Couch 181: The Symmetrical Couch

caught up on the last couch: lemoncake i am impressed with your efforts to get us to couch 181.

Omg! I'm crying!!! I went to get a piercing reopened today, and the lady f'ing pierced the wrong part!!! I'm so mad. I feel violated. I never wanted that part of my ear to be pierced. I feel ugly. How could she do this to me?!

You're not ugly.

Quiet day around here today...

Didn't want to come to work today because I'm feeling a little tummy upset, but I made myself come anyway. Didn't want to waste a sick day. Now I've been here an hour and I want to go home. Sigh. Oh well. I'll make it. My supervisor isn't here yet, she's not doing good (she has parkinson's so she has good days and bad days) and we have an international wire to do which takes two of us (although in a pinch I do have her password so I can go to two different computers and do it but I would rather not), and an insurance meeting at 2 so I hope she is able to come in otherwise my day might be a bit stressful. Kit.

Wait, so being from Europe and things working a bit differently, can somebody explain this: how do 'sick days' work? Is there a set number of times that you can be sick without not being paid?

That really sucks

In California, you get 24 hours of sick pay per year. So you can be off of work three 8 hour days with pay. After that, at my work, then you just don't get paid. Some companies give more than the 3 days required by the state, some just give the state's requirement, like mine. But I work for a small company.

Ooooh, for me it's that I after three days I need to provide a note from a doctor telling me that I'm actually sick. But I don't think it's limited to 1, 2 or whatever times a year (I assume at some point they'd start to wonder, but it's not in your contract as a fixed number).
That sounds like it sucks

Also, some places, like my H's job, have the sick and vacation days in the same pool. So, say, if you ended up having the flu in January and are out for a week, then you have 5 fewer vacation days to use...

And sometimes when you first start a job, like my previous job, you can't take any sick or vacation days for, say, 60 days. So if you get deathly ill, you either have to drag yourself into work or not get paid for that day. I sat there one day with chills and fever from a tetanus shot that morning because it was my third week and I didn't want to lose a day of pay. It really sucks...

I’m sure it’s a bad idea, but I wish car horns could be programmed to say stuff like “go faster, you submoronic dolt.”

Darn. Just found out my supervisor isn't coming in. I guess it's going to be a long day for me. It's a good thing I came in today! Kit.

Someone asked about sick days? For me I get 4 days a year-but if we call out for more than 2 days in a row we must present a doctors note. No matter if I give a doctors note or not, I still won’t get paid after 4 days unless I want to dip into my vacation time. For vacation we get 2 weeks a year.

Use that as more ammunition to get that raise.

I still haven't asked. I'm chicken. But I do payroll and I know I'm one of the lowest paid employees, and I've been doing my job and someone else's job (purchasing) for over a year now, so I think I deserve a raise. But I think I'm going to wait until the new fiscal year starts which is Nov 1. But I'm still chicken. Kit.

I'm a salaried employee, and like LT's H, I get a set number of days per year for paid time off (PTO). I use those for vacation or sick days. I earn a certain number of PTO hours per pay period, so when I started the job I had zero hours available and couldn't use any until I earned them. At certain milestones, you get more days per year. I'm approaching my 5 year anniversary and will get an increase from 3 weeks PTO to 4 maybe, I'm not sure. Oh and you have to use 80 hours a year or you lose those hours, so it's an incentive to take some time off.

Thank you!

Where I work there is a big discrepancy between salaried employees and hourly employees (I'm hourly). The salaried employees can basically take off as many days as they need to when they are sick without their pay being penalized. I don't know if that is a California thing, or a just where I work thing. Kit.

5 more hours of work today. My tummy hurts. I feel sick. I can do this. I can do this. I can do this. Kit.

(((((Kit)))))

4 hours left of work today. Not that I'm counting. Kit

I'm trying to convince Tigger we like toy mousies being brought to us but we don't like slugs being brought into the house, she brought one in this evening

"Mrraow I got a dead sluggie here for you, meowmy"

Annd Tigger

2 hours left for me. (Not that I’m counting either) I’ve been here since 8. I get done at 6. It’s almost 4 now.

Meeting new psychiatrist soon.

Last Wednesday I cut back the Pristiq from 50 mg to 25. It’s gone fine—a couple dizzy moments, a few more anxious moments than usual, maybe some GI distress, increased sex drive — but I need at least one more Wellbutrin prescription to get off that safely, or I’d skip the psychiatrist entirely.