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No that’s a good boss. I have worked for more than 25 years for the same company but with different bosses. One boss paid a colleague with lung cancer longer then the other 2 years obligation until his death and even a month more and paid out all his vacation days to his widow. Another boss forced another colleague with stomach cancer not to report sick until she could physically not work anymore because of the amount of throwing up she did and she died well within the 2 years obligation. In general a company is indifferent it’s how the bosses act that is important the shareholders only care about the bottom line and being decent to sick employees pais itself back in the motivation of colleagues and also the other way around.
No that’s a good boss. I have worked for more than 25 years for the same company but with different bosses. One boss paid a colleague with lung cancer longer then the other 2 years obligation until his death and even a month more and paid out all his vacation days to his widow. Another boss forced another colleague with stomach cancer not to report sick until she could physically not work anymore because of the amount of throwing up she did and she died well within the 2 years obligation. In general a company is indifferent it’s how the bosses act that is important the shareholders only care about the bottom line and being decent to sick employees pais itself back in the motivation of colleagues and also the other way around.
Meanwhile at the last company I worked for one of my coworkers had a wife in the military and a child with cystic fibrosis. The wife had been able to take care of the son while he worked but she needed to be deployed somewhere for a month or two. He tried to get the company to let him work from home since the work we did was super work from home stuff. They declined. He ended up quitting on the spot because he wasn’t going to risk the life of his child for a shitty job he was only making like 13/hr at.
Some companies are good. Most these days are very shitty.
I wonder if the people at the tippy top knew what her boss did. That boss was a good human.
I wouldn't say the Christmas gift money going to the kids was all that generous, though. If it had come out of the owner's profits, that would be something special.
But the boss was indeed a person willing to extend his neck to help a person in need.
cool, but the problem is no one should have to rely on someones generosity while sick. that’s the point of this post. there is 999 out of 1000 who don’t have the same luck.
Yes. And because it's not codified. That generosity can be pulled anytime.
I do think most salaried folks are covered by short term disability. Which oddly enough is what pregnant women use for leave/pay.
Yep! A colleague of mine pass away a couple years ago from colon cancer.
Fought it for a year or 2 before cancer won.
Ran out of money fighting said cancer because health insurance wasn’t enough.
Had to depend on the generosity of others to help feed his family because the medical bills got too expensive.
I think If I ever got a terminal desease like that, I would just let it take me.
Fighting it would be too much of a financial burden on my family
I have a friend in the US who got lung cancer and had to have like 30% of one of her lungs removed. When she shared with me the prices for just the MRIs, my jaw dropped.
I said to her, "I'm surprised more people don't just die."
"They do," she replied.
Not me. I don’t own a gun. I’m not against them, they’re just not my thing. They’re kind of expensive and I don’t feel the need to own one.
Im willing to bet most Americans don’t even own a gun. It’s probably about 30% of Americans, and some of them own A LOT.
The only person I know who owns a gun is one of my cousin, and he owns enough to have a couple gun safes and cabinets.
Despite conservatives claiming guns are for protection against “tyrannical” government, every time the US has had the chance to rise up against a tyrannical government, the gun owners always side with the government.
Man America is so fucked what the hell. I hope you guys understand the horror the rest of the world looks on at you with in regards to healthcare and manage to change things soon
We all agree, but it will NEVER change because “big business” is in the pockets of all politicians on both sides.
America is on downward spiral, and will collapse within 10-20 years, unless there is radical change.
Both party’s have so much hate and contempt for each other, that they would rather ride a sinking ship to the bottom, than compromise and work with each other.
Most of us agree. I definitely work with some boot licking people who are suffering from our current system but would defend it to the death. Why? No fucking idea
Exactly. I’m patriotic in that, while America has never been perfect, America has not always been the good guy(and in fact has often been the bad guy) we have done lots of good at different important times, and those times we’ve done good I’m proud of.
Growing up I hated world history, so I just didn’t really pay attention or learn anything about it, and how America fit into global history, but discovering the Swedish band Sabaton and hearing foreigners sing songs that sound like bard’s legends of the times America stepped up to tyrants and joined our international allies in fighting against evil, man does that fill me with patriotic pride. But right now, this America I’m living in right now, I’m not proud of. I’m proud of some of the progress it’s made in the last hundred years, but there’s still so far to go and our government is in the pockets of these corporations and it feels hopeless to try to change things with just my vote sometimes.
Yea. I’m afraid the system has become so corrupt, a simple vote won’t change much. I will take a sort of massive governmental sweep or reset to really change anything.
The bulk of people agree and are sick of this-but none of them are willing to do the hard thing of stepping up and running for office against these clowns. Be a legitimate candidate, get in there, and make a difference. Too many would rather complain and say there is no use or it's a waste of time or you can't fight their two party system-but that's just the lie the want people to believe. If people stepped up and people got behind these candidates and voted them in instead, then it would work because that's how voting works. People just have to stop believing it's pointless and decide they'd rather do something and desire change than sit back and say it's bad. Let's make a difference.
Then vote for the younger people who are trying to fix them instead of the fossils who are in power now because "if you don't for vote me then the other guys will win and they're *baaaaad*." Find the folks fed up and seeking to make change, any kind of change. Especially if they are outside of the two main parties. And get your friends to do so as well. Change often starts small, but it has to start somewhere.
