All Worlds Maintenance (Jun. 21)

[Sepukku]

Hence why the 'lazy American' stereotype cracks me up sometimes.

I'm in Academia, and I agree that you need much longer than 2 weeks to unwind. A lot of the time I hear "But you get summers off!". 1 - I usually teach summers to make extra money and 2 - you deal with students all year long and tell me you don't need a good sized chunk of time to unwind and not think about school.

Afreakingmen, I'm almost through with my education program at my University and I've had to do a week straight of field experience all day, I couldn't imagine how my body/head will feel after 36 weeks of that. I've also worked at summer educational camps and its exhausting. I like to always point out teachers+doctors used to be the most respected people in a community and now they're both like despised and people treat them with suspiscion and both have to constantly tiptoe around things for fear of lawsuit/etc.

Wish they would start this maintenence sooner, aka now, though. I don't feel like hopping on for an hour only to hop off again.

[Ayn]

I deal with college students and while I love it, at times I really just have to wonder.

I did work at an afterschool program as a site manager though. My hats off to anyone who can deal with the K-12 mess. Those are some real troopers, and sorely underpaid.

[Absolutely Virtue]

My job does Sick and Vacation days all in one :/ Most places have started doing this. Makes me sad.

My firm does this as well. Some day in the not too distant future, companies are going to realize it's a terrible idea.

It encourages you to come to work when you're sick, so you don't eat up your vacation time. So you bring your nasty cold into the office, and get everyone else sick.

Not to mention the fact that it's horribly biased toward younger/healthier people. It's great when you're 25 and don't ever have to take sick days. But if you have a chronic illness, you get shafted. I've got fucking cancer, you'd think that would warrant a vacation.

[Jakson]

Weirdest derail for maintenance announcement, but whatever, I'm bored.

I don't bother asking people why they call in sick when they do (all the other management does) because I don't really care; not only does nobody believe you when you say you're sick, but it doesn't really matter because people who are usually calling in are adamant enough to stick with it, regardless of whether or not they are actually sick.

[Gergall]

Not to mention the fact that it's horribly biased toward younger/healthier people. It's great when you're 25 and don't ever have to take sick days. But if you have a chronic illness, you get shafted. I've got fucking cancer, you'd think that would warrant a vacation.

It's the same total number of days either way, right? It seems to me that combining sick/vacation days just grants additional flexibility when taking time off. If you don't have that flexibility, you might need to take unpaid time off after exceeding your sick days. Now, you can burn vacation time instead.

I'm very sorry to hear about your cancer.

[Acturus]

To continue on the derail: We don't have sick days where I work. We have "Paid Days Off" or PDO.

It's calculated as a percentage of the time we worked multiplied by our hourly rate (or hourly rate equivalent for salaried folks)

For me, it's 11% of my hourly rate equivalent, and it's updated into a category of my paycheck every two weeks.

Basically, as long as my salary doesn't increase, in 2080 hours of work, I'll earn 228.8 hours' worth of PDO to use as I see fit. However, I use it based on the amount in the bank, not the total available amount. So, it's basically a running tally. Over time, as I stay a loyal employee, my percentage increases. It started at 9%, went to 10% after a year, and moved to 11% after two more. I think every two years at this point, it increases by 1% until it reaches 18% or so.

On top of that, all employees are required to take 144 hours of PDO every year, and all employees must have (or be in the process of building) a stock of 40 extra hours. Once an employee meets his 144 hours (which is basically all of our holidays and about a week in addition), he doesn't have to take any more time off for the rest of the year. At the end of the year, if he's taken his 144, and he's got his bank full, whatever PDO accrued beyond that is paid out in a lump sum. What sucks is that payout happens the week before Christmas typically, so two really big holidays and most of January don't get covered. This is why they make us bank at least 40 hours now.

It's a decent system for a major employer, and it's the non-clinical side of the healthcare industry, so I don't know how it compares to the rest of the world. I know many corporate entities do Paid Time Off or equivalent systems.

[Absolutely Virtue]

It's the same total number of days either way, right? It seems to me that combining sick/vacation days just grants additional flexibility when taking time off. If you don't have that flexibility, you might need to take unpaid time off after exceeding your sick days. Now, you can burn vacation time instead.

