Yays and Nays

[boltnrun]

1 hour ago, Seraphim said:

I hope you feel better quickly . 

Thank you. 

[Batya33]

11 hours ago, boltnrun said:

Thank you.

I'm starting to suspect it's my digestive disease flaring up. I had issues earlier this week and there's been some pain and discomfort in my surgery area (where the reconstruction was done). That would cause me to feel a bit feverish, lightheaded and weak. I also had a headache which is another sign of a flare up. Nothing I can do except take it easy and continue drinking lots of water (which I do regularly anyway).

It helps a little to know the source and I hope today is better!

[boltnrun]

2 hours ago, Batya33 said:

It helps a little to know the source and I hope today is better!

Thank you.

I still don't feel well, but it feels more like a cold or something today. Congestion, runny nose, headache. I had a really hard time getting up. But today is a WFH day so I will muddle through. That is what I tried to explain to my previous manager; that when we work remotely we can still work when we're sick but if we are required to go into the office we can't work when we're sick. He just gave me a blank look. Corporate doesn't seem to get that, for some reason. 

I had enough sleep as far as quantity but it wasn't a comfortable sleep. 

[Batya33]

1 hour ago, boltnrun said:

Thank you.

I still don't feel well, but it feels more like a cold or something today. Congestion, runny nose, headache. I had a really hard time getting up. But today is a WFH day so I will muddle through. That is what I tried to explain to my previous manager; that when we work remotely we can still work when we're sick but if we are required to go into the office we can't work when we're sick. He just gave me a blank look. Corporate doesn't seem to get that, for some reason. 

I had enough sleep as far as quantity but it wasn't a comfortable sleep. 

Yes. I could not agree more. One of my colleagues this week has same exact symptoms as you and opted to work from home. I’m positive she was just as productive. I appreciate her and her work ethic so much 

[boltnrun]

1 hour ago, Batya33 said:

Yes. I could not agree more. One of my colleagues this week has same exact symptoms as you and opted to work from home. I’m positive she was just as productive. I appreciate her and her work ethic so much 

They need to understand this and allow us to have the tools to work remotely if needed. I choose to take my laptop home when I work in the office, but if I didn't and got sick overnight I wouldn't be able to work. Most of us do take our laptops home every day. 

What I find to be hypocritical is my skip level manager is allowed to come into the office around lunchtime when she does come in. But I noticed her looking around to make sure WE are all in the office. So why is she allowed to work half of the workday from home, but we worker bees have to go in the full day?? And those of us who live far from the office couldn't even do this because we'd have to use up our entire lunch break to drive in. It takes me between 35 and 45 minutes to make the drive in the morning or at lunchtime. So a half day from home doesn't work. But apparently she is allowed to do so. 

Obviously a pet peeve for me lol. 

Still not feeling terrific. But my digestive system seems to have settled down a bit. 

[reinventmyself]

When I was working it was brought to our attention the dilemma an employer faces when staff is not utilizing their sick or vacation time.  It becomes a dilemma and liability as they witness everyone's accruals adding up into 100's of thousands.  That many explain the conflicting look you received when you opted to work from home while sick.  

During covid when staff either retired or left for other reasons the company took a huge hit paying departing staff out on their accruals.  I know that just in my department the other team didn't take a single sick or vacation day for two years.  When I did the math, it was downright impressive.   As a manager we were told to encourage staff to use their time, but there was really anyway to enforce it.

Just another angle to consider

Hope you're feeling better

[boltnrun]

They actually tell us when we have accrued a large amount of vacation hours. An engineer on my team told us in a meeting he was taking a week off because HR ordered him to. He didn't want to but he was at maximum accruals. Incidentally, I think the policy is to pay out vacation accruals only when we leave the company or retire. But this one engineer apparently hates taking time off. 

I only had five sick hours that carried over from last year. I used two of them yesterday. I am pretty good about taking my accrued vacation but some people I guess really love to work and don't want to take time off. 

I would like to stay with this company until I retire, which I plan to do in about ten years. 

[Seraphim]

3 hours ago, reinventmyself said:

When I was working it was brought to our attention the dilemma an employer faces when staff is not utilizing their sick or vacation time.  It becomes a dilemma and liability as they witness everyone's accruals adding up into 100's of thousands.  That many explain the conflicting look you received when you opted to work from home while sick.  

During covid when staff either retired or left for other reasons the company took a huge hit paying departing staff out on their accruals.  I know that just in my department the other team didn't take a single sick or vacation day for two years.  When I did the math, it was downright impressive.   As a manager we were told to encourage staff to use their time, but there was really anyway to enforce it.

Just another angle to consider

Hope you're feeling better

My husband has to use his time up every year or they lose it . In fact he is told to take it or else. 

[boltnrun]

21 minutes ago, Seraphim said:

My husband has to use his time up every year or they lose it . In fact he is told to take it or else. 

It depends on which state you live in here. Where I lived for almost ten years it was "use it or lose it". But where I'm currently living it rolls over to the next year. There are also stricter rules regarding lunch breaks. My previous state I worked ten hour shifts and if I wanted I could take my lunch 7 hours in.  Here you must take your lunch break before you reach your fifth hour or the company gets a fine and you get paid for an extra hour. And you get a writeup if you deliberately try to take advantage of that law.

I have 45 hours of sick time this year because five hours rolled over from last year. Plus the vacation I accrue, paid holidays and two extra paid floating holidays. It's nice. 

[Seraphim]

My husband has reached the max of 30 days per year. But with the federal government it is take it or lose it . He still has to take 11 more days by March 30. About February he will be getting nastygrams from his boss if he doesn’t take them . Then April 1 , he has 30 days and starts over . 