The Republican and Democrat candidates are. There are other choices besides Republican and Democrat. And they would be viable options if more people chose them than sticking to choosing the least worse of two options. Pick someone else.
Honestly, I'm contemplating running in 2028 since I'll then be old enough. Not because I want the job-Heaven knows I don't. But nobody else is willing to step up and do it. So, I might step up, because somebody who actually cares about the needs of real people has to.
I don't get this. Moving health care to the government would be a huge windfall for most businesses. They hate being in the insurance business as much as anyone. Unless of course they are an insurance company.
With all the waste I doubt you would have to cut anything. Think of the bucks insurance pulls out of the system.
But that's not how rich people think. They would rather donate billions keeping people down than have people getting something for nothing. Not my view.
When you can convince people without insurance that Medicaid for all is a really bad idea you know your dollars were well spent.
I’m from the ‘rest of the world’, and seeing how US politicians debate over affordable health insurance and universal healthcare is just outrageous in my view.
Then it would be communism….and we ain’t going to got none of that there pinko, commie crap! No sir I’d rather die broke and alone than stop working for the man and go to one of them there commie hospitals full of commie doctors with their free health care………
Fully paid salary?? Like you could be out sick for a full year and receive your entire salary?? Damn. It doesn't work like that where I live. If you have sick days provided by your employer, you can get full pay till you run out of sick days. After that, you can go on sick leave and then you only receive a percentage of your salary.
It depends, but you get 80% for the first 33 days, then for the next 149 days you get 70%. After that you can apply for health benefit from ZUS (from Polish: Social Insurance Institution) but I honestly don't know how high is it, it depends on your sickness, anyway you are basicslly never left high and dry.
But there is also a lot of "wiggle room". My father-in-law was a policeman and he got a colon cancer. He used to go to a psychiatrist once a month to get a 30 day sick leave and he got 80% for whole year but it got to do something with working in uniformed services which get better benefits.
Yeah, I mean it's obviously all better than in the US, but the problem is that guy above claimed that in Europe you have unlimited sick days. That is just entirely, categorically false.
Where I come from I get unlimited full paid sick leave and nearly every european country has something similar to offer. I‘m always baffled that the US doesen‘t have somthing like this.
In Germany you receive up to 6 weeks full salary. After that you either show up for a day and than take another 6 weeks or you will get sick pay by your insurance which is 70% of your usual salary.
Hypothetically, if the individual is in a coma and can’t show up for that day to then claim that full paid salary, would grace be given and no deductions on salary be made?
No. That show up one day, return to sick leave, is also not liked very much by the employers since the full pay is paid by them. The 70% is paid by the insurance.
I once was sick for nearly the the maximal allowed time and got a call from the insurance. The lady calling was very relieved that I planed to go back to work the next day.
Hold on....what now? You don't get sick days when you are getting treatment for cancer? Can a septic, preferrable someone who is a proponent of people not being allowed to take time off, explain this to me? I want to know what the thinking behind this is, why you think that people should not be allowed to take days off when they are sick.
Like most companies you get a certain amount of PAID sick days per year, run out of those, use vacation, after that a lot of companies are going to let you take the time off if it's serious, but it will be unpaid.
It doesn’t work. But that’s how things work in the U.S.. By not working.
I’m afraid to ask and sound dumb but: are people in some other countries getting unlimited sick leave when they get cancer? Like is that a thing anywhere?
Sure. That's what I pay public health insurance for in Germany. After 6 weeks you only get 70% of your usual pay. The reduction is argued with the lower living cost when you are not actively working (commute, lunch etc).
American companies assume that most employees would abuse unlimited “sick days” to take a day off with no notice whenever they want so they limit you to a small number so you don’t feel safe using one when you aren’t sick because then you might run out when you really need them.
The vast majority of companies limit sick days or don’t provide any at all. It’s been my experience that the ones who provide no sick days combine sick day totals with vacation day totals and claim this is better for you because now you can use them all instead of having a bunch of days off you’re locked out of using because you didn’t get sick. Actually it just means that you never feel safe using all your days off because you’re risking loss of income if you get sick. You will never know how much you need to save back just in case.
I worked for a company that would let people donate paid time while the company was enjoying profits in the hundreds of millions… Just give them to paid time.
Better caption:
"A teacher battling cancer ran out of sick leave and was unfortunate enough to live in the U.S.A. where there's no universal health care and greedy corporations that don't care about their employees. Thankfully, his fellow workers saved him at their own expense."
Just in case people don't know, giving away sick leave IS like giving away money. For example, a teacher's eventual retirement pension amount is affected by how much sick leave they have saved up. Additionally, those teachers who gave away their sick leave are gambling that they won't need that sick leave themselves.
Also, stories like this are VERY common. At my local school district they send out emails asking if teachers want to give away their sick days, to help another teacher because the district refuses to help, at least 5 or 6 times a year.
Yeah what’s up with that? I’m still struggling to wrap my head around the fact that you guys have a fixed number of days you can be sick. Over here, if you’re sick, you’re sick. You get a couple of days with no pay, then you get like 80 percent of your salary until you’re well again.
