Minor things that bother you

[1995hoo]

This thread about complaining getting extremely close to surpass Road Sign UNO as the thread with the most replies bothers me.

If it makes you feel any better, it's 50% people saying things that bother them and 50% people saying that those things shouldn't bother them.

The AARoads Forum experience, everybody.

Heh. Seeing that comment from you amuses me greatly in view of what Scott5114 said about a comment you made a year ago today in the discussion about the Vagabond Athletics:

When the Orioles play there will the scoreboards and TV score bugs show:

BAL
SAC

The AARoads Forum experience in two posts:

It's their last season in Oakland, so it's still going to be "BAL-OAK" like it's been for the last 57 years.

hehe ball sack

[Henry]

Since I started working from home due to the COVID pandemic five years ago, I've taken more time off than I ever did while working at the office. I usually time them around major holidays, and usually I'll either go home to Chicago or spend some time down in SoCal with my daughter (who currently lives in L.A. again) and/or wife's family (still based in San Diego), though I'll explore some new highways in other parts of North America, including Canada.

[jeffandnicole]

I mean, I get three calendar weeks (so just over four work weeks) of vacation a year, but in practice it goes really fast and how much I can use it for roadgeeking is limited.  I have a hard time understanding people who have a hard time using up all their time, but then I do have a couple things working against me: my family lives in Rochester so I have to travel for every family gathering, and my ADHD means that I tend to use more time than most just to keep myself from getting even more exhausted than I already do whenever I do extensive driving or otherwise disrupt my routine.  Even excluding wedding-related stuff, just the normal family gatherings alone take up 14-15 days of vacation, especially as I refuse to travel back on the peak travel days for some holidays (especially July 4 and Labor Day).  That gives me just a small handful of days for literally everything else (and my parents started spending a week up in the Thousand Islands again the past couple years, so I joined them last year and plan to again this year; I don't get out on the water nearly often enough).

Now, the two floating holidays we get and my personal leave help to offset this somewhat, but I can't use all my personal for vacation since that's also what I use to get time off for haircuts and car maintenance.  At least I can use sick for anything medical (a couple people have tried to convince me that I can use sick for my "recovery days" after trips, but I'm skeptical of that).

Unless someone is abusing their time, most employers aren't requiring employees to submit proof that sick time off is directly related to an appointment, or requires receipts and documentations. In many cases, employers aren't even allowed to ask why you want to take a sick day, unless there's reasonable cause it's being abused.

I had a boss many years ago that would get upset if I had a mid-day appointment and took an entire day off for sick time.  She was also pretty much a pain in the ass to everyone in the division.  After she left, my bosses were the way bosses should be: Silent about taking a sick day when I take maybe 2 all year. Last year I took upwards of 9 or so, but the majority of them were partial days for taking my Mother in law to numerous appointments.  I have so many sick days banked that I don't worry about taking a little more time now.

[JayhawkCO]

To this day, companies that differentiate between PTO and sick pay make absolutely no sense to me. "Paid time off" means you get paid on a day where you're not working. Why does it matter if you're on a beach or have the flu?

[kphoger]

I used to work for a company that split up time off between Vacation, Personal, and Sick.  We all had way more Sick time than we needed, of course.  So, with one of the managers, an employee could just go to him and say, 'I'm going to be sick on May 21', and he was cool with that.  He'd rather know in advance, than have you lie to him on the phone that morning and pretend to be sick.

[kphoger]

To this day, companies that differentiate between PTO and sick pay make absolutely no sense to me. "Paid time off" means you get paid on a day where you're not working. Why does it matter if you're on a beach or have the flu?

I agree that I prefer to have it all lumped into PTO.  But I also understand why a company would prefer to only pay out unused Vacation and Personal time, but not Sick time.  And that's the way it was where I worked:  when I left, my unused Sick time didn't pay out but the other two did.

[JayhawkCO]

To this day, companies that differentiate between PTO and sick pay make absolutely no sense to me. "