[boltnrun]

Still not feeling well today.  I wanted to go for a long walk since I didn't go the past two days.  I was going to drive to the university that's about 35 miles away to walk and see their beautiful gardens but I think it's not a great idea to be so far from home.  Especially if I start feeling dizzy or weak.  Maybe it would be better to just do multiple loops in my neighborhood so I can get home quickly if I need to.  Boo.

I also had planned to attend the free dance class at the park downtown yesterday afternoon but I didn't feel well enough to go. Hopefully I can go next week.

[Batya33]

1 minute ago, boltnrun said:

Still not feeling well today.  I wanted to go for a long walk since I didn't go the past two days.  I was going to drive to the university that's about 35 miles away to walk and see their beautiful gardens but I think it's not a great idea to be so far from home.  Especially if I start feeling dizzy or weak.  Maybe it would be better to just do multiple loops in my neighborhood so I can get home quickly if I need to.  Boo.

I also had planned to attend the free dance class at the park downtown yesterday afternoon but I didn't feel well enough to go. Hopefully I can go next week.

Yes -I'd stick close to home and see how that feels. I hope you feel better!

[boltnrun]

2 minutes ago, Batya33 said:

Yes -I'd stick close to home and see how that feels. I hope you feel better!

Thank you.

I'm disappointed.  I really wanted to get out today.  But the university isn't disappearing lol.  I can go next week.

[Batya33]

4 minutes ago, boltnrun said:

Thank you.

I'm disappointed.  I really wanted to get out today.  But the university isn't disappearing lol.  I can go next week.

I know and I totally get that balancing of not wanting to go too far from home.

[boltnrun]

My city finally reinstated the arts district closed street event that used to take place every two months.  They stopped over a year ago due to lack of funding, which is a shame because the events were terrific.  Next weekend is the first one of the year and I can't wait!  I will go and buy a couple of things from small independent vendors and buy some freshly made food from a food vendor.  Hopefully the weather cooperates!

[boltnrun]

I only did 1 1/2 miles 🙁 I got overheated and I still feel super lightheaded. I did see the new little outdoor cafe about six blocks away now serves pho. I will have to try that soon. Nothing like a nice bowl of pho when it's cold outside. 

[Batya33]

Yes perfect. I might give my son ramen noodle soup for dinner. 

[boltnrun]

I have to grocery shop this morning.  I still don't feel all that well.  And it's super windy outside.  Gusts to 50 mph.  That'll be fun 😕

[Batya33]

1 hour ago, boltnrun said:

I have to grocery shop this morning.  I still don't feel all that well.  And it's super windy outside.  Gusts to 50 mph.  That'll be fun 😕

Same here when I did mine! Not quite 50 but cold and windy!  Hope it works out ok.

[boltnrun]

It was unpleasant but not too bad. So many huge palm tree branches all over the streets.

I've noticed a LOT more masks in the past couple of months. A good 50% of the shoppers at the grocery store were wearing masks. I understand why. So many viruses running rampant. And I saw a few shoppers who had constant, heavy coughs. If course they were the ones not wearing masks. Have some consideration of others, people. 

Ironically, although I continue to suffer from Covid related anxiety I have not restarted wearing a mask. I still have the lingering belief that touching things is what's dangerous. Yes, I know it's not true but that thought was implanted in my mind early on and I have not been able to shake it loose. So much emphasis was initially placed on hand washing and hand sanitizer. I wish I could convince myself I'm not going to catch Covid from sitting on a chair at a restaurant or touching my car's door handle. I know it's ridiculous but it just won't go away despite two plus years of therapy and medication. Blech.

But at least I CAN go to restaurants and I stopped refusing to grocery shop in store over two years ago. And I can attend events. Hopefully I can get rid of this weird fear of contaminating my apartment. 

[Batya33]

4 hours ago, boltnrun said:

But at least I CAN go to restaurants and I stopped refusing to grocery shop in store over two years ago. And I can attend events. Hopefully I can get rid of this weird fear of contaminating my apartment. 

It is hard to get rid of! I do use tissue or paper to touch public door handles/handles in my apartment building.  I think I started it before covid though and yes I do think I can get viruses from public door handles - no point in using my bare hand to open.

[Seraphim]

It is a hard thing to deal with. My husband was diagnosed with OCD many many years ago. While he doesn’t have overwhelming symptoms anymore he is an excessive hand washer . Between the handwashing and sanitizer he is lucky to have skin left. 

[boltnrun]

Ha, the skin on my hands is permanently damaged from all the hand washing. My hands look 20 years older than I am. But I've always been a compulsive hand washer. 

I did go ahead and Door Dash some pho. It probably would have been excellent except the delivery driver couldn't find my apartment so it was cold by the time I went outside and tracked them down. And microwaving the rice noodles would have ruined them (gummy) and the veg would have gotten limp and mushy. Ah well. 

[boltnrun]

Oh, and the driver was extremely pregnant and was wearing a crop top. It was like, hello, belly!

[Seraphim]

1 minute ago, boltnrun said:

Ha, the skin on my hands is permanently damaged from all the hand washing. My hands look 20 years older than I am. But I've always been a compulsive hand washer. 

I did go ahead and Door Dash some pho. It probably would have been excellent except the delivery driver couldn't find my apartment so it was cold by the time I went outside and tracked them down. And microwaving the rice noodles would have ruined them (gummy) and the veg would have gotten limp and mushy. Ah well. 

My husband always puts copious amounts of cream on them as well. He has always been a compulsive washer as well. His mom taught him that.