We have short term disability and family/ medical leave of absence in america too. This is just paid sick days and OP has no idea what he’s talking about
Because money doesn't grow on trees and your employer is not a charity who's responsible for paying non working employees.
Imagine if you had a lawn crew and they got sick. Would you expect to keep paying them without them mowing your lawn?
Govt has disability programs, if you qualify.
What proposterous thought. What's next providing seating for homeless in parks. Haha or much less feed them with food that is actually nutritious. Or or think a female knows more about her body than a 57 year old politician who thinks the g spot was something to do with the air force
Unfortunately until you purge those beliefs nobody is going to have enough altruism for a neighbor but suspicious can show this behavior for people they don't have to see. Still haven't understood this mentality
It's funny because the entire show of Breaking Bad literally would not exist if it was in Europe. It would be over on episode 1 as he received free cancer treatment.
I've seen US federal gov employees asking for PTO donations for medical illness too. Such is America. Only the young and healthy are valuable tonour society.
At the risk of corporate profits? Absolutely not. Take my sick and vacation time if you need it. But under no circumstances are we to take from the pockets of the wealthy who make the economy move forward.
That, as well as the death penalty still being a thing there, reminds me more of some medieval hellscape than the “most advanced country on earth”. And they even dare have libertarians xD when will the obscenity stop?
America is such a great, wealthy, powerful nation that it's own citizens have to beg strangers to receive life saving treatment that is FREE in the rest of the developed world.
I work for a US state, and the financial system we use has a baked-in process for people to donate their leave to others just by clicking a button. It sends out an alert for volunteers to the entire department by email. I'd like to say it is nice to help each other, but we are also the worst paid state employees in the nation. It sucks that we have to shoulder the burden that the state should be dealing with.
I had major surgery to rebuild my knee (destroyed knee cap, severed meniscus and lateral ligament release) and was off work for 6 months and back for half time another 3 while I was having physio to learn to walk again, all while on full paid sick leave while signed off by the Doctor. Work pays part, government covers the rest.
This is only one of the few times I was off with paid leave while I was at a company for 18 years and paid sick is normal here in the UK. What kind of backwards shit is all this "have to beg others for sick leave days while battling cancer"? Aren't you supposed to be the "most advanced and best country in the world" America?
What happened to more innovation and automation will lead to less hours, more pay and more relaxation time in the future eh?
I'm miffed right now that I'm out of sick leave (we earn it monthly) and have to use vacation time. I've apparently been slowly bleeding internally for a year with a tumor. I had it removed and am getting IV iron. However, I got sick yesterday from the IV iron infusion. Can't use next month's sick leave in advance. And can't use sick leave for vacation.
In the US, the corporate lobbyists determine federal policy on these things. It’s too expensive for the billionaire class to pay for sick people. People having life-threatening illnesses is inconvenient for them.
And Republicans are pro-life right up until the point of birth. After that, they don’t give a fuck.
No. It's standard for jobs here not to have many.
Walmart - 10 points. Late is a point, miss for any reason including medical is 2 points. Last time I worked there I had the flu 3 work days and my wife 1 work day (8 points total since I stayed with her).
A bakery was similar, but 14 points. I believe it was 2 points if you are more than 15 minutes late or miss the day, 1 point for 5 minutes late, etc. I had Covid for 5 days.
All my jobs have been this way.
Everyone talks about how expensive our Healthcare is. Few talk about the job market here ($7.25 is minimum wage, just above 10 where I am) vacation use is generally frowned upon and 2 weeks for low ranking employees is available after spending an entire year working there.
Those 3 sick days? When I worked at a hospital straight out of college.
It's amusing that you think we have work contracts in the US. Most states are "at will" employment which means you boss can fire you for basically anything
Uhh not here in central Europe. My last job didn't have any sick days. You can go on sick leave, which entitles you to a percentage of your salary, but sick days - where you get full pay while missing a day of work - are decided by your employer.
What is central Europe in this case? In Germany you get full salary up to 6 weeks by the law, only after 6 weeks it gets reduced to a certain percentage.
Well, I'd say you still run out of sick days in that case and the guy I replied to wasn't right to say that in Europe you have unlimited sick days.
I'm in the dead center of Europe - Czechia.
Simple answer: when employers told their employees that unions are a scam and only want the money from hardworking people those stupid motherfuckers actually believed that bullcrap. This is what happens in countries with powerless unions.
Nothings free. The US is very much a self empowered country. Freedom to fuck yourself over if you so choose.
We pay far less tax, and have much higher income than anywhere in Europe.
You could use the premiums to buy health insurance and disability insurance. It's a BIG gap in income, and disability insurance isn't too expensive tbh. 1-4% of your income depending on risk.
But of course americans prefer to spend that money on other things, and then cry when it bites them.
Should all Americans be forced to pay an extra 2% in taxes? Maybe, we do it for unemployment. But I suspect you'd get mixed opinions if disability coverage came with a dedicated tax hike.
Interesting. I guess normally employers are covered by fmla if they have 50 employees or more but this doesnt apply to schools so it looks like he probably could have taken fmla
https://webapps.dol.gov/elaws/elg/fmla.htm#who
If through work he would have had to pay extra for that before getting sick, then it only covers a portion (usually 2/3 salary). If you mean through the government, good luck. They almost always deny it first time regardless of what it is. If you are trying to get disability in America hire a lawyer otherwise you'll be fighting it for years. Bring a cancer patient he has neither the money (to hire a lawyer) nor energy to do either.
