indeed. welcome to life, OP. it's not just who you are, it's how you appear to other people too.
indeed. welcome to life, OP. it's not just who you are, it's how you appear to other people too.
If you read the thread over you'll see no insults were directed at you specifically, and DrPizza took back what he said about summer school. Otherwise, your peers are making it particularly tough on you, because they ARE slackers as evidenced by the balance of the replies. If it wasn't for their poor work ethic and history, you may not have faced such a response from that employer.
BoomerD
No Lifer
- Feb 26, 2006
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Well, taking sick days that early into a job certainly looks bad, and I'd probably have handed you your walking papers too. While you MAY have had a legitimate reason, it just doesn't look good, and could set the tone for your employment. No one wants to hire someone who is going to be constantly calling in sick. The employer has no way to know if this was an isolated incident, or a fortelling of things to come, and there are too many people looking for work to take a chance on you.
As for the rest of this thread, it depends on what industry you work in, but MOST industries REQUIRE you to be on time at whatever time the boss decides your shift is going to be. Show up late very many times, and you're gone...When you're late, someone else has to cover your absence. Granted, many tech jobs, this doesn't apply, but regardless whether you work late or not, you gotta be there on time, get back from lunch on time, and do your work...Doesn't matter if you can do 8 hrs work in 6 hours or not. If that's the case, you should be the most productive in your "crew", and get 33% more work done than the others...or do you believe that you are required to only do X amount of work and you're done for the day?
I'm a hard-a$$ as a foreman. I insist everyone busts their butts the entire shift. I never ask more than I'm willing to do myself, and on the days when we're slack, I'll join in with them playing cards, drinking coffee, etc., but when we have work to do, LET'S GO!! Wanna chat with someone? GET THEIR PHONE NUMBER AND CALL THEM AT HOME! I don't care how your kid's football/soccer/baseball dance team did, I don't care how the niners/raiders/ Giants, or even the Steelers did on Sunday...We can talk about that sh*t at break or lunch.
As for the rest of this thread, it depends on what industry you work in, but MOST industries REQUIRE you to be on time at whatever time the boss decides your shift is going to be. Show up late very many times, and you're gone...When you're late, someone else has to cover your absence. Granted, many tech jobs, this doesn't apply, but regardless whether you work late or not, you gotta be there on time, get back from lunch on time, and do your work...Doesn't matter if you can do 8 hrs work in 6 hours or not. If that's the case, you should be the most productive in your "crew", and get 33% more work done than the others...or do you believe that you are required to only do X amount of work and you're done for the day?
I'm a hard-a$$ as a foreman. I insist everyone busts their butts the entire shift. I never ask more than I'm willing to do myself, and on the days when we're slack, I'll join in with them playing cards, drinking coffee, etc., but when we have work to do, LET'S GO!! Wanna chat with someone? GET THEIR PHONE NUMBER AND CALL THEM AT HOME! I don't care how your kid's football/soccer/baseball dance team did, I don't care how the niners/raiders/ Giants, or even the Steelers did on Sunday...We can talk about that sh*t at break or lunch.
It's hard to be devoted to a company hard core when you know that you're just a number to them and they're trying their hardest to pay you as little as possible, offer as few benefits as possible and would gladly cut your job if it were at all possible. That was the case when I worked for Home Depot. The work conditions were bad, the pay system was ridiculous and the management was incompetent. I worked in Lawn & Garden, which, along with Lumber, is the hardest department in the store. The cashiers who stood around checking 10 customers out over their entire shift had a higher starting wage than I did. I always finished my assigned work before other workers, so I usually got some of their work allocated to me. The only raise I got was the post-probationary raise and even that was 2 months late in being applied. When I had a slipped disc from gymnastics, they acted like they were doing me a huge favor by allowing me time off. I wouldn't cross the street to work for that company and all their BS employee marketing mumbo-jumbo now.
