Working a job is one of the requirements to sustain a decent, livable life, not only in American society, but all societies. Forty hours per week, sometimes more, is common. Work can mean a plethora of things to different people: day care, medical care, teaching, thinking, singing, writing, physical labor, fast food, retail, etc. Employees are expected to show up every day they are scheduled, work their full shift and go home to their home lives, an aspect that employers do not understand.
These are reasonable expectations – show up, work and do well. Unfortunately, people are not perfect, nor invincible. They get sick and depressed. People have family emergencies to tend to. Work should not always have to come first. In the event of college students, students have school on top of working all week. They are even more prone to being sick. A number of employers find it necessary to punish employees for calling in sick or calling in for emergencies. This is absolutely not fair. If any employer’s family member had an emergency or was sick, any working-class employee knows they would be put on extra hours to cover their absence while they recover. It should be the same for employees.
Employees should be able to call in sick without question, to a certain extent. An employee who calls in regularly may be susceptible to question. It should not be disregarded, though, that people get sick and regularly. It is almost impossible not to come under the weather once in a while and need a day of recovery and rest. Some employees decide to work through their sickness, no matter how runny their nose or heavy their head is. Others do not have the strength, will or desire to live through it, taking a day of rest instead of working as normal.
Sickness can be defined differently by different people. Some find the common cold to be a travesty bad enough to call in sick for a day, skip class, forget responsibilities and sleep through it with the company of movies and Netflix. Some do not give in until the stomach bug hits them because no one wants to run to the bathroom throwing up all day long. Some, however, experience mental illnesses others do not and will not understand. Mental illness affects one’s mindset and the way they feel. Mental illnesses can cause so much strain on people’s lives and differently for anyone with them. Some do not want to get up, instead sleeping all day and avoiding any other person. Some feel worse or less badly, but symptoms and effects are definable as a whole only by the individual.
Employers should recognize this when it comes to missing work for sicknesses. Sick days should not be reduced only to stomach bug or flu sicknesses. No person deals with any illness the same way as another. Mental illnesses are just that – illnesses. When symptoms flare up and become obvious, those with mental illness may not feel well enough to work, let alone socialize, to the best of their abilities.
Sick days should not be regulated by the sickness. Employers need to recognize there are many ways an employee can feel ill.
Photo by Maria Pericozzi | The Oswegonian