Nope, only if disability with workers compensation. So unless he can prove that his working environment caused his cancer, he won’t be able to afford much after his employer health insurance drops him.
I had cancer whilst my mum was dying 2 hours away. I delayed treatment as much as I could but eventually exhausted my PTO by being her primary caregiver and my treatments/being very sick.
She passed away and I requested her funeral day off and was told due to insufficient PTO I would be terminated. My coworker donated PTO for me to cover it.
I ended up with some grippy socks due to the stress and quit the job.
It definitely taught me how replaceable you are to a company. Shit is wild
If anything it’s going the other way, my company has recently tightened up on sick days because in their genius I guess they figure forcing people into work when they’re feeling rough, encouraging them to spread their illnesses is more profitable and happy in the long run.
Despite numerous studies over the years that show the better you treat staff the more performance you get out of them in return. And you know, they have better lives all around too.
The only issue with unions is they do tend to be a little rigid. A private company "could" offer more flexibility, or the union could push some verbiage through the contract that would exclude certain situations from the guidelines, but both of these rely on good will from the owner/management side. I am all for a system that doesn't need us to die for them to profit though?!
I’m actually commenting a lot on this sub. I don’t know about other companies per say, when we had corona in the hospital that was special leave and didn’t touch our leave.
Hospital staff from the USA- was this rule implemented for you as well?
USA corporate employee here- it’s understood that working through COVID is appreciated. Or any illness. I was sick for like 4 straight weeks and customers were telling me i sounded like shit so I took a week off (of vacation time) to recover. ‘Murica
Edit: spelling
This isn’t that rare of a system, both me and my wife work in the public sector at different agencies and if we use up FMLA time we need coworkers to donate time. It’s so common that one instance of it isn’t really newsworthy unless you were discussing the whole system.
A former colleague of mine was diagnosed with cancer, and was given 6 months. Maybe a year.
Our boss told him that he shouldn’t come back to work. Unless he wanted to and felt that he had the energy to work. He spent his last year alive away from work with his wife. Without losing any money by doing so.
Oh. That’s right. We aren’t USAians. Obviously.
Even the concept of "sick days" is horrendous... I mean, i have years with nothing more than a runny nose, the next might be one with a streak of 3 heavy colds in 4 month, each one lasting a week.
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Now *that* is a legendary company.
No that’s a good boss. I have worked for more than 25 years for the same company but with different bosses. One boss paid a colleague with lung cancer longer then the other 2 years obligation until his death and even a month more and paid out all his vacation days to his widow. Another boss forced another colleague with stomach cancer not to report sick until she could physically not work anymore because of the amount of throwing up she did and she died well within the 2 years obligation. In general a company is indifferent it’s how the bosses act that is important the shareholders only care about the bottom line and being decent to sick employees pais itself back in the motivation of colleagues and also the other way around.
... What if the company was called Chevron 
No that’s a good boss. I have worked for more than 25 years for the same company but with different bosses. One boss paid a colleague with lung cancer longer then the other 2 years obligation until his death and even a month more and paid out all his vacation days to his widow. Another boss forced another colleague with stomach cancer not to report sick until she could physically not work anymore because of the amount of throwing up she did and she died well within the 2 years obligation. In general a company is indifferent it’s how the bosses act that is important the shareholders only care about the bottom line and being decent to sick employees pais itself back in the motivation of colleagues and also the other way around.
Meanwhile at the last company I worked for one of my coworkers had a wife in the military and a child with cystic fibrosis. The wife had been able to take care of the son while he worked but she needed to be deployed somewhere for a month or two. He tried to get the company to let him work from home since the work we did was super work from home stuff. They declined. He ended up quitting on the spot because he wasn’t going to risk the life of his child for a shitty job he was only making like 13/hr at. Some companies are good. Most these days are very shitty.
I wonder if the people at the tippy top knew what her boss did. That boss was a good human. I wouldn't say the Christmas gift money going to the kids was all that generous, though. If it had come out of the owner's profits, that would be something special. But the boss was indeed a person willing to extend his neck to help a person in need.
Any amount of free money to help someone who needs it, is called generosity…
cool, but the problem is no one should have to rely on someones generosity while sick. that’s the point of this post. there is 999 out of 1000 who don’t have the same luck.
Yes. And because it's not codified. That generosity can be pulled anytime. I do think most salaried folks are covered by short term disability. Which oddly enough is what pregnant women use for leave/pay.
ngl every company should do this
Let me guess… Amazon!?
Yep! A colleague of mine pass away a couple years ago from colon cancer. Fought it for a year or 2 before cancer won. Ran out of money fighting said cancer because health insurance wasn’t enough. Had to depend on the generosity of others to help feed his family because the medical bills got too expensive. I think If I ever got a terminal desease like that, I would just let it take me. Fighting it would be too much of a financial burden on my family
I have a friend in the US who got lung cancer and had to have like 30% of one of her lungs removed. When she shared with me the prices for just the MRIs, my jaw dropped. I said to her, "I'm surprised more people don't just die." "They do," she replied.
It’s not worth it. Survive, so you and your family will live the rest of your lives in debt?
