Parents Deserve More Sick Days & Massages

My company does not allow for more than 5 days out in a ROLLING calendar year. So basically, if you are out more than 5 days in 12 months (rolling, remember!) you better be on STD or you'll get the old heave ho. Lovely corporate America! So yes, I'm here unless I or my child is vomiting or has diarrhea. What other choice do I have? 6 weeks of PTO available but God forbid you should actually USE them.

Ill take the massage

I guess I read this differently than everyone else. I saw this as being very tongue-in-cheek. I thought it was funny. That being said, I think there should be no limit to sick days. If you are truly sick, stay home. Period. A day or two of you being home will be better than you going in to work sick and infecting the entire office. I also think you should stay home with your sick child. Husband not so much. But if he is anything like mine, he is a bigger baby than the kids when he gets sick... :-)

I have a child and agree with doe eyes. Parenting is a choice..... employees without children in many cases already pick up slack (depending on the job and where you work) and to give parents more sick time is a ridiculous notion.

Now, if you want to start a campaign to give EVERYONE more sick time and vacation time - then I'm in. :)

I think all workers should be entitled to more sick days. As someone who has a weak immune system, I can't stand anyone who is around me when they're running a 102 fever and trying their best to work. It's not healthy for them to push themselves and it's not healthy for the rest of the office. If you're sick, you need to be away from the herd. Eight days out of the year is not enough.

Parents with children should get more sick days, too. Because Jr's bug will carry on dear ol' Mom and Pops and infect everyone else in the office, too. That's for childless and parent workers. It starts a chain of making everyone sick and frankly, I don't want any part in that pain. Airborne and orange juice are certainly my friends for all of that. Don't infect me and I'm a happy camper. Stay home and I'll think better of you. Come to work sick and you're the most inconsiderate being. The higher ups that force us all to come in sick also will be getting my hate.

No, I don't have kids. BUT, to say that you DESERVE more sick days is ridiculus. If you need them, fine. If anyone needs them, fine. A man can take care of himself. And a dad can stay home with his own kids once in a while too. What a concept!

I get "sick" of being treated differently because I am single and child free.

Amen!!!

Ill take the massage

This is stupid. I'm a mom and I think this is the most selfish thing I've ever heard. It's people like you who make childless people resent their coworkers who have kids. I'm a department head and if I had two employees, one with no kids, one with 5, and the mother took 40 sick days in the year (that's 8 weeks off btw, aka 15% of the whole year), she would not even be considered for a raise at budget time and if it ever came time to cut back my department, she would be the first one to go because when you add in 2 weeks of vacation time, she's gone 19% of the year. I need employees who can work more than 4 days a week on average.

I've been on both ends of the spectrum and never thought I was entitled to more sick days because I had a child or elderly/sick parents to handle. Parenting is a choice, why should people that are unable or don't want to have children be punished?

I'm sure I will be in the minority on this one!

I don't have kids, and never get sick. However, I do like the idea of increasing sick days as long as you REALLY are sick because too many people abuse those days and then it ruins it for everyone.

The one I completely disagree with is staying home because your husband has a "man cold." Seriously? He can't take care of himself??? That's pretty pathetic.

As someone with no kids, I think this is garbage. I have endured the work environment where the parents saved their sick days till the kids were sick and showed up to work when they were sick. So they proceeded to infect me every time. I was always in the whole on sick time, and it was held against me on my annual reviews because I was sick so often.

Parents, if you are sick, stay the hell home!!!

I also had the job where my boss would come to me at 4 pm, and give me a guilt trip about how she needs this work done by morning and she supposes she will stay late to get it done, but she won't get to see her son before bed or spend any time with her husband today. Hint hint hint... since you live alone and have no family. "But I would never ask you to stay at work till after 9 pm, I just couldn't ask that of anyone..." But she certainly took credit for the work being done so quickly.

Parents, do not expect your single co-workers or employees to pick up your slack. Do your own job or find a position that will work with your parental duties. It's selfish to think that just because someone else doesn't have kids waiting for dinner at home, that we deserve to spend 12 hours days at work to cover you.

I wouldn't mind more sick days, but I would never take a sick day because my husband was sick. I feel bad enough taking a sick day when my son is sick!

Staying home because your husband has a cold is ridiculous. Staying home because your KIDS are sick is a different story... certainly I think mothers should be able to! However, what about childless people? They get less sick days because they don't have kids? Um, no, not fair at all. Parenting was a choice - a choice you (generic) made and should have factored EVERYTHING into. If you can't afford to take enough time off work to care for your family, then don't start one.

Well said, does eyes. I'm not a parent, but who's to say I don't deserve a few extra sick days, too? lol.

Everyone deserves to have a fair and adequate number of sick days. That being said, giving parents more sick days than non-parents is not only unfair--it's going to hurt the parents more in the long run! Because when HR is deciding who to hire, they're not going to choose the parent who gets a whole month off over the non-parent who only gets a week. When they're deciding who needs to be laid off, they're going to want to keep the individuals with the highest number of productive days--not those who stay home every other week to take care of a sick child/spouse. When the boss is reviewing employ productivity to see who gets what raise, those people who've been gone half the time are going to look pretty bad in comparison.

Kudos on this article.. Really.. It doesn't piss of those of us they can't have kids at all.. Good hell people. Good call Doe Eyes. :)

So... how about women undergoing fertility treatment? Shouldn't they get more time off too? The treatments can make them seriously sick or feeling very unwell, but they are expected to soldier on and fit their treatments in before or after work. God forbid that they should ask their boss if they can take time off without explanation, yet parents with children are given special dispensation.

I assume this article is an attempt to be funny but really it is just insensitive. It is your choice to have a child and a family regardless if it was by planning or accident. Those who choose different alternatives or worse yet are not able to have children should not be penalized for it.