It’s that time of year again, that time of year where the weather is changing. The air is getting colder, the wind is kicking up and it’s time for us to break out our scarves and coats. Winter is about to set in. It’s also that time where people start getting sick with colds and the flu. It always happens around this same time. You’re going along enjoying life, enjoying the seasonal change and then BOOM, out of nowhere you’re down for the count with a stuffy head and runny nose. You even get that horrible phlegm filled nagging cough. It’s miserable. You just lay in bed trying to stay warm and you take tons of medicine to try and clear up your sinuses so you can breathe and get a good night’s rest. You take the ‘tussin, the Nyquil, Tylenol PM…hoping and praying that this sickness goes away. But it doesn’t, it lingers on for a few days forcing you to stay home in bed and miserable. We’ve all been there and we hate it. We do everything we can to avoid it. We eat healthy, take vitamins and stay away from people that are sick in hopes that we don’t get it this year.
You know what else happens at this same time every year? We find out who the assholes are that we work with who use all their sick days as damn ‘vacation’ days during the year and then have no PTO time in November and December when they get sick. It’s the time of year we endure these fucking assholes that are deathly ill, hacking, coughing, sneezing and are absolutely miserable yet they insist on coming into the office. They are at their desk causing a nuisance all day with the coughing, sneezing and nose blowing. They are the same inconsiderate dolts that also don’t see a problem with touching everything in the office and especially the lunch room ensuring this cold makes its rounds through the office a couple times. Thanks assholes!
A friend is dealing with this now. A coworker has been horribly sick at work for the past few days and when asked why this person didn’t go home the response was because they didn’t have PTO (‘vacation days’ was how this person put it) and wouldn’t get paid. Hey, guess what, not our fucking problem. You’re sick, stay home. Nobody cares if you aren’t getting paid. We all plan for this because we save our SICK DAYS for when we are actually SICK! See the connection there you fucking moron?? Sick days aren’t for when you want to go to the beach and then have that fabulous fucking dinner with the girls at the fucking Cheesecake Factory. Save some sick days for that off chance that you might get sick in November or December again just like you did last year. Be considerate for once and think of others. Don’t pass along your germs. We don’t want to get sick and have our Thanksgiving or Christmas ruined because you’re a fucking idiot.
You can tell I get a little pissed about this. It’s a HUGE pet peeve of mine. I work hard and I don’t like to miss work and I don’t like to get sick when it can be avoided. I just don’t like to get sick period. It’s more frustrating when it can be avoided. I can’t stand that people only think of themselves and don’t consider the people around them, especially when you work in an office with over 50 people. I understand we all get sick. I know you can’t really stay home for any extended period of time due to a cold, but how about this, how about you stay home for the first 3-4 days when you can’t breathe and are coughing up lung cheese all day? Seems sensible right? Not only will you not get your coworkers sick, but you won’t annoy the hell out of everybody with the sound of you gurgling lung butter all day while others are trying to do their job and praying they don’t catch whatever it is you have so they can enjoy the holidays with family. Can you do that for us? It’s not a lot to ask. And hey, when January arrives, how about tucking away a few SICK days for next November and December so we don’t have to have this talk again. We don’t want to always think of you as an asshole. Thanks.