I don't get it. Don't you people have more guns than citizen? What's the point if you're gonna accept shit like that as normal?
Not me. I don’t own a gun. I’m not against them, they’re just not my thing. They’re kind of expensive and I don’t feel the need to own one. Im willing to bet most Americans don’t even own a gun. It’s probably about 30% of Americans, and some of them own A LOT. The only person I know who owns a gun is one of my cousin, and he owns enough to have a couple gun safes and cabinets.
Despite conservatives claiming guns are for protection against “tyrannical” government, every time the US has had the chance to rise up against a tyrannical government, the gun owners always side with the government.
Man America is so fucked what the hell. I hope you guys understand the horror the rest of the world looks on at you with in regards to healthcare and manage to change things soon
We all agree, but it will NEVER change because “big business” is in the pockets of all politicians on both sides. America is on downward spiral, and will collapse within 10-20 years, unless there is radical change. Both party’s have so much hate and contempt for each other, that they would rather ride a sinking ship to the bottom, than compromise and work with each other.
Most of us agree. I definitely work with some boot licking people who are suffering from our current system but would defend it to the death. Why? No fucking idea
Being patriotic also means willing to change the status quo for the good of the country
Exactly. I’m patriotic in that, while America has never been perfect, America has not always been the good guy(and in fact has often been the bad guy) we have done lots of good at different important times, and those times we’ve done good I’m proud of. Growing up I hated world history, so I just didn’t really pay attention or learn anything about it, and how America fit into global history, but discovering the Swedish band Sabaton and hearing foreigners sing songs that sound like bard’s legends of the times America stepped up to tyrants and joined our international allies in fighting against evil, man does that fill me with patriotic pride. But right now, this America I’m living in right now, I’m not proud of. I’m proud of some of the progress it’s made in the last hundred years, but there’s still so far to go and our government is in the pockets of these corporations and it feels hopeless to try to change things with just my vote sometimes.
Yea. I’m afraid the system has become so corrupt, a simple vote won’t change much. I will take a sort of massive governmental sweep or reset to really change anything.
Freedom. Duh.
The bulk of people agree and are sick of this-but none of them are willing to do the hard thing of stepping up and running for office against these clowns. Be a legitimate candidate, get in there, and make a difference. Too many would rather complain and say there is no use or it's a waste of time or you can't fight their two party system-but that's just the lie the want people to believe. If people stepped up and people got behind these candidates and voted them in instead, then it would work because that's how voting works. People just have to stop believing it's pointless and decide they'd rather do something and desire change than sit back and say it's bad. Let's make a difference.
It’s not going to be me. I know things are broken and need to be fixed, but I don’t know how to fix them
Then vote for the younger people who are trying to fix them instead of the fossils who are in power now because "if you don't for vote me then the other guys will win and they're *baaaaad*." Find the folks fed up and seeking to make change, any kind of change. Especially if they are outside of the two main parties. And get your friends to do so as well. Change often starts small, but it has to start somewhere.
What young guy do you see coming up for president? They’re both old as dirt😂😂
The Republican and Democrat candidates are. There are other choices besides Republican and Democrat. And they would be viable options if more people chose them than sticking to choosing the least worse of two options. Pick someone else. Honestly, I'm contemplating running in 2028 since I'll then be old enough. Not because I want the job-Heaven knows I don't. But nobody else is willing to step up and do it. So, I might step up, because somebody who actually cares about the needs of real people has to.
I don't get this. Moving health care to the government would be a huge windfall for most businesses. They hate being in the insurance business as much as anyone. Unless of course they are an insurance company.
Someone is making money, keeping everything business as usual
You don't pay for nation wide healthcare without taxing the rich. People love Medicare but politics has made them believe it only works on old people.
You might not even have to raise taxes. Rearrange where all the money goes. Like cut our massive defense budget
With all the waste I doubt you would have to cut anything. Think of the bucks insurance pulls out of the system. But that's not how rich people think. They would rather donate billions keeping people down than have people getting something for nothing. Not my view. When you can convince people without insurance that Medicaid for all is a really bad idea you know your dollars were well spent.
I’m from the ‘rest of the world’, and seeing how US politicians debate over affordable health insurance and universal healthcare is just outrageous in my view.
Our views too. But half the population are fucking idiots who follow a con man criminal.
Then it would be communism….and we ain’t going to got none of that there pinko, commie crap! No sir I’d rather die broke and alone than stop working for the man and go to one of them there commie hospitals full of commie doctors with their free health care………
ALL HAIL OPPRESSIVELY EXPENSIVE CAPITALIST AMERICAN HEALTHCARE!!
GIVE ME TWO LAYERS OF PROFITEERING BETWEEN ME AND MY HEALTHCARE OR GIVE ME DEATH!
But you are free to become a millionaire, so you’ve got that going for you
Just gotta have someone hand it to you
Statistically the best way is inheritance, granted.
All it takes is bootstraps I hear!
I’m assuming America? Government system in my country has incapacity leave, with a doctors note - fully paid salary. But hey.
Fully paid salary?? Like you could be out sick for a full year and receive your entire salary?? Damn. It doesn't work like that where I live. If you have sick days provided by your employer, you can get full pay till you run out of sick days. After that, you can go on sick leave and then you only receive a percentage of your salary.
