual so that they could receive treatment/recovery without income loss when thye maxed out their own sick/PTO... That was really cool, and was great for cohesiveness and loyalty!!

[Chicat]

In 39 years of full time professional life, I've taken a total of less than three days off as sick leave. Just wasn't raised that way.

To me, if you have the sniffles, get your ass up and go to work.

Oh god no. Please stay home. I do not want to catch whatever you have just so you can prove your generation is tougher or that you were raised with a better work ethic than everyone.

I’m not required to go into the office but will from time to time, and there’s one woman who is constantly sick and spreading her germs everywhere. So now if there’s a work event my first question is whether Marlena is going, because if she is, I’m out. No idea why in this day and age ANYONE would leave the house sick unless it was absolutely necessary.

[Merkin]

I was only allowed to carry 186 hours of vacation on the books, as to force us to take vacation. I just ended up taking off the 1st and 3rd Fridays off every month, and the last year or so took every Friday off.

In 39 years of full time professional life, I've taken a total of less than three days off as sick leave. Just wasn't raised that way.

To me, if you have the sniffles, get your ass up and go to work.

When my kids were in elementary school, the principal told the parents that unless they are vomiting or have a fever, send them to school.

If the kids are out sick, the school doesn't get paid. I think at the time 20+ years ago schools received $100 per student per day of instruction.

Didn't seem like a very good idea even then, so hopefully they changed that practice. Although I can see a lot of abuse by the schools, for example if a student moves out of district, they keep them on the roster as long as they can.

[ASUHATER!]

All this makes me feel terrible lol. Pharmacy employees are treated like garbage. We accrue the equivalent of like 7 days of vacation and 9 days of sick time a year and that's it. No paid holidays, no time and a half on holidays. I used all of my vacation days for my wedding and now I'm back to 0 vacation days until I slowly earn more. By next July I can take another week off work maybe

[Chicat]

All this makes me feel terrible lol. Pharmacy employees are treated like garbage. We accrue the equivalent of like 7 days of vacation and 9 days of sick time a year and that's it. No paid holidays, no time and a half on holidays. I used all of my vacation days for my wedding and now I'm back to 0 vacation days until I slowly earn more. By next July I can take another week off work maybe

Can your manager not give you your future time? We accrue time too, but my management figures you’ll still be here in a few months so go ahead and take it now before it’s earned as long as you aren’t abusing it.

Your system feels like an invitation to abuse sick time. Pretend you have a cough or a doctor’s appointment and enjoy your day off.

[ASUHATER!]

No strict corporate law and hierarchy applies. The time off rules are the same for everyone no exceptions nationwide. I won't say where it is but it's a major nationwide chain. Absolutely 0 negotiating and changes can be made with attendance or PTO policies

[scumdevils86]

In 39 years of full time professional life, I've taken a total of less than three days off as sick leave. Just wasn't raised that way.

To me, if you have the sniffles, get your ass up and go to work.

This isn't a flex. At all. Stay home if you're sick. Doesn't make you more manly or a better employee to always be at work. That's the attitude which leads to us not having livable wages and bare minimum working conditions for most people in America.

[Carcassdragger]

In 39 years of full time professional life, I've taken a total of less than three days off as sick leave. Just wasn't raised that way.

To me, if you have the sniffles, get your ass up and go to work.

This isn't a flex. At all. Stay home if you're sick. Doesn't make you more manly or a better employee to always be at work. That's the attitude which leads to us not having livable wages and bare minimum working conditions for most people in America.

Haha. Jeez. Good one.

[UAEebs86]

[Chicat]

All very very true. Spot on.

[dovecanyoncat]

As a xeno-something misfit worker I find this lexicon utterly heartbreaking. Don't get me wrong, I cynically presume the pain-point intimacies of work life drill into all of us: who the fuck wouldn't. But those that flourish across a broad spectrum of human commonality are especially gruesome, not for their every single impact, but for the breadth of their aggregation.

There was a time in life when I thought this depicted the proper professional thing to shoot for, and I was ashamed for having failed to make it. Decades later I read an aged unspecified chagrin in my old mates who in the day hit the mark and soldiered on to endure their special reward/torment. We weigh each other both in that reckoned chagrin. They have a cultural community of commonality and understanding. I try to lay off an envy and disappointment and relief I can't explain.

[Carcassdragger]

As a xeno-something misfit worker I find this lexicon utterly heartbreaking. Don't get me wrong, I cynically presume the pain-point intimacies of work life drill into all of us: who the fuck wouldn't. But those that flourish across a broad spectrum of human commonality are especially gruesome, not for their every single impact, but for the breadth of their aggregation.

There was a time in life when I thought this depicted the proper professional thing to shoot for, and I was ashamed for having failed to make it. Decades later I read an aged unspecified chagrin in my old mates who in the day hit the mark and soldiered on to endure their special reward/torment. We weigh each other both in that reckoned chagrin. They have a cultural community of commonality and understanding. I try to lay off an envy and disappointment and relief I can't explain.

"Pease explain"= What the fuck does this actually mean?

A year and a half or so before I walk out the door.