Why Can't I Call In Sick?

I'm sniffling and coughing like a mofo, and felt nauseous all last night as I tried to sleep. I'm going to pick up some allergy stuff at the store, though I've never had allergies before.

I'll hope I feel better before work tomorrow.

 

See, Fredrick isn't alone.
You people act like I'm whining. I'm just pointing out my experiences and saying no superior has ever even considered sympathizing because it's obvious I'm sick as a dog working. This is the newspaper business (or was, now it's the Web business). There are others who have similar experiences to mine. I realize ultimately I am the one responsible for my own health and my own experiences at work. I'm telling you people at my sweatshop do not care if you are puking or coughing up a storm. You have to work. My only personal exception is if I have the full body chills or a full blown migraine. It's impossible to work with those things. Also hospitalization of course.

 

It pains me to say this, but Petty's right about the professional victim thing.

 

They'll never stop you from calling in sick.

I can't *wait* until the day my paper tries to prevent me from taking a sick day. Would a lawsuit or straight blackmail be more lucrative?

 

yup.

 

So Rick, I appreciate your posts.
My question to you is, what would you have done in Some Guy's instance where he puked, came out of the bathroom and the SE told him, 'I wish I could send you home.' Would you have said, 'I am going home!' Or kept working as he did?

 

"I'm going straight home. Do you want a doctor's note or is my word enough?"

 

I'm puking, I'm going home. but a cough? headache? I've got shit in my desk drawers for that. it's another symptom of having a hell of a lot of pride in my work and my section. you've gotta know where to draw the line for yourself.

 

I don't blame you. Really I don't. I was young in the business then, and maybe a little naive, and I did what I was told.

Hell, I *wanted* to work.

A big-time college coach was in our little shit town that day, and I was the only one available to cover the story. So I did. Because if I didn't, it wouldn't get covered, and our paper would look small and stupid.

Of course, this was back in the day when our papers actually treated us as something more than human cattle, and we all had more pride.

The way our employers are treating us these days makes it easier to tell them to go take a flying leap.

Even so, the beat I'm on now, I'm not taking a sick day unless there's someone that can cover for me, or unless I am quite literally dying. My absence would be noticed.

 

Puking didn't stop the old-timers, but generally they were puking because of hangovers.

I worked once a few hours after getting a wisdom tooth out and I was pretty doped up on, I think, Vicodin. That was in the '80s, it was just what we did. Sick days were for the features department, haha. Like, you know, for the lady writing about finger foods. Different papers, and different sections within a paper, all have their own cultures. At some places you don't call in unless you have something that would require hospitalization. You can argue about it all you want here, but that's just the reality at some places. Other papers, it's like, "ewww, cooties, get away from me." So I'd never give blanket advice to someone without knowing the place.

 

Hell, there's no newsroom culture anymore these days. It's all sterilized. Corporate cubicles. People put on their iPods, do their work and go home.

 

that whole hate thing still is boiling over, fucker.