Postal Worker Retires After 44 Years With No Sick Days

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tabby
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Postal Worker Retires After 44 Years With No Sick Days

Post by tabby »

Postal Worker Retires After 44 Years With No Sick Days - WRIC Richmond News and Weather -



I’m so ambivalent about this news story! I appreciate the uniqueness of this woman’s never having used a sick day in 44 years and certainly her work ethic in general is to be applauded because clearly she didn’t abuse her sick time. But ...

Maybe it’s just a personal pet peeve but it always made me uncomfortable when my coworkers would come to work sick. I’ve known people to show up so ill in the throes of the flu or a bad cold or coughing up a lung with loose phlegm rattling in their chest and they’d seem so proud that they made it to work as though it were some kind of testament to their dedication and personal worth.

When I’ve had a bad cold or flu, I can’t even think straight much less focus my thoughts enough to do anything productive or of consequence in the work place. We are given a certain amount of time off for “sick days” ... why not use it? Why go in and risk infecting other people? We’ve all probably known people that abused their sick time but I’m talking about generally good employees who on occasion get struck down with a contagious illness. The world won’t come to an end if you stay home and try to restore your body to good health again.

I realize that to many employers it’s a numbers game ... goals ... blah blah blah. But it seems to me that they should prefer to have one employee out sick than have that individual come in and make several others sick. It just doesn’t make sense to me.

Now, getting back to the woman in the article ... she says that she used vacation time for doctor’s appointments. Why?? If she was sick she “would shrug it off”. Yes, probably onto someone else.

Maybe her health is generally robust enough that she never felt brought down low enough to stay home. If that’s true then she’s very lucky. Is luck a virtue?

If not using sick time is a virtue & something to be rewarded, does that make people who use their sick time pariahs of some kind?

I know some people don’t have paid sick leave and if they don’t work, they don’t get paid and that’s another dimension & consideration but primarily here I’m referring to employees with allowable & paid time off for sickness.

What do you think? Are you a conscientious employee who uses their sick time with discretion & when appropriate? Or do you feel compelled to work regardless?
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Snooz
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Postal Worker Retires After 44 Years With No Sick Days

Post by Snooz »

That's a major pet peeve of mine, especially since I work in an office filled with cubicle dwellers and privacy doesn't exist. Stay home if you're sick. I'd rather cover for you for a week than get your damn cold/flu/pink eye.

You know damn well she went in sick as a dog many, many times and infected not just her co-workers but customers via the post office. I think she should be ashamed of herself.
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Snooz
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Postal Worker Retires After 44 Years With No Sick Days

Post by Snooz »

By the way, I consider my sick leave to be MY sick leave and I'll use it when I want. I need many, many mental health days. :P
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Postal Worker Retires After 44 Years With No Sick Days

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SnoozeAgain;1418443 wrote: That's a major pet peeve of mine, especially since I work in an office filled with cubicle dwellers and privacy doesn't exist. Stay home if you're sick. I'd rather cover for you for a week than get your damn cold/flu/pink eye. You know damn well she went in sick as a dog many, many times and infected not just her co-workers but customers via the post office. I think she should be ashamed of herself.


I totally agree. As a teacher, I work on a bacteriological battlefield. I get a little miffed when a student who has ditched my class twenty times comes to class sick and tells me, "I had to come sick, I can't afford to miss any more days!"

I can't tell you the number of times a student has sneezed in my face, and then said, Oh sorry...I'm sick. Thanks a lot. I use my sick days every time that I feel the flu coming on. I stay home and try to sleep a lot and rest up. Many times I'm able to avoid getting seriously sick and get over it in just a day.

I have learned over the years to make sure to wash my hands frequently when dealing with children, and to never touch my eyes or face with my hands. I have cut down the number of times I get sick per year from 12-20 to 2-4.

The doctors told me that a virus rewrote my DNA in 2000 and that's why I have Rheumatoid Arthritis now. I know just where I got that virus....I should get a purple heart for that.
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Postal Worker Retires After 44 Years With No Sick Days

Post by Saint_ »

SnoozeAgain;1418444 wrote: By the way, I consider my sick leave to be MY sick leave and I'll use it when I want. I need many, many mental health days. :P


Same here. I plan to retire with NO sick days left over!
Ahso!
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Postal Worker Retires After 44 Years With No Sick Days

Post by Ahso! »

Use em if you have em - that's what I say. You're most likely underpaid anyway.
“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities,”

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Patsy Warnick
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Postal Worker Retires After 44 Years With No Sick Days

Post by Patsy Warnick »

Saint

sorry to hear about the Rhumatoid Arthritis

other meds can seriously alter your condition - please check with your DR. before even getting a simple flu shot.

