Obviously, being forced to “work sick” is particularly troubling for the food service industry, because of the high risk of infecting customers. But the problem isn’t unique to the food service industry. Too many employers (major corporations, banks, law firms - NO industry is unaffected) stopped offering separate vacation and sick lea…
Obviously, being forced to “work sick” is particularly troubling for the food service industry, because of the high risk of infecting customers. But the problem isn’t unique to the food service industry. Too many employers (major corporations, banks, law firms - NO industry is unaffected) stopped offering separate vacation and sick leave benefits. Instead, they offer “paid time off” - a bucket of time that employees can use for any reason. So employees “work sick” to save their PTO hours for the things they used to do during vacation hours (not just travel, but all the little things that people experience just by living in our society, such as dentist appointments, graduations, weddings, and moving to a new home). The switch to PTO, combined with the trend to switch to “open” office configurations of huge rooms filled with desks that are barely separated from each other, gives new meaning to the term “corporate culture” - a giant Petrie dish in which employees transmit diseases among the population, and then bear the cost individually because their employers’ PTO policies allow employers to pretend they offer paid sick leave. These trends are one reason why so many employers’ operations remain fully remote, despite the availability of vaccines.
Obviously, being forced to “work sick” is particularly troubling for the food service industry, because of the high risk of infecting customers. But the problem isn’t unique to the food service industry. Too many employers (major corporations, banks, law firms - NO industry is unaffected) stopped offering separate vacation and sick leave benefits. Instead, they offer “paid time off” - a bucket of time that employees can use for any reason. So employees “work sick” to save their PTO hours for the things they used to do during vacation hours (not just travel, but all the little things that people experience just by living in our society, such as dentist appointments, graduations, weddings, and moving to a new home). The switch to PTO, combined with the trend to switch to “open” office configurations of huge rooms filled with desks that are barely separated from each other, gives new meaning to the term “corporate culture” - a giant Petrie dish in which employees transmit diseases among the population, and then bear the cost individually because their employers’ PTO policies allow employers to pretend they offer paid sick leave. These trends are one reason why so many employers’ operations remain fully remote, despite the availability of vaccines.