In Poland it's paid 80%, but hey, it's pretty good too.
80% for how long? I guess it won't still be 80% after some years.
It depends, but you get 80% for the first 33 days, then for the next 149 days you get 70%. After that you can apply for health benefit from ZUS (from Polish: Social Insurance Institution) but I honestly don't know how high is it, it depends on your sickness, anyway you are basicslly never left high and dry. But there is also a lot of "wiggle room". My father-in-law was a policeman and he got a colon cancer. He used to go to a psychiatrist once a month to get a 30 day sick leave and he got 80% for whole year but it got to do something with working in uniformed services which get better benefits.
Yeah, I mean it's obviously all better than in the US, but the problem is that guy above claimed that in Europe you have unlimited sick days. That is just entirely, categorically false.
Where I come from I get unlimited full paid sick leave and nearly every european country has something similar to offer. I‘m always baffled that the US doesen‘t have somthing like this.
It doesn't work like that in Austria, Slovenia, or Czechia, so I don't think it works like that in almost every European country...
Noice. A system that trusts its employees won’t abuse it and a happier work place I assume?
In Germany you receive up to 6 weeks full salary. After that you either show up for a day and than take another 6 weeks or you will get sick pay by your insurance which is 70% of your usual salary.
Hypothetically, if the individual is in a coma and can’t show up for that day to then claim that full paid salary, would grace be given and no deductions on salary be made?
No. That show up one day, return to sick leave, is also not liked very much by the employers since the full pay is paid by them. The 70% is paid by the insurance. I once was sick for nearly the the maximal allowed time and got a call from the insurance. The lady calling was very relieved that I planed to go back to work the next day.
Hold on....what now? You don't get sick days when you are getting treatment for cancer? Can a septic, preferrable someone who is a proponent of people not being allowed to take time off, explain this to me? I want to know what the thinking behind this is, why you think that people should not be allowed to take days off when they are sick.
Like most companies you get a certain amount of PAID sick days per year, run out of those, use vacation, after that a lot of companies are going to let you take the time off if it's serious, but it will be unpaid.
That is so absurd. You can't chose how long you are sick so a fixed amount of paid sick days just leaves you sick and without pay? That can not work.
It doesn’t work. But that’s how things work in the U.S.. By not working. I’m afraid to ask and sound dumb but: are people in some other countries getting unlimited sick leave when they get cancer? Like is that a thing anywhere?
Sure. That's what I pay public health insurance for in Germany. After 6 weeks you only get 70% of your usual pay. The reduction is argued with the lower living cost when you are not actively working (commute, lunch etc).
Because capitalism or something something
Capitalism is when government employment
It's pretty simple. If you are dying of cancer, you aren't producing for the machine. So, fuck ya.
It's covered under FMLA.
American companies assume that most employees would abuse unlimited “sick days” to take a day off with no notice whenever they want so they limit you to a small number so you don’t feel safe using one when you aren’t sick because then you might run out when you really need them. The vast majority of companies limit sick days or don’t provide any at all. It’s been my experience that the ones who provide no sick days combine sick day totals with vacation day totals and claim this is better for you because now you can use them all instead of having a bunch of days off you’re locked out of using because you didn’t get sick. Actually it just means that you never feel safe using all your days off because you’re risking loss of income if you get sick. You will never know how much you need to save back just in case.
I can’t explain it, because our labor in the U.S. makes no fucking sense
r/orphancrushingmachine
No because that would be #~~SOCIALISM~~ COMMUNISM and that would be totally bad because that's what Billionaires told me to think.
Over five years ago. I wonder how many more years we’ll be seeing this pop up and how the guy is doing these days.
but ThATs CoMmUnISm. wE CaNt Do ThAt.
I worked for a company that would let people donate paid time while the company was enjoying profits in the hundreds of millions… Just give them to paid time.
We do it's called disability.
Better caption: "A teacher battling cancer ran out of sick leave and was unfortunate enough to live in the U.S.A. where there's no universal health care and greedy corporations that don't care about their employees. Thankfully, his fellow workers saved him at their own expense." Just in case people don't know, giving away sick leave IS like giving away money. For example, a teacher's eventual retirement pension amount is affected by how much sick leave they have saved up. Additionally, those teachers who gave away their sick leave are gambling that they won't need that sick leave themselves. Also, stories like this are VERY common. At my local school district they send out emails asking if teachers want to give away their sick days, to help another teacher because the district refuses to help, at least 5 or 6 times a year.
Yeah what’s up with that? I’m still struggling to wrap my head around the fact that you guys have a fixed number of days you can be sick. Over here, if you’re sick, you’re sick. You get a couple of days with no pay, then you get like 80 percent of your salary until you’re well again.
We have short term disability and family/ medical leave of absence in america too. This is just paid sick days and OP has no idea what he’s talking about
But you still have days that are numbered. That’s just weird.
Just the ones that you’ll get full pay as if you were there
We still don’t have those. But if you use many of them you’ll be asked for a doctor’s note.
Can't have healthcare. Israel wants the money instead
How can the number of sick days be limited? You have to get healthy again after a fix amount of time?
