Our corporate overlords learned nothing from the COVID pandemic, but the challenging years did teach the American public a valuable lesson: companies care about profits more than humanity. However, it seems like half the population is fine with that.
Despite the lessons learned from the pandemic, employees are still forced to work when sick, lack access to healthcare, and have precious little recourse.
Forced to Work When Sick
One employee came to the internet to express their frustrations with work culture. Their story highlights America’s massive problems with paid sick leave and healthcare in general.
The Original Poster (OP) works in hospitality, an industry known for low pay, poor schedules, and few benefits. As a hotel employee, they interact with guests from around the world.
Sick Leave Policies
OP lives in California, so they have slightly better protections than the average American. The Golden State mandates three paid days of sick leave per year (which, although it’s something, still isn’t nearly enough).
However, the hotel had an additional COVID policy, forcing employees to take five days off if they tested positive for the contagious disease.
Catching COVID
Unfortunately, OP caught COVID earlier in the year. They stayed home from work, using up all their paid time off for sick leave. The illness also forced them to use all their accrued vacation time.
Around the same time, the hotel decided (along with the federal government) that the COVID pandemic was over. It silently removed the COVID sick leave policies without telling employees, while dismantling all the hand sanitizer stations and asking employees to remove their masks.
Sick Again
OP caught another cold. They have a fever and feel horrible. But their employer has no exceptions to the sick leave policy.
OP doesn’t have sick leave or vacation time available. If they stay home from work, they won’t get paid.
Can’t Afford To Miss a Day
The poster’s financial situation showcases the insidious way that lack of paid time off and a society that prioritizes profits above all else twist together to form a vine of evil villainy.
OP can not afford to miss a single day of pay. They work full-time, but wages haven’t kept up with inflation, so OP only brings home about $1800 a month. Rent takes most of that, so despite having roommates, OP only has about $300 monthly for food, utilities, and other miscellaneous expenses.
OP Must Work While Sick
Seeing no alternatives, OP went to work sick. They do their best to prevent the spread by masking and using a copious amount of hand sanitizer, but they still feel horrible for their coworkers and guests. They’re spreading a deadly virus, but what option do they have?
They can’t afford to lose a single day’s pay. In effect, they’re being forced to work when sick. If they don’t work, they risk homelessness, not being able to eat, and destitution. Is that really a choice?
Don’t Say Get a Better Job
Many people will scoff at the story, saying it’s OP’s fault and they need to get a better job if they want benefits.
Don’t. Just Don’t.
I don’t care what your job is. A full-time worker should be able to afford to live – full stop. Anyone who works full-time should be able to afford food, housing, medical care, and a few extras.
And don’t tell me I’m living in a leftist fantasy – the original intent of Roosevelt’s New Deal, in his own words, describes exactly what I’m saying.
Here’s what the President said upon signing the National Industrial Recovery Act in 1933:
“It seems to me to be equally plain that no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By “business” I mean the whole of commerce as well as the whole of industry; by workers I mean all workers, the white collar class as well as the men in overalls; and by living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level-I mean the wages of decent living.”
The intent of the law was always a living wage.
OP Applying
Your simple solution to just “get another job” also lands flat when most jobs have similar paid time off policies, and those that don’t are few and far between.
OP is trying to find another job. They’re applying, but haven’t had much success yet. Getting another job isn’t as easy as it sounds, especially in today’s job market, where businesses are leaning into AI, and the only jobs available offer similar pay and benefits.
The Rest of the World Baffled
Americans accept our awful sick leave practices, but the rest of the world looks on in horror. Most Western nations have unlimited sick leave policies, which the government helps fund, so it’s not all on the company.
The idea of coming in when you’re sick because you can’t afford the paycheck you’ll miss if you stay home sickens most of the developed world, which agrees that nobody should be forced to work when sick.
America bills itself as the best country in the world, but the best country in the world would allow its citizens to rest and recover when they’re sick. American society doesn’t care – they’d rather spread illness than risk those sweet corporate profits.
It’s time for the people to make a change.