My Nephew has R A - he's 40 yrs. old and copes with the flair ups - but doing well.

I find it to be very rude if a employee is sick & continues to come into work.

I've worked in the Medical Field so people came in sick to me - but my co-workers:-5.

Does this employee in this article get funds for those un-used sick days?

Patsy
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Snooz
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Postal Worker Retires After 44 Years With No Sick Days

Post by Snooz »

Federal employees get four hours of sick leave every pay period. There are 26 pay periods in a year and if you multiply that by 44, you get 4,576 hours of accumulated leave which you can sell back if you're CSRS (Civil Service Retirement System) which I assume she is since she started so long ago. I don't know if she gets the full dollar amount but even if she gets $20 per hour, that's $91,520. Not a bad sum of money.
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chonsigirl
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Postal Worker Retires After 44 Years With No Sick Days

Post by chonsigirl »

Wow, good for her if she gets that much money!
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along-for-the-ride
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Postal Worker Retires After 44 Years With No Sick Days

Post by along-for-the-ride »

I am classified as a clerical where I work, so I am eligible for paid sick leave. I do use it when I am sick and stay home. Other employees, such as Hubby who is maintenance, as well as production employees, do not get paid sick leave. When they have to stay home sick, they do not get paid. These employees, however, do get birthday and anniversary pay, whereas I do not.

I just want to add that I have not had to use my sick leave very often, (thank goodness), but I am glad to have it.

The postal employee in the OP should not have used her vacation time for sick time. Sick time is to heal the body; vacation time is to heal the mind and soul. JMO
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Snooz
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Postal Worker Retires After 44 Years With No Sick Days

Post by Snooz »

She's on a different retirement system then I am so I'm not sure of all the ins and outs but I don't think you can sell back your annual leave. And you get eight hours of annual a pay period versus the four sick leave hours, so it's actually easier to accumulate enough annual to cover when you get sick. A lot of bosses won't allow you to use annual like that though...
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Postal Worker Retires After 44 Years With No Sick Days

Post by fuzzywuzzy »

along-for-the-ride;1418547 wrote: I am classified as a clerical where I work, so I am eligible for paid sick leave. I do use it when I am sick and stay home. Other employees, such as Hubby who is maintenance, as well as production employees, do not get paid sick leave. When they have to stay home sick, they do not get paid. These employees, however, do get birthday and anniversary pay, whereas I do not.

I just want to add that I have not had to use my sick leave very often, (thank goodness), but I am glad to have it.

The postal employee in the OP should not have used her vacation time for sick time. Sick time is to heal the body; vacation time is to heal the mind and soul. JMO


The OP has really got my back up . Unions fought long and hard for that woman to have her sick pay .... and then she thumbs her nose at it and uses her annual leave? stuff her !!!!

And everyone knows you take your sick day when there is a major sporting event in town . Geesh!!! lol
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theia
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Postal Worker Retires After 44 Years With No Sick Days

Post by theia »

SnoozeAgain;1418570 wrote: She's on a different retirement system then I am so I'm not sure of all the ins and outs but I don't think you can sell back your annual leave. And you get eight hours of annual a pay period versus the four sick leave hours, so it's actually easier to accumulate enough annual to cover when you get sick. A lot of bosses won't allow you to use annual like that though...


The NHS won't. And the Bradford Score ensures that all sickness leave is carefully monitored.
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Snooz
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Postal Worker Retires After 44 Years With No Sick Days

Post by Snooz »

Unless she scheduled her annual leave for doctor appointments and management wouldn't know what she was using her leave for... but getting back to the original point, this woman definitely came in to work sick and spread her germs around. Not good.
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theia
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Postal Worker Retires After 44 Years With No Sick Days

Post by theia »

SnoozeAgain;1418611 wrote: Unless she scheduled her annual leave for doctor appointments and management wouldn't know what she was using her leave for... but getting back to the original point, this woman definitely came in to work sick and spread her germs around. Not good.


If an employee is off with sickness/diarrhoea, s/he cannot return to work until 48 hours after the last bout...this makes complete sense because no-one wants to take a bug on to a hospital ward. But the absence still gets counted on the Bradford Scale, which seems a little unfair.
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Postal Worker Retires After 44 Years With No Sick Days

Post by Betty Boop »

theia;1418613 wrote: If an employee is off with sickness/diarrhoea, s/he cannot return to work until 48 hours after the last bout...this makes complete sense because no-one wants to take a bug on to a hospital ward. But the absence still gets counted on the Bradford Scale, which seems a little unfair.


