employee memo

[HeinekenMan]

Word around the office, in the first two weeks of the new policy, is that most (almost all) personal day requests have been denied.

Word also is, that the policy wasn't the idea of the publisher (although he is all for it), but was handed down to him from higher up the corporate ladder.

i hope your resume is polished and in the mail. for your company to exert that much control over your life, you've gotta really love your job.

I also hope your resume is polished. ... Because if anyone at that joint reads this site, and if they are as heavyhanded as said memo's author, you're going to be on your can in no time.

and don't think there isn't someone there that doesn't read this site.

I've thought the same thing before.

Wow, a triple negative! Impressive.

Actually, I think your observation made me laugh as much as the perineum post. I didn't even know a triple negative was possible. Wait until Bela Karolyi hears about this!

 

[HeinekenMan]

I know a girl whose sister was killed when a drunken driver hit her head-on while going the wrong way on the interstate.

It happened a few weeks before I started my first gig. My first week there, another employee told me that this girl was scolded when she tried to take a third day off for grievance. The boss said that she wouldn't get paid if it happened again.

My reply was that he didn't have anything to worry about because, hey, she doesn't have any other sisters.

 

[PEteacher]

I know a girl whose sister was killed when a drunken driver hit her head-on while going the wrong way on the interstate.

It happened a few weeks before I started my first gig. My first week there, another employee told me that this girl was scolded when she tried to take a third day off for grievance. The boss said that she wouldn't get paid if it happened again.

My reply was that he didn't have anything to worry about because, hey, she doesn't have any other sisters.

That boss is a first-class jerk

 

[HeinekenMan]

I know a girl whose sister was killed when a drunken driver hit her head-on while going the wrong way on the interstate.

It happened a few weeks before I started my first gig. My first week there, another employee told me that this girl was scolded when she tried to take a third day off for grievance. The boss said that she wouldn't get paid if it happened again.

My reply was that he didn't have anything to worry about because, hey, she doesn't have any other sisters.

That boss is a first-class jerk

I wouldn't argue that. A month later, my wife had her gall bladder removed the morning after I took her to the emergency room. I took one day off, and I was docked a day's pay because I hadn't built up any vacation time. He just divided my base salary by 40 hours, multiplied by 8 hours and had that amount deducted from my check even though I was working almost 60 hours per week at the time.

 

[PEteacher]

I know a girl whose sister was killed when a drunken driver hit her head-on while going the wrong way on the interstate.

It happened a few weeks before I started my first gig. My first week there, another employee told me that this girl was scolded when she tried to take a third day off for grievance. The boss said that she wouldn't get paid if it happened again.

My reply was that he didn't have anything to worry about because, hey, she doesn't have any other sisters.

That boss is a first-class jerk

I wouldn't argue that. A month later, my wife had her gall bladder removed the morning after I took her to the emergency room. I took one day off, and I was docked a day's pay because I hadn't built up any vacation time. He just divided my base salary by 40 hours, multiplied by 8 hours and had that amount deducted from my check even though I was working almost 60 hours per week at the time.

Well, if it makes you feel better, they don't understand the concept of comp time in my neck of the woods either.

 

[rascalface]

I worked at a union shop where management couldn't ask you why you were out sick or require a doctor's note. You took a sick day and that was that.

Current gig lumps vacation time, sick time and personal time all together. Getting specific days off usually means swapping days off with someone or sending an email to the boss that says, "hey, I need next Thursday off." Done and done. Our desk types rarely take sick days (I haven't been off "sick" in at least three years), but in those rare instances (or if someone has a family emergency, etc.), somebody else just sucks it up. Seems to work just fine, and, other than holidays/super bowl weekend/ncaa tournament time, everybody gets all the time off they want/need with minimal bitching/whining/slashies/parenthesis.

A plan like the one posted here would seem like an incredible waste of time, money and employee good will.

 

[txsportsscribe]

gosh, some of these horror stories make me feel better about my under-10k rag. we don't have official sick or personal days. if we need to take a day off for sickness, family reasons, whatever, we take a day off. last year i had cervical spine surgery, was unavailable for almost two weeks following the operation and filed stories from home for more than a month after that. the powers-that-be were more concerned that i came back to work in the office too soon. i never missed a paycheck during that two months of heck and still got my paid vacation in the summer.

 

[Starman]

I worked at a union shop where management couldn't ask you why you were out sick or require a doctor's note. You took a sick day and that was that.

Current gig lumps vacation time, sick time and personal time all together. Getting specific days off usually means swapping days off with someone or sending an email to the boss that says, "hey, I need next Thursday off." Done and done. Our desk types rarely take sick days (I haven't been off "sick" in at least three years), but in those rare instances (or if someone has a family emergency, etc.), somebody else just sucks it up. Seems to work just fine, and, other than holidays/super bowl weekend/ncaa tournament time, everybody gets all the time off they want/need with minimal bitching/whining/slashies/parenthesis.

A plan like the one posted here would seem like an incredible waste of time, money and employee good will.

"Employee good will" is the absolute last thing on the minds of forkers like these.

Among many other things, the reason to institute such policies is to remind all employees that "We Hold The Hammer, and You Will Do What We Tell You, and You Will forking Like It."

 

[area313code]

Sick day?

Personal day?

We get those?

 

[farmerjerome]

That blows. When I'm sick (flu, cold, whatever), I hate to go to the doctor. heck, I hate to move enough to change the television station with the remote.

BTW, Irish, it's called a grundle. Or a grundel.

 

[joe_schmoe]

gosh, some of these horror stories make me feel better about my under-10k rag. we don't have official sick or personal days. if we need to take a day off for sickness, family reasons, whatever, we take a day off. last year i had cervical spine surgery, was unavailable for almost two weeks following the operation and filed stories from home for more than a month after that. the powers-that-be were more concerned that i came back to work in the office too soon. i never missed a paycheck during that two months of heck and still got my paid vacation in the summer.

that's great. i can relate. despite our policy abou sick days near vacation, my boss has always been cool.

we get 3 days bereavement leave for immediate family (parent, spouse, child or sibling) but it makes no provisions for other things cousins, grandparents/children, etc. but the two funerals i've had to go to one was my last granparent and the other my best friends'  mom. my boss told me just put funeral leave for both, even though, technically it should have been vacation time.

personally, i dont think three days is enough, if you're spouse or child dies, especially if you have to make all the arrangements.

 

[Starman]

A dozen or so years ago, my mother became critically ill. For about two months, I drove 200 miles round trip, four times a week, to help with her care. In the process, I burned up all my personal, sick, and vacation time, which was very limited, since I was in my first year on the job.

Around the holidays, she seemed to get better. Having used up all my SPV days, I was ordered to work every day through the holidays, "since everyone else has had to pick up days for you." OK, fine.

New year begins. On Jan. 5, she dies. I take 3 days off for the funeral and other arrangements. I'm informed these will have to be unpaid days off, since I've already burned up all my allotted off days. (Bereavement days were not a separate category).

Two weeks later, I call in sick for one day. I show up for work the next day, and I'm told they're letting me go, to get somebody "more dependable."