This initially caught my attention by the title alone, and made me start thinking about how the American worker wants perks and benefits that really aren’t needs. I was geared up to write an article about what’s reasonable to expect from an employer.
But then I waited, I thought about it some more, and I reread the article. In doing so, I realized sometimes wisdom can be derived from expectations. I would encourage you to read the full article, but here’s a little of what I gathered.
First, paid sick days are just plain wise for businesses. Consider the alternatives. Without having some time off when either the employee, or a member of the employee’s family gets sick, there is a potential public health risk. A sick employee is more likely to still come to work, or send a sick child to school. We all remember the Swine Flu pandemic. Could that have been lessened by paid sick time?
Second, people want to feel valued. When a company doesn’t offer time off for an employee to care for their well-being, what is that company communicating? More than likely the perception of those employed is that they aren’t valued, and are expendable commodities.
Should you demand sick time? Perhaps. Most of my audience is in health related services. As such, there is a strong concern for communicable diseases among staff, and most facilities offer the time because it’s good for their business.
If you’re part of the roughly 40 million workers without paid sick time, engage your manager. Get them to see the benefit of offering paid sick time. If you can convert them to be your ambassador to the company, you stand a greater chance of the business making a change in policy.
If you don’t think you can get anywhere, and it’s time to start looking for an organization that more demonstrably values their people, check out our Premier Career Advice Portal, to help get some immediate help, free of charge, in moving your career forward.
Melissa Truax
