Sick Days

I am home sick today. A real sick day, totally legit.  Stomach craps, vomiting, the whole deal. Plus a headache from laying in bed too long.  It sucks.

It got me to thinking about sick days. About how many of us use them appropriately to heal up when needed.  But it also made me think about people who abuse them.  Use them like "free days off" to run errands, catch up on sleep, whatever.  And that makes me kind of mad for two reasons.

One is because that cheapens the whole system for when people who are sick really need those days. My wife recently spent 21 days in hospital, and and additional 2 months at home recovering from a life threatening illness.  So how dare people say they need a sick day because they didn't get enough sleep on the weekend? Talk about arrogant. 

Reason Two is because I know right now at my office, 3 of my coworkers are pulling extra duty to cover my desk.  They are each doing 133% of their normal day to help me not be buried when I return, hopefully tomorrow. They are not happy, but they do it, because they know I will do the same for them someday.  But think about how they'd feel if they discovered I was having a "fake" sick day. As would I.  As would you.

Think about it: sick days are one of the most inconsiderate things a worker can do, to coworkers, and to the system as a whole. Make them count for something if you must. 

Waiting

Waiting is hard. Whether it is waiting for something trivial, like in line for coffee, or something major, like waiting for someone at a hospital, I have a difficult time with being out of control of the clock.  I will not claim that I am a go-getter, that I have to be moving, doing.  That's not it.  I can sit around lazy with the best of them. It is control.  I like to be in control.

Now I'm not talking about being the boss, or telling others what to do.  I am perfectly capable of letting others be in charge, as long as there is control- a point, a purpose, and a destination. The key here is control; someone has to be in control.  That the situation is under control and the time on the clock is not ticking away pointlessly. 

Which brings me back to waiting. Waiting on someone else for anything means they in control of my clock- my seconds are ticking and I am not in charge of their expenditure.  I cannot ever have those seconds back and I despise the fact that I lost them to waiting.

I realize and accept that waiting is an inevitable part of life.  But I don't like it, and it's still hard.