What we're doing and why we do it.
May. 28th, 2010 12:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarasvatiOn another community site, I was reading a complaint by a woman with severe chronic lung problems, who was talking about her latest bout with illness was due to a coworker coming in for his shift when he knew he had bronchitis. She wondered why he'd do such a stupid thing, working while sick and risking the health of others around him as well as his own, instead of staying at home and recovering and sparing everybody else.
Why did he do it? Likely for the same reason that Rei suffers through pain every day, and why I work at call centres when I have a hearing problem. We can't afford to do otherwise.
Let me put it this way. Where I live, working 40 hours a week on minimum wage can get a person a little over $1000 per month. As I have learned recently through searching for a new apartment, a 1-bedroom apartment in a not-so-great area of town, one that needs work done on it, often goes for between $500-600 per month, with only some utilities included in the rent if you're lucky. That's 50-60% of one's earnings, and most financial experts say that typically one should only be paying about 30% rent or mortgage. Here, that would be $300 a month, and for that I believe a person could get a run-down bachelor apartment in a place that's well known for its drug dealers.
Get a bad case of the flu and get told by the doctor that you need to take a week off work? Feel just generally crappy and want to take a shift off in order to rest? Too bad. You need that shift because you can't afford to pass up the $50 you'd earn that day.
And those are just the immediate paycheque-to-paycheque considerations. Most jobs allow you a certain number of sick days each year before they start getting on your case. Taking more than than the number of days allotted (usually around a single week out of the entire year) can be grounds for punishment or even dismissal, unless you have a doctor's note. Your very job could hang in the balance, which makes for a very compelling reason to push past your illness and go to work anyway, no matter how bad you feel, no matter how sick you risk making those around you.
Want a doctor's note to cover your ass? You'd better hope that you either have a doctor you can see in less than 24 hours, like one at an after-hours clinic. And if you have something like stomach pain or dizziness, they demand you go to the hospital because it could be something they can't treat. (Even if all you want is a doctor's note to shut your bosses up.) That means that you sit in the hospital waiting room for hours because you're likely to be low-priority, infecting all those people in the waiting room with you, only to be told that yup, there's nothing the doctor can do and you should just go home and rest.
Here, some clinics charge $20 for a sick note. That's $20 out of pocket, plus whatever you're going to lose by not going in for your shift.
That's why people work when they're sick. Unless they have a very well-paying job, no debt, and don't mind living in a bad area of the city, they can't afford to do otherwise.
It sucks for all involved. It sucks for the woman who got sick because her coworker came in with bronchitis. It sucks for the man with bronchitis because he has every reason to work while sick and so few reasons to stay home. There is no way of winning. There is no right decision. Every decision you could make is wrong for a thousand reasons, and everybody loses.
Rei is sick again. He wants to stay home today. He wanted to stay home yesterday, but couldn't afford it. He can't afford it today either. He won't be able to afford it tomorrow. He will go in to work, spread his cold around, and work through pain and weakness and feeling awful, because he needs to eat, and he needs a place to live.
If I get offered another job at a call centre, I will accept it. My ears and brain don't function together the way they ought to, but that kind of work pays well and I need that sort of money. I will suffer through the frustration and humiliation and stress because I need to. When my lungs start to twitch and I cough like mad and can't sit up without gasping, I will push myself in for my shift and do what I can for as long as I can, because I won't be able to afford to do otherwise.
It comes down to money, but not greed. It is not a malicious attempt to infect people, but a desperate attempt to keep the bills paid.
I personally feel sorry for everybody in that situation. I've been the person who comes in to work sick, and the person who gets sick because others come in to work sick. It's hard. It's a never-ending battle of illness. But it has to be done because the alternative is being homeless and hungry.
Which, I imagine, won't do much good for my health either.
Why did he do it? Likely for the same reason that Rei suffers through pain every day, and why I work at call centres when I have a hearing problem. We can't afford to do otherwise.
Let me put it this way. Where I live, working 40 hours a week on minimum wage can get a person a little over $1000 per month. As I have learned recently through searching for a new apartment, a 1-bedroom apartment in a not-so-great area of town, one that needs work done on it, often goes for between $500-600 per month, with only some utilities included in the rent if you're lucky. That's 50-60% of one's earnings, and most financial experts say that typically one should only be paying about 30% rent or mortgage. Here, that would be $300 a month, and for that I believe a person could get a run-down bachelor apartment in a place that's well known for its drug dealers.
Get a bad case of the flu and get told by the doctor that you need to take a week off work? Feel just generally crappy and want to take a shift off in order to rest? Too bad. You need that shift because you can't afford to pass up the $50 you'd earn that day.
And those are just the immediate paycheque-to-paycheque considerations. Most jobs allow you a certain number of sick days each year before they start getting on your case. Taking more than than the number of days allotted (usually around a single week out of the entire year) can be grounds for punishment or even dismissal, unless you have a doctor's note. Your very job could hang in the balance, which makes for a very compelling reason to push past your illness and go to work anyway, no matter how bad you feel, no matter how sick you risk making those around you.
Want a doctor's note to cover your ass? You'd better hope that you either have a doctor you can see in less than 24 hours, like one at an after-hours clinic. And if you have something like stomach pain or dizziness, they demand you go to the hospital because it could be something they can't treat. (Even if all you want is a doctor's note to shut your bosses up.) That means that you sit in the hospital waiting room for hours because you're likely to be low-priority, infecting all those people in the waiting room with you, only to be told that yup, there's nothing the doctor can do and you should just go home and rest.
Here, some clinics charge $20 for a sick note. That's $20 out of pocket, plus whatever you're going to lose by not going in for your shift.
That's why people work when they're sick. Unless they have a very well-paying job, no debt, and don't mind living in a bad area of the city, they can't afford to do otherwise.
It sucks for all involved. It sucks for the woman who got sick because her coworker came in with bronchitis. It sucks for the man with bronchitis because he has every reason to work while sick and so few reasons to stay home. There is no way of winning. There is no right decision. Every decision you could make is wrong for a thousand reasons, and everybody loses.
Rei is sick again. He wants to stay home today. He wanted to stay home yesterday, but couldn't afford it. He can't afford it today either. He won't be able to afford it tomorrow. He will go in to work, spread his cold around, and work through pain and weakness and feeling awful, because he needs to eat, and he needs a place to live.
If I get offered another job at a call centre, I will accept it. My ears and brain don't function together the way they ought to, but that kind of work pays well and I need that sort of money. I will suffer through the frustration and humiliation and stress because I need to. When my lungs start to twitch and I cough like mad and can't sit up without gasping, I will push myself in for my shift and do what I can for as long as I can, because I won't be able to afford to do otherwise.
It comes down to money, but not greed. It is not a malicious attempt to infect people, but a desperate attempt to keep the bills paid.
I personally feel sorry for everybody in that situation. I've been the person who comes in to work sick, and the person who gets sick because others come in to work sick. It's hard. It's a never-ending battle of illness. But it has to be done because the alternative is being homeless and hungry.
Which, I imagine, won't do much good for my health either.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-05-28 08:55 pm (UTC)I understand the kneejerk reaction to get upset when someone gets you sick, but I am baffled that this person had no understanding of why many people work while sick. Must be nice not to have those worries.