You must log in or # to comment.
For context (mostly for Americans), in Sweden most people have what you would know as tenure. Even someone working McDonald’s for 6 months has tenure at that job. Calling in sick is not something that it’s possible to fire anyone for, and the concept of “number of sick days” is foreign to us
Well, “number of sick days” would just be the number of days you’ve called in sick and not the number of days you’re “allowed” to be sick, right?
so there is a number of “allowed” sick days per year, fourteen i think, in that you don’t get sick pay from the company after that. you can still call in sick after that (because you can get sick more, duh) but it’s on your own dime. if you get an injury that takes more time to heal you instead get state sick pay.
That’s exactly what we call “number of sick days” where I live.
I wonder what happens in the US when you exceed that number. You get fired for being too sick???
you’re talking about a country with 0 PTO requirements. not even independence day is federally guaranteed to be time off in the US. fucking backwards-ass country.
It depends really, for something long term you would typically take FMLA (Family Medical Leave Act) which gives up to 12 weeks of unpaid protected leave. For income during such a period you would either use up your sick or vacation time, file for short term disability (SSDI), or you would have short term disability insurance which would cost between 1-3% of your annual salary.
For something short term you might just take unpaid leave, but without FMLA your job isn’t federally protected. Contrary to popular belief most employers won’t just fire you the first chance they get and shitty behavior can really come back to bite them in the local culture. Where people typically get fucked is if they don’t communicate to their management what’s going on or if they abuse the system. No call, no show, and no explanation you’ll probably be in trouble, but if you call and tell your boss that you’re sick they’ll typically tell you not to come in, but might want a doctors note if you’re out for a significant time (3+ days). Also, if you call out every other Monday “sick” then you’re also probably going to get in trouble eventually.
Big corporations, especially publicly traded companies, are where the cut throat behavior is more common because they are beholden to the shareholder rather than actual people. That said, only about a third of the US work for such companies.
That said, the US work culture is such that people typically come to work despite small illnesses because they aren’t seen as serious. If you have the sniffles, a soreness in the body, maybe a scratchy throat, or a headache the people around you won’t be surprised if you come in still and will probably just give you extra space.
Walmart is known for their attendance points system which feels pretty egregious especially the “double point days”. You get sick for 2 days in holiday season and now your job is one more sick day from over?
Clock in late: 0.5 points. 1 point if you’re late more than half of your shift. It has to be more than 9 minutes past your shift to be considered late.
Leave early: 0.5 points (if you stayed at least half of your shift. If it’s less than half then it’s 1) Always let management know when you’re leaving early. Otherwise they can fire you for job abandonment. It has to be more than 9 minutes before the end of your shift.
Call in: 1 point. 2 if it’s a key event day (a lot of people call these “double point days”)
No Call No Show: 3 points. (1 from missing the day and 2 for not calling in. 4 if it’s a key event day)
Once you have 5 points, you can be fired at any time for attendance.
PPTO can remove any point except ones from not calling in. There’s no way to remove those.
Once a point has been there for 1 week, it’s too late to use PPTO to remove it.
Points aren’t automatic. Management has 2 weeks to deny/approve it. If they fail to do so, it’s automatically approved and no point is given. So don’t think you escaped a point just because it doesn’t show up right away. It usually takes a few days.
source comment. https://www.reddit.com/r/walmart/comments/1jc766l/comment/mi000ns/
Idk what you expect me to say, I put in my comment that it does happen especially at big publicly traded businesses. As I said in my comment only a third of the US works at such companies and Walmart doesn’t even represent all of that third. There are 163 million people employed in the US, Walmart employs ~1.6 million people in the US. That means Walmart represents about 3% of people who work at publicly traded business or 0.9% of people who work in the US.
Honestly though, most people look at Walmart jobs as the bottom of the barrel, Walmart needs you more than you need them. I just looked up the career page for my local Walmart and they have 32 positions they are currently hiring for, with how few employees I see I wasn’t aware 32 people even worked there.
Honestly saw my reply in support of yours, so not expecting you to say much of anything.
I mean… Yeah, pretty much. If you have some kind of chronic illness that you can provide medical proof for, you can get a federally protected leave that allows you to be absent for more than however many days your employer allows, but if you’re just unlucky and got sick a bunch in a single year, they can absolutely fire you. It’s a hell scape over here.
Every time I hear what it’s like in your country, I feel sorry for you all. Wishing you strength and resilience.
I will try on my side to defeat conservatives wherever they are.
The paperwork is reliant on access to medical care though.
Yeah, but the question was what happens in the U.S.
It’s as dishonest to suggest there’s nothing as it is to suggest what exists is enough.
I’m not suggesting there is nothing. I am pointing out that FMLA requires access to a doctor who can do the paperwork and a significant number of people in the US don’t have that access.
I know from personal experience that getting FMLA sorted out is a giant pain in the ass when one does have access.
Also the burden for “access to medical care” is pretty dang low for “most” of the US. Getting on FMLA is not really that hard, surviving while on FMLA is hard.
That sounds surprisingly low to be frank.
Germany has 6 weeks of fully paid sick days, after which your health insurance takes over.
USian with employer sponsored insurance. Our short term disability insurance kicks in after 14 days, so it makes sense for the employer themselves to stop paying after that point.
Having said that, insurance kicks in after 14 days of a specific disability; not 14 days in a year. If you get sick for multiple shorter periods throughout the year, you could still fall into a gap.
Health insurance here covers up to 78 weeks within 3 years per illness. Only (up to) 70% of your salary though (at most 128€/day right now). Afterwards unemployment insurance takes over and it gets more complicated than I want to research for a comment.
you still get paid after day 14, but not by your employer.
That sounds pretty much like a developed country - good for you!
Even if the injury happened at work? (talking about the 40days)
hm, i don’t actually know. businesses are required to be insured against that though so it probably is different.
A bit anecdotal, but I have a coworker who broke their ankle while on the job and they have been out for over a year. Still have a job and we’re waiting for them to come back as soon as their doctor clears them to drive. I live in an “at-will” state.
deleted by creator
is tenure really the right word there? it’s more like “no at-will employment”, where there are laws about what is and is not a valid reason to let someone go, like if there is literally nothing for you to do it’s fine if they fire you. tenure is more like “you can’t be fired unless you break the law”.
In Europe, there can be valid reasons to let you go but if the employer has no tasks to give me, they have to make me redundant with the pay based on my contract, they can’t just sack me. The longer you have been with the company, the more they have to shell out. Gross misconduct or going AWOL would probably be enough basis to fire me, not the fact that they misjudged the workload.
well yeah, but the process is the same no matter the reason. you still get x months of pay.
I dont get this… sometimes people are so gay they can’t function in society. My little gay lover is far too timid to function well around rude overbearing jerks. I know a handful of folks in my tiny town that wouldn’t survive around the main homophobic populace of American cities.
TBH, with how often the people I end up working with being particularly phobic of anything other than straight, white and male, I have also felt too gay to work.