And ward staff are more exposed to the sickness bugs too, it is unfair. I know someone had a brilliant record for not being sick then had a bout of genuine illness when they couldn't find the reason, he knows now what it was and has adjusted his lifestyle accordingly but they came down on him for having the wrong amount of sickness in one year but don't take the outcome into consideration at all. Seems they need to be targeting the habitual ones that take sick days cos they fancy the day off, you know, the days that are always tagged onto weekends, or school holidays, it's always obvious to general staff what's going on but never to the managers :rolleyes:
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theia
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Postal Worker Retires After 44 Years With No Sick Days

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Betty Boop;1418615 wrote: And ward staff are more exposed to the sickness bugs too, it is unfair. I know someone had a brilliant record for not being sick then had a bout of genuine illness when they couldn't find the reason, he knows now what it was and has adjusted his lifestyle accordingly but they came down on him for having the wrong amount of sickness in one year but don't take the outcome into consideration at all. Seems they need to be targeting the habitual ones that take sick days cos they fancy the day off, you know, the days that are always tagged onto weekends, or school holidays, it's always obvious to general staff what's going on but never to the managers :rolleyes:


Yes, every workplace knows the ones that are always off "sick." That's presumably why systems like the Bradford Scale were brought in. And, annoyingly, if you struggle back to work after a day or two and then find that you're not as well as you thought you were and have to take another day or two's absence, you score high on the scale because the number of separate sickness episodes are scored in addition to the total number of days!
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Postal Worker Retires After 44 Years With No Sick Days

Post by Snooz »

I'm one of those people that uses her sick leave a bit too frequently. *blush*
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theia
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Postal Worker Retires After 44 Years With No Sick Days

Post by theia »

SnoozeAgain;1418622 wrote: I'm one of those people that uses her sick leave a bit too frequently. *blush*


But didn't you say that you had an entitlement of sick leave? Or did I misunderstand? I think I would use it if if it was part of my terms of employment.
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tabby
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Postal Worker Retires After 44 Years With No Sick Days

Post by tabby »

The postal employee has also made it to this list of dedicated employees. I got a kick out of employee #6! I certainly hope that our FG members with children were back on the job within 2 to 3 hours of giving birth ... I would expect nothing less! :)

6 super-dedicated employees - The Week
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Postal Worker Retires After 44 Years With No Sick Days

Post by Saint_ »

I know a teacher that saved his sick days for his entire career, then he worked two weeks in his last year before retirement and then called in sick for the rest of the year! Sheesh! And it's totally legal too.
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Postal Worker Retires After 44 Years With No Sick Days

Post by along-for-the-ride »

I found this article today:

Dear Abby: Wife intolerant of illness needs lesson in health

.





Dear Abby: My wife and I are both schoolteachers. She hates to call in sick and often teaches class when she says she feels ill. I don’t argue with her. The problem arises when I am not feeling well. When I am sick and feverish, I’m not inclined to rise from my sickbed and go to work. On those few occasions, my wife objects strenuously. She interrogates me about my symptoms, then makes her own “diagnosis” on the spot. Apparently, her gold standard for staying home is the inability to stand.

This creates a problem for me at work because co-workers are concerned about catching my obvious illness. The last time I felt sick, my wife ordered me to go to work. When I saw a doctor afterward, I was told I had a virus and should be in bed. My wife still objected to my missing work because she considered it to be “just a cough.”

I missed a grand total of two days because of it. On one of them I wasn’t able to stand, the other because I refused to get out of bed. Then, since I was staying home “doing nothing,” my wife insisted I care for our two children (ages 3 and 1), rather than send them to my mother-in-law who baby-sits while we work.

Today a staff member called in sick with the same virus I had. Everyone looked at me as the responsible party.

If I stay home, my wife will dump the kids on me and give me the cold shoulder. If I go to work, I expose my co-workers and perform poorly. Help!

At a total loss in Corpus Christi

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It appears you married a woman who is not only lacking in empathy, but also is a controlling, slave-driving witch. Unless you can find the backbone to take control of the situation and stop acting like a victim, your wife will continue to punish you when you’re least able to defend yourself — and nothing will change.

P.S. A teacher with a virus can not only infect co-workers and administrative staff, but also his students — not to mention his own children. Please point that out to “Simone Legree.”
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tabby
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Postal Worker Retires After 44 Years With No Sick Days

Post by tabby »

I'm surprised that she would want a sick person to care for her children!
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Snooz
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Postal Worker Retires After 44 Years With No Sick Days

Post by Snooz »

I'm surprised anyone would allow another person to treat them like that.
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Postal Worker Retires After 44 Years With No Sick Days

Post by flopstock »

SnoozeAgain;1419236 wrote: I'm surprised anyone would allow another person to treat them like that.


I'm thinking there is more to this story ,than his letter looking for sympathy ,would indicate..
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