The sickie
In his latest comment Bill Sullivan touched on that great Australian institution, the sick day. While I don’t condone people exploiting the example he mentions (a hangover) I know it happens.
In Victoria employers have virtually conceded the Monday before Melbourne Cup day (the first Tuesday in November) as a holiday because everyone was treating it as such to create a four-day weekend.
Most awards and contracts enable employees to take at least three sick days a year with no questions asked.
I’d prefer to see the term “sick day” abolished for those occasions and replaced by something like “personal leave” or “flexible leave”.
It creates a degree of suspicion and mistrust in the office when people take unexplained sick days, not just between employees and managers, but among the staff as well. Nobody enjoys having to work longer or harder to cover someone’s mystery absence.
As for myself, I can honestly say that I’ve not taken a sickie since 1994 when I had my wisdom teeth removed.
I'm a 41-year-old father of four working as a newspaper editor at Mount Gambier in South Australia.
January 14th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
We have sick days over here too, but some employers also give out ‘personal days’ as well. Sick days aren’t ‘no pay’ days and personal days are paid. It just depends on what your employer wants to give you. It would be nice to have a federal standard on annual holiday time, but most companies here would complain about the ‘government intrusion’. Silly Americans. A happy employee works better in the long run.Â
As it is, being part time I don’t get ANY guaranteed days off (except the three I am not scheduled for per week). If I want to take off a scheduled day, I must request it in advance so my manager can get a replacement ready in time. I’ve not taken a ’sick day’ in about three years myself, and I really was sick that day.
Sue’s last blog post..Hilarious Cat Video
January 14th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Thanks Sue, I was hoping to hear an international perspective. In Australia, part-time workers have pro-rata provisions for sick leave and annual leave. Only casuals have no leave, but they receive a higher hourly rate to compensate.
January 14th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
We probably stole "I’m stumped" from the Brits somehow. It means the same here as your last definition: "in the sense that people are stumped if they don’t know what’s going on."
hehehe. In a sense… I’m stumped as to where the meaning truly came from. Although this site seemed to have an idea.
Sue’s last blog post..Hilarious Cat Video
January 14th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
What’s a casual?
Sue’s last blog post..Hilarious Cat Video
January 14th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
A part-time employee is defined as someone who has permanent status and generally works between 15-38 hours per week.
A casual has no permanency (ie could be dropped from staff with no warning) and has no leave entitlements. They shouldn’t work more than 25 hours per week (I think) on a regular basis.
Thanks for the “stumped” link. Interesting.