The hospital I work for now is pretty good. It has a good work environment, decent pay and good management. If you're sick at all, they do not want you even coming in. I am far more dedicated to the hospital than I was to HD because they earn my dedication. All you older guys who worked for the same company for your whole lives... did any of you get the "gold watch" gift upon retiring? Did it piss you off?
The hospital I work for now is pretty good. It has a good work environment, decent pay and good management. If you're sick at all, they do not want you even coming in. I am far more dedicated to the hospital than I was to HD because they earn my dedication. All you older guys who worked for the same company for your whole lives... did any of you get the "gold watch" gift upon retiring? Did it piss you off?
- Jan 9, 2001
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Heh, I'm not sure what thread you were reading, but there were quite a few harsh words directed straight at me. That's ok, people are entitled to think what they want, I just wish they wouldn't presume (see update).
Originally posted by: ScottyB
Originally posted by: johnjohn320
I started work at a store late last week (just a summer job, I'm a college student). Everything's been going fine, no problems that I'm aware of. Last night I got really sick (think a friend of mine gave me a bug), and it's carried over into today, when I was supposed to work. I call in sick. I'm told that because this is my first week that "that's not good" and that I need to call back later and talk to some other person. I call back and he informs me that chances are they're going to let me go if I don't come in today.
I don't even care that much. If these assholes wanna fire a hard-working employee for calling in sick once, then that's fine. Summer's not long from over, I have another (small but adequate) source of income, and summer school's keeping me plenty busy. I guess I can see it from their perspective, but I still think they're being a bit ridiculous. The only thing I'm concerned about is future job applications-I'll have to put it down that I was terminated from my last job.Hope that doesn't affect things too terribly much. I've never been fired from a job before. Oh well.
Why do you have to put down you got fired? Just don't put the job down on your list of previous employers.
QFT, especially if it is just a summer job.
Also, customarily for a summer job it doesn't look good to call in sick the first week. Too many partiers and shirkers do it. You should have gone in really sick, and told them that you were feeling ill while on the job.
Speaking for your employer, they have no choice but to presume. With current HR policies being what they are, after you make it past the probationary period it is extremely difficult to terminate people without having major issues at some point down the road. For myself, if you were to call out on your first week working for me you would have also been fired. This isn't anything against you or what you did in any way and I don't want you to think that. But if you look at it from my perspective a young kid calling out on his first weekend scheduled? On a statistical basis that is about the worst type of employee you can have on your staff.
Now, if you had dragged your @ss in half dead, puking all over the place on your first weekend then you would instantly elevate yourself considerably in my eyes, and without mentioning it to you you would have been put in for a larger post probationary raise and you would have had an ally on your side when issues came up.
Two extremes I know, but that is the reality of today's workplace. The younger generation overall svcks as employees. People say that corporations don't care about their employees but that is rather laughable. If I am about to lose one of my stronger people I make a phone call and a specialist from corporate HR will drive six hours to talk things over with him and try to do what they can to keep him on board. I have had guys get a 15% merit raise off schedule because they were thinking about leaving before- not had given their notice or were actively looking for other employment, just thinking about leaving. Strong employees are a companies greatest assett, and anyone who thinks they don't know that is nuts. This doesn't mean that they should bend over to the half baked demands of some kid who has been working their for six months, but they will work with their strong employees- regardless of age- if they come out well for them.
I understand your perspective on the situation not being pleasant to be in. Next time something like that happens consider it an oppurtunity. Drag yourself in, and in all honesty if a strong amount of appreciation isn't shown to you then that is a place you don't want to work. There are certainly managers out their who don't care about their people- and you don't ever want to work for them. If you work every day as if your life hangs in the balance- you are assured of being extremely successful.
