JulieR

Cute.

I get 26 paid personal days per year. It is my responsibility to manage them as best I can. If I wanted to call in for unscheduled leave this week, I would. If I wanted to call in for unscheduled leave three weeks from now, I wouldn't, because the project we're prepping for now will be in full swing by then and SLEEP will be a luxury. Eighty-hour weeks will be average, midnight overseas calls will fold in with my regular workday at least three times a week and while you're quilting on a sunny summer afternoon, I will be at work. And I'm salaried, by the way, so it's not like there's a big paycheck at the end. I just get to keep my job.

So if I don't take care of myself now, when will I do it? I won't get another chance until August. I won't be taking a vacation in July like others do because my schedule won't permit it this year. I'm resting up and recharging now so I can be ready for a sprint. This is called responsible and judicious use of personal leave. Your mileage apparently varies.

Preventative care, including for mental health, is important. Those who ignore this do so at their own risk and the risks can be significant, which you know from nursing school and the rest of us know from experience.

the lion

as a matter of fact, I just did it yesterday. it feels good, really. when my husband got home, saw the mini quilt on the floor, he at least acknowledged that it is pretty.

Carmine

I hope you have a great day! I was ready to do that on Monday.... :-D Am still in the need. :-P

Grinster

Perhaps it is a Michigan thing, I feel the same way!

BellaBoo

It's hard to believe that jobs still have sick days and not changed to personal days. Personal days are for any reason, it's up to the person to use them wisely. Also the companies that allow some unused personal days to be carried over to the next year have seen a dramatic drop in absenteeism. Sometimes changing old outdated ways is for the better.

dixiechunk

In theory I absolutely agree with you. When one hospital I worked for switched from the traditional (sick/vacation/holiday times all separate) to the personal leave system they pointed out that if some employees who traditionally used a lot of sick time used all their personal leave days as "sick days" well, they ended up with no time left for vacation. On the other hand, if the you took fewer "sick days" well, you would have more time to take scheduled vacations. It didn't seem to work, at least over the three years I was there. Maybe it takes a long time to become a workable thing. Wish someone on the board who works in personnel ('scuse me, it has a different name these days and I can't think if it) could add a note or two here.
Part of me thinks the whole issue is also affected by the kind of work you're in. If you have a job that is 24/7 like nursing or policework it is different than folks with maybe business jobs, or office work where you are setting your own hours and work independently.

MerryQuilter

Maybe once in past 2 years or longer just don't do that as a nurse know how busy my coworkers would be, however if any of us have a true emergency for instance, my daughter as a freshman in college needed her gallbladder removed, it was no problem to go.

kaykwilts

You know, I have been reading this thread, and can't help but feeling a little envious of all of you that made such wise decisions in your life to choose a career that allowed you paid sick days. Many could say that, before I got sick, my employment decisions, and career decisions, weren't the wisest. I was self-employed for many, many years at a very successful business. But contrary to a comment from another here, when you are in the retail, restaurant (or any "service") type of industry), or when you are running your own business, you can't afford to miss work, as missed work is not compensated by "sick" or "personal" days. Missed days means a lower paycheck. And when you live so literally from paycheck to paycheck, have no insurance (cause you can't afford it) support seven underage children, husband is disabled but can't get SSI cause he is sick with a disease that isn't covered.....well, you don't miss work...you just don't. What happens then is burn out sets in...you get exhausted, tired of all the demands, unable to cope, unable the want to continue, unable to want to get out of bed.....so you close down the successful business, cause you just can't give out anymore, and you take low paying (cause that's all that's available) jobs, working for crappy bosses that care less about you than they do a slug. But you know you can't afford to "call in sick" for any reason, cause to do so means you, or the kids, or your husband doesn't eat next week, or the rent doesn't get paid, or the water gets shut off. Or you will lose your job....to one of the five hundred people standing behind you just waiting to take your place!! (And please, don't start on the "bandwagon" of getting food stamps and government assistance. You try being a white, college-educated (though no degree) woman in the south and get food stamps...don't care what anyone says, it just doesn't work out...after trying and trying many times, I just gave up and figured I would rather spend my time working than in the food stamp office trying to get government benefits that, apparently, I didn't "deserve")).....and forget about going to the doctor....you just reserve that for the kids, when they need one. Later, you decide to try to swing going back to school and working full time...just so you can try to get into a career that will pay a little above minimum wage. Then the real disaster hits.......you nearly die, spend five days in the hospital, mega-steroids for six months destroys your adrenal glands, and now.....permanently disabled.

Do I blame anyone for my choices...from not finishing college to staying with a man who could not work, to having a large family, to all the struggles I have had...whether self imposed or not.....??????? NO....this is my life and I will live it how I chose.

But I say....take your mental health days. Cause if you lose that...you start down the path of losing your physical health too. And if you work for an employer that is so backward and cares so little about his/her employees that he/she doesn't recognize the need to give paid personal days to workers, then I say....call in sick.....cause if you don't take care of your mental/emotional health.....you will eventually lose your physical health.

So, sorry if this steps on some toes here...that is not my intent. But for those of us at the bottom of the employment ladder....the story is just different than those of you fortunate enough to have made better choices with your lives.

So, yea....I don't care what my kids say, getting a college degree (or the lack of it) was the biggest mistake I ever made.....working for self-centered, just above indentured servant status employers was my second.....but then again, what's a person to do when that is all that is available????

alikat110

Yep. Funny, we couldn't share this secret on face book. Employers moniter face book. They probably don't even know this site exists!!!!

Pam B

No...but I sure wish I would! I do believe that we all need "mental health days" now and then. I rarely take the day off and generally go to school (I teach Kdg) even when I feel horrible. It is just so hard for someone to step in and cover for me. Not that they couldn't...it is just really hard for me to put down on paper everything that goes on in a typical day.