Sick Leave on a Salary - Friend or Foe?
Quite alot of people in the past have said how lucky I must be to have a salary-paid job. In some ways this is true; the continuity, the security, paid sick leave (within reason) and so on. I'm off sick today as a matter of fact. The thing is that I can't rest and have found it impossible to stay away from my work webmail account. Why? Because I know that whatever happens, all the work that is piled up already, plus what came in today still has to be dealt with tomorrow (assuming I go back in) when a whole new worklist will develop during the course of the day. The way in which this is minimised or to prevent niggly or unpleasant issues coming up is to whittle down that inbox during the sick leave in which I am supposed to be resting. It's like one massive circular argument - stressed: so I check inbox, check inbox: so I get stressed.
In reality, that's not my main issue as, like the dedicated fool I am, I check my inbox at weekends and on holiday. What bugs me is that when you're sick, nobody takes that workload off you. In my job, even though my field is not IT, Brooke's Law applies. In short, it would take longer for someone else to get up to speed on my projects that it would for me to get better, come back and deal with it myself. Not that any of my colleagues would think to relieve me of any short-term work burden, mostly because they are bogged down themselves. Nor would I offer assistance unless I had some slack (and a job number to book to). At least if I was making 'widgets' on a production line, management would generally find cover or at worst productivity goes down marginally. OK, so I'd probably be paid less but hey, no inbox to check.
So now I have yesterday's, today's and tomorrow's work pending when I get into the office in the morning. Each item of work is time-bound (for example, out of courtesy one should respond to one's client in a reasonable amount of time so as not to piss them off) or has a deadline to be kept, regardless of time off.
The gripe only really only comes into effect when redundancies or development reviews are imminent. Time off sick is one of the indicators used when assessing similar roles against each other. In my book, if you still meet your deadlines once you return to work, either by being a whizz-kid or simply by working extra hours, this should not be a performance factor that can be used against you at a later date. Granted, productivity stops while you're off, but by 'eck you pay for it when you return and you have to work over 100% to meet the deadline.
I'm just sayin'.
In reality, that's not my main issue as, like the dedicated fool I am, I check my inbox at weekends and on holiday. What bugs me is that when you're sick, nobody takes that workload off you. In my job, even though my field is not IT, Brooke's Law applies. In short, it would take longer for someone else to get up to speed on my projects that it would for me to get better, come back and deal with it myself. Not that any of my colleagues would think to relieve me of any short-term work burden, mostly because they are bogged down themselves. Nor would I offer assistance unless I had some slack (and a job number to book to). At least if I was making 'widgets' on a production line, management would generally find cover or at worst productivity goes down marginally. OK, so I'd probably be paid less but hey, no inbox to check.
So now I have yesterday's, today's and tomorrow's work pending when I get into the office in the morning. Each item of work is time-bound (for example, out of courtesy one should respond to one's client in a reasonable amount of time so as not to piss them off) or has a deadline to be kept, regardless of time off.
The gripe only really only comes into effect when redundancies or development reviews are imminent. Time off sick is one of the indicators used when assessing similar roles against each other. In my book, if you still meet your deadlines once you return to work, either by being a whizz-kid or simply by working extra hours, this should not be a performance factor that can be used against you at a later date. Granted, productivity stops while you're off, but by 'eck you pay for it when you return and you have to work over 100% to meet the deadline.
I'm just sayin'.