To some of the wet behind the ears kids who think that hard work doesn't get you anywhere- how about up to eight weeks paid vacation per year, nice fat profit sharing checks, stock options and 100% match up to 8% on your 401K to go along with your *free* pension plan? That is what my company offers for our hourly employees who stick with us and perform exceptionally. Gold watch? Sorry man, you actually don't get one of those. But we have a large number of hourly employees making well above the household median income of the US by themselves(not including spouses) for jobs that require no prior training or educational background. Layoffs are a reality at my business too, we even close down facilities sometimes. When that happens, I personally hand out a partly filled out internal application for my best people and tell them they really want to apply(letting them know without telling them explicitly they have a new position and a raise waiting for them- even if it is a 'lesser' job short term).
I am not a baby boomer, I am GenX. I have a decent portion of my people from my generation and GenY and overall they demonstrate phenomenal work ethic on a daily basis. Of course, this takes time to get to and you have to fire ten or twenty people to find one worth keeping, but when you do you do whatever you can to keep them happy. The OP may have been one of the people I really would have wanted to keep around, but if I see any hint of a problem in the probationary period they are gone. This isn't because I am a knee jerk reactionist by choice, it's just that if I wait then it is a six month to year long process to be able to fire someone.
There are, to my knowledge, laws providing sick days for workers in the USA, making termination for taking sick leave illegal, in fact. The exact circumstances could vary, but I'm almost 100% positive that it's a legal right of workers in this country to take sick leave up to a limit.
All you people ranting about how brave and courageous you are for going to work sick, let me clue you in on something: you probably piss the hell out of your coworkers. If you're sick, STAY HOME. If you're sick a lot, GO TO THE DOCTOR.
There's a happy middle ground between always being home sick and coming to work no matter what. I probably take 2, maybe 3 sick days a year. No big deal. I don't want to be at work when I'm sick and people don't want me there when I'm sick.
And to the dude who doesn't take time off because he's paranoid that people will talk about him: you're kinda pathetic. I was like you once... that is until I HAD to take time off to get married and go on my honeymoon.
Ever since then, I've taken every second of vacation that I was owed.
Work to live, not the other way around.
There's a happy middle ground between always being home sick and coming to work no matter what. I probably take 2, maybe 3 sick days a year. No big deal. I don't want to be at work when I'm sick and people don't want me there when I'm sick.
And to the dude who doesn't take time off because he's paranoid that people will talk about him: you're kinda pathetic. I was like you once... that is until I HAD to take time off to get married and go on my honeymoon.
Ever since then, I've taken every second of vacation that I was owed.
Work to live, not the other way around.
That's a hoot. Where does anybody get the idea they have to be "dedicated" to the company, or vise versa? I see it go the other way even more so. People trying to milk the company for everything they can. Particularly true for unions. Not sure where people get the idea they're owed health care and other benefits either. It's that "entitled" attitude again. Speaking of which:
We already have so damn many laws you can't spit on the sidewalk without risking a lawsuit. Tell the secretary her dress is pretty today... I dare ya! You may end up getting your employer dragged into court for some kind of harrassment BS. You're hired to perform a service. If you can't do it, you feel it's your "right" to stay employed? No doubt some states and union contracts have laws and rules to that effect, but it's BS plain & simple. I'd like to see what happens if the employer can't hold up his end of the agreement!
Originally posted by: Kyanzes
Interesting, I haven't had a single day off sick since I started to work (almost exactly 10 years now). Not a single day. That doesn't mean I'm ultra resilient or something, it simply means that I would never risk to take days out when I'm sick. It doesn't worth it. Let them send you home if they want (never accepted that though). You are the most vulnerable when you are not near. You would be very surprised how risky it is to be far from your workplace (sickness, holiday etc). People immediately start to talk about you, the quality of the work you do, your relationship to others etc. Ofc if you brake your bones, get cancer etc. that's different stuff. But I doubt anyone would fire you for breaking your leg. Taking days out on probation is a bad omen also. Either don't be sick or be the boss. However it is still unadvised to leave for a long time even when you are the boss, for obvious reasons
You must not feel secure about the quality of your work if you're that paranoid about being away from your job.
- Jan 9, 2001
- 7,572
- 2
- 76
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