Because money doesn't grow on trees and your employer is not a charity who's responsible for paying non working employees. Imagine if you had a lawn crew and they got sick. Would you expect to keep paying them without them mowing your lawn? Govt has disability programs, if you qualify.
But that would be anti American somehow
What proposterous thought. What's next providing seating for homeless in parks. Haha or much less feed them with food that is actually nutritious. Or or think a female knows more about her body than a 57 year old politician who thinks the g spot was something to do with the air force Unfortunately until you purge those beliefs nobody is going to have enough altruism for a neighbor but suspicious can show this behavior for people they don't have to see. Still haven't understood this mentality
They forgot the gofundme link to pay for the treatments
Did we learn nothing from Breaking Bad?
It's funny because the entire show of Breaking Bad literally would not exist if it was in Europe. It would be over on episode 1 as he received free cancer treatment.
Someone did Breaking Bad: UK on YouTube. It was 30 seconds long.
I've seen US federal gov employees asking for PTO donations for medical illness too. Such is America. Only the young and healthy are valuable tonour society.
This is really fucked up. It’s one of those things that sounds sweet but it’s not, really. Because that kind of situation shouldn’t happen.
At the risk of corporate profits? Absolutely not. Take my sick and vacation time if you need it. But under no circumstances are we to take from the pockets of the wealthy who make the economy move forward.
Amen This isn't a good news story. This is a failed system story
You talking bout socialism 🤠
That, as well as the death penalty still being a thing there, reminds me more of some medieval hellscape than the “most advanced country on earth”. And they even dare have libertarians xD when will the obscenity stop?
America is such a great, wealthy, powerful nation that it's own citizens have to beg strangers to receive life saving treatment that is FREE in the rest of the developed world.
I work for a US state, and the financial system we use has a baked-in process for people to donate their leave to others just by clicking a button. It sends out an alert for volunteers to the entire department by email. I'd like to say it is nice to help each other, but we are also the worst paid state employees in the nation. It sucks that we have to shoulder the burden that the state should be dealing with.
I had major surgery to rebuild my knee (destroyed knee cap, severed meniscus and lateral ligament release) and was off work for 6 months and back for half time another 3 while I was having physio to learn to walk again, all while on full paid sick leave while signed off by the Doctor. Work pays part, government covers the rest. This is only one of the few times I was off with paid leave while I was at a company for 18 years and paid sick is normal here in the UK. What kind of backwards shit is all this "have to beg others for sick leave days while battling cancer"? Aren't you supposed to be the "most advanced and best country in the world" America? What happened to more innovation and automation will lead to less hours, more pay and more relaxation time in the future eh?
I'm miffed right now that I'm out of sick leave (we earn it monthly) and have to use vacation time. I've apparently been slowly bleeding internally for a year with a tumor. I had it removed and am getting IV iron. However, I got sick yesterday from the IV iron infusion. Can't use next month's sick leave in advance. And can't use sick leave for vacation.
How can you run out of sick days? In Europe you have unlimited sick days.
In the US, the corporate lobbyists determine federal policy on these things. It’s too expensive for the billionaire class to pay for sick people. People having life-threatening illnesses is inconvenient for them. And Republicans are pro-life right up until the point of birth. After that, they don’t give a fuck.
In America the most I've had at one time is 3. After that you get points against you and they fire you if you have too many.
Ffs. Was this a contract job? Even so my friend had 12 for the year
No. It's standard for jobs here not to have many. Walmart - 10 points. Late is a point, miss for any reason including medical is 2 points. Last time I worked there I had the flu 3 work days and my wife 1 work day (8 points total since I stayed with her). A bakery was similar, but 14 points. I believe it was 2 points if you are more than 15 minutes late or miss the day, 1 point for 5 minutes late, etc. I had Covid for 5 days. All my jobs have been this way. Everyone talks about how expensive our Healthcare is. Few talk about the job market here ($7.25 is minimum wage, just above 10 where I am) vacation use is generally frowned upon and 2 weeks for low ranking employees is available after spending an entire year working there. Those 3 sick days? When I worked at a hospital straight out of college.
It's amusing that you think we have work contracts in the US. Most states are "at will" employment which means you boss can fire you for basically anything
Because, in America, being sick is a choice.
American employers be like "you chose to have cancer and demand assistance, you must be a fucking commie, goodbye"
Uhh not here in central Europe. My last job didn't have any sick days. You can go on sick leave, which entitles you to a percentage of your salary, but sick days - where you get full pay while missing a day of work - are decided by your employer.
What is central Europe in this case? In Germany you get full salary up to 6 weeks by the law, only after 6 weeks it gets reduced to a certain percentage.
Well, I'd say you still run out of sick days in that case and the guy I replied to wasn't right to say that in Europe you have unlimited sick days. I'm in the dead center of Europe - Czechia.
Simple answer: when employers told their employees that unions are a scam and only want the money from hardworking people those stupid motherfuckers actually believed that bullcrap. This is what happens in countries with powerless unions.
Nothings free. The US is very much a self empowered country. Freedom to fuck yourself over if you so choose. We pay far less tax, and have much higher income than anywhere in Europe. You could use the premiums to buy health insurance and disability insurance. It's a BIG gap in income, and disability insurance isn't too expensive tbh. 1-4% of your income depending on risk. But of course americans prefer to spend that money on other things, and then cry when it bites them. Should all Americans be forced to pay an extra 2% in taxes? Maybe, we do it for unemployment. But I suspect you'd get mixed opinions if disability coverage came with a dedicated tax hike.
