Serious Give me a break....

[Bones]

Why does work have to suck so badly?

So here's the deal, I work for a fast food company, where all teenagers and stuff like to start off when they're at college and stuff, or they just need money to feed certain habits

Anyway the latter type of people, if they don't feel like working, just call in with some excuse that they're sick or something, and somehow this kind of behaviour makes the higher ups think this is generally the case for everyone who works there.

Now with me, my immune system isn't exactly top of the list in working well, so if an illness comes about, I usually catch it, usually it's Laryngitis or just basic vomiting and Nausea, which you can't just stroll into work with, especially a place where you work with FOOD!

However because of the way some of the employees take "sickies" for granted, the higher ups believe that numbers are more important than safety sometimes, which baffles me, at the moment I'm suffering with acute Tonsillitis, so I'm feeling quite ill, and work can be stressful, which wouldn't help. So I called in sick, and you know what they said?

"Can't you come in for a couple of hours? We're really stuck for people today!"

Right so they want me to go into work for a "Couple of hours" (which probably be my full shift knowing them) just to save them some stress... if it was just a headache or a niggly sore throat I wouldn't have called in sick, but the tonsillitis I have is bacterial, which can be infectious. Surely safety comes before numbers when it comes to working with food?

Sorry guys had to get that off my chest

 

[Sepalcure]

I dunno, fast food chains are pretty relentless when it comes to that sort of thing. I have a closer friend that works at a Wendy's fast food establishment, as a drive-thru cashier and she rarely gets the opportunity to call out for the very same reason. She's been working there for a few years, about 3 or so, but since I've known her she's only called out a total of 5 times or so. I'm not sure how your managers or higher ups are but she has one in particular that adores her as an employee and will often ensure that she doesn't call out in case she needs to cover the shift of another employee that calls out sick.

They don't like losing staff so they can keep in a full shift. For a lot of these establishments, most of the time, it's all about the money. They keep you working in an environment that keeps you on your toes: making fries, taking orders, packaging orders, handing them out to people, cleaning the bathrooms, sterilizing the frying equipment and ovens, and closing up the shop. They give you an 'eh' sort of payment as I like to call it, compared to some other jobs, it's essentially minimum wage until you work your ass up for a few years.

They don't like losing employees for a "few days" because it's essentially cheap labour. Why have you call out when you can cover the shift of the teenager that just called out sick with a stomach virus? You can cover him for his 5 hour shift and then pack up your stuff and go. That's the way these guys think, they're under corporate and I'm reading way too much into this, aren't I?

Anyway, try to argue your case. If you don't feel up to standards and you feel that you're not in any condition to work then bitch to them. Don't sit down and allow them to beg you to come in and work a few hours. If you're putting customers' health at stake because of the fact that you're working and suffering from inlfluenza or tonsilitis or a cold, then it'll be on you solely. After all, you're the one handling the food perhaps or handling the money and whatnot, you have to put your foot down. That's the advice I give my friend when she's really sick. God, I can't wait to work. I'm settling for a college job on campus. But yeah, I'd advise you to do that, it's the best I can give you. I hope it works out.

 

[RapidBlaze]

If you're ill, you're ill. There is nothing you can do about it. The employees at the fast food company must be idiots to ask you to come to work with an infection like that. What were they thinking? I can't stand people like that; they only think about themselves.
If you stayed at home, you did the right thing. Also, it's good to get things off your chest

 

[Rapture]

I feel for you, but to be honest, its like that in a lot of workplaces nowadays, not just the one you talk about. Companies and managers don't want to hear of anyone calling in pretty much ever, because a lot of places are so short-staffed and have the bare minimum staff required for them to be able to run the place and still make a profit. So if you call in at a lot of places, they have to scramble to replace you or work the crap out of the people that are left. Also paid sick days usually = company I know of very few people who have paid sick days. They hate paying you for anything that involves them not getting their "money's worth" out of you. However in your situation, its absolutely ludicrous for them to want you to come in anyways when you are infectious with something and you handle food

I used to be in HS and I called in to my part time job and school quite frequently. In addition to being sick so often from being in classrooms that are full of 30 people...at times during the winter at least half of the class being sick and coughing all over the place. To getting up at 0530 am Monday-Friday and working for 4 hours 4x a week after school... your body gets quite sleep deprived and stressed out and you get sick easily.

I haven't called in sick in over a year and I work in a hospital setting so I don't know how I do it, but

Anyways, hope you feel better soon

 

[Bones]

I haven't called in sick in over a year and I work in a hospital setting so I don't know how I do it, but

Anyways, hope you feel better soon

Oooh I'm so jealous, wish I could go a whole year without being sick I happen to be very unlucky when it comes to illness for some reason.

If you stayed at home, you did the right thing. Also, it's good to get things off your chest

I did stay at home, I've basically been bed-ridden for 3 days now.

I don't get it though instead of getting me, infected with some illness come in, the whole point of calling in sick is you're supposed to do it in enough time so they can find some cover for you, but my workplace doesn't bother, they just moan and whinge about it and then get totally stressed out when it gets too busy for them to handle, makes me a little mad...

 

[Kandy-Sugar]

Ugh I really hate how people take sick days for granted like that.

It really does make it harder for people like me and yourself to call in sick without getting a bad reaction from the manager.

So many of the young ones who still live at home and don't give a shit if they lose their job, just call in "sick" whenver they feel like.

Someone actually just called this week and left a message on the phone saying, 'Hi it's (insert name here) I'm not coming in today. Bye.'

And then just hang up? Like no reason or anything.

Makes me too scared to even take a sick day off even if I'm really sick, when I see how the managers react. >.<

 

[Bones]

Ugh I really hate how people take sick days for granted like that.

It really does make it harder for people like me and yourself to call in sick without getting a bad reaction from the manager.

So many of the young ones who still live at home and don't give a shit if they lose their job, just call in "sick" whenver they feel like.

Someone actually just called this week and left a message on the phone saying, 'Hi it's (insert name here) I'm not coming in today. Bye.'

And then just hang up? Like no reason or anything.

Makes me too scared to even take a sick day off even if I'm really sick, when I see how the managers react. >.<

That is EXACTLY what it's like for me!

Because of people like that, it makes the higher ups generalize it to everyone, thinking that we all do it, but some of us actually NEED the money, I'm actually really upset that I'm ill, I can't really afford time off sick.

Fortunately I've filled in a sick note so I might get some sick pay, even if it is barely anything.

 

[Big Casino]

Sadly thats just how it goes.
In the past ive taken the piss with days off work. Taking sickies where i dont need them, just being a skiver really. Thats long sorted out now like. If you have tonsilitus, no way should you be working with food. Serving up food while youv got something which can spread (atl least im sure it spreads) Sadly without a doctors note its more or less impossible for employers to know whether your legitimately ill or not.
Maybe a job in a different line of work might be better suied for you? Somewhere your not gunna spread about the germs if you are feeling poorly.