That's the way it's supposed to work in theory. But it would work the same way if you could just overflow your vacation into your sick days. So that when you get sick you use: sick days > vacation days > disability > unpaid leave. As you burn through each group, you just move on to the next.

But in practice, people just come to work sick. If you have 5 days of leave saved up, and you come down with a cold two weeks before you leave for the beach for a week, there is no way you're going to stay at home. So now everyone in the office is sick just so you could protect your vacation. It sucks.

Also, I never ask staff about why they're out sick. Not my business, and I give them the benefit of the doubt. But if you have a boss who does things like that, just tell them you have the stomach flu. Trust me, nobody wants you in the office when you've got the trots.

[Shenrien]

ITT: People take days off to camp a play button.

[Eldelphia]

UK has a national statutory minimum of 28 days annual leave which may or may not include national holidays. Most organisations don't include national holidays as annual leave. We have 8 national holidays a year.

Also, many employers offer more and you earn more after 5 years etc. The last place I worked was exceptionally generous offering 38 days annual leave + national holidays a year. Right now I have 33+ national holidays.

Sick leave is considered a separate thing completely. Many (depends on the sector) companies frown on you taking annual leave instead of sick leave although if you have a hangover, gl with that.

If you take more than x amount of sick leave or rather more than 3 occasions in 6 months at my place you have to have a return to work interview and if there are more serious issues you will be referred to occupational health etc.

In education at least, you'll get several weeks sick leave. This is the policy for the place I used to work for...

Entitlement to University Sick Pay is subject to the employee fulfilling the conditions for the notification of sickness absence and providing evidence of incapacity for work. Notification requirements are detailed in the Cardiff University Sickness Absence Policy.


If an employee is prevented from working through personal illness for one to seven calendar days, when s/he returns to work, s/he must complete a Sickness Absence Notification (SAN) Form which is obtainable from their line manager who will return it to the Human Resources Division.


If an employee is absent for eight or more consecutive calendar days (including Saturday and Sunday and Bank and Public Holidays), an employee must obtain a Medical Certificate from their Doctor and send it to their School or Directorate who in turn will forward to the Human Resources Division.


Where the first Medical Certificate covers more than fourteen consecutive calendar days, or where more than one Medical Certificate is necessary and no return to work date is given on the final Medical Certificate, before s/he can return to work, s/he must obtain a Final Medical Certificate with a return to work date from their Doctor to confirm that they are fit to return to work.


When s/he returns to work from an absence of eight or more days, s/he must complete a Sickness Absence Notification (SAN) Form which is obtainable from their line manager who will return it to the Human Resources Division.


Academic members of staff (as defined by the University’s Council) including those on the Senior Staff Pay Spine and Salary Grades 5 to 8 will be paid 28 weeks’ full pay followed by 24 weeks’ half pay to cover all absences within any span of twelve months.


Other staff, including those on Salary Grades 1 to 4, will be paid 2 weeks’ full pay and 2 weeks’ half pay in the first 3 months of employment, followed by 2 months’ full pay and 2 months’ half pay during the period from 3 to 12 months, and then 28 weeks’ full pay followed by 24 weeks’ half pay to cover all absences within any span of twelve months.


The rate of allowance is ascertained by deducting the aggregate of the periods of absence due to illness during the 12 months immediately preceding the first day of absence.


Statutory Sick Pay is also paid to eligible employees for 28 weeks after which the Salaries Office will issue a Statutory Sick Pay SSP (1) Form for the employee to claim Incapacity Benefit.


Any queries regarding sickness absence information should be directed to the Human Resources Division for clarification.

[Bingbong]

10:00 - 13:00 PDT would be 13:00-16:00 EDT correct?

4:40 pm, and still can't play... any word on the assumed extensions?


BISH: Just found it. 2 hour extension. 10:00-15:00 PDT.

BISH part II: 3 and a half more hours. 10:00-18:30 PDT.

[Valkrish]

SE Dev clicks on the Nomad Moogle on test server for new level limit...

Make Fail

[Brandychan]

So far the PC update is running 6+ hours at best and many people are getting Pol 1161 errors. At one point I had my time say 10+ hours!