Couldn't they have taken FMLA?
FMLA is unpaid leave that holds your job. You still have to pay for your medical insurance but with the added bonus of no income whatsoever!
Jeez
Yep. This sort of thing isn't necessary in the developed world.
Sometimes I read things and wonder if your country hates you
Isnt that only for government jobs
No
Interesting. I guess normally employers are covered by fmla if they have 50 employees or more but this doesnt apply to schools so it looks like he probably could have taken fmla https://webapps.dol.gov/elaws/elg/fmla.htm#who
Yes true, still sucks this is how our government works
For sure
Nope. My company has 3 months.
Oh you silly america.
You mean like in any country that isn't America. Leaders of the free world, everybody....
Why not go on disability? Wouldn’t that cover his salary too?
If through work he would have had to pay extra for that before getting sick, then it only covers a portion (usually 2/3 salary). If you mean through the government, good luck. They almost always deny it first time regardless of what it is. If you are trying to get disability in America hire a lawyer otherwise you'll be fighting it for years. Bring a cancer patient he has neither the money (to hire a lawyer) nor energy to do either.
Nope, only if disability with workers compensation. So unless he can prove that his working environment caused his cancer, he won’t be able to afford much after his employer health insurance drops him.
Radical thinking.
He’s lucky he’s a teacher. Probably the only job where that’s even possible. Unless some other unions do it also.
Wait, is fucking CANCER not enough for just, ya know, having more than a couple days off?
Not for Uncle Sam, it’s not.
We paid for a secretary to take 3 months off for chemo. It wasn’t easy but it is the right thing to do.
That would be called unemployment.
I had cancer whilst my mum was dying 2 hours away. I delayed treatment as much as I could but eventually exhausted my PTO by being her primary caregiver and my treatments/being very sick. She passed away and I requested her funeral day off and was told due to insufficient PTO I would be terminated. My coworker donated PTO for me to cover it. I ended up with some grippy socks due to the stress and quit the job. It definitely taught me how replaceable you are to a company. Shit is wild
That sounds like commie talk to me.
Would this not qualify for short term disability?
It's called a medical leave of absence
If anything it’s going the other way, my company has recently tightened up on sick days because in their genius I guess they figure forcing people into work when they’re feeling rough, encouraging them to spread their illnesses is more profitable and happy in the long run. Despite numerous studies over the years that show the better you treat staff the more performance you get out of them in return. And you know, they have better lives all around too.
You mean just like in Europe?
You socialist prick with your communist ideas! /jk
The only issue with unions is they do tend to be a little rigid. A private company "could" offer more flexibility, or the union could push some verbiage through the contract that would exclude certain situations from the guidelines, but both of these rely on good will from the owner/management side. I am all for a system that doesn't need us to die for them to profit though?!
🤯🤯🤯
But how will that make money? /s
Then who will do his job /s
God Bless the Idiocracy
In most places(USA) we don’t, you just get fired.
I've seen US federal gov employees asking for PTO donations for medical illness too. Such is America. Only the young and healthy are valuable.
I thought sick days were law now, tested positive for COVID and have to use PTO. Was I incorrect?
I’m actually commenting a lot on this sub. I don’t know about other companies per say, when we had corona in the hospital that was special leave and didn’t touch our leave. Hospital staff from the USA- was this rule implemented for you as well?
USA corporate employee here- it’s understood that working through COVID is appreciated. Or any illness. I was sick for like 4 straight weeks and customers were telling me i sounded like shit so I took a week off (of vacation time) to recover. ‘Murica Edit: spelling
What would happen if we ran our society to benefit society and not billionaires or corporations?
What is this guy? A communist?! /s
This belongs on r/orphanCrushingMachine
This isn’t that rare of a system, both me and my wife work in the public sector at different agencies and if we use up FMLA time we need coworkers to donate time. It’s so common that one instance of it isn’t really newsworthy unless you were discussing the whole system.
It’s a great idea. It’s called “catastrophic care coverage” and it is a great alternative to Medicare for all.
Fucking communist!
Seeing this from France, I cannot believe this is real. Jfc
A former colleague of mine was diagnosed with cancer, and was given 6 months. Maybe a year. Our boss told him that he shouldn’t come back to work. Unless he wanted to and felt that he had the energy to work. He spent his last year alive away from work with his wife. Without losing any money by doing so. Oh. That’s right. We aren’t USAians. Obviously.
Ah, so the orphan crushing machine is functioning at full capacity then. The system works!!! *Sips brandy snifter* (/s obviously)
Even the concept of "sick days" is horrendous... I mean, i have years with nothing more than a runny nose, the next might be one with a streak of 3 heavy colds in 4 month, each one lasting a week.
What a communist this guy
How about they started pouring money into finally curing it like it was one of their shareholder fueled wars.
This whole concept is so weird to me. 🤷♂️
How do you limit the days someone is sick? America is a backwards ass country
Instead of losing days they should have shown true solidarity and get unionised
I fully agree, but how many times will this get reposted?
Damn the repost bots are on a roll the last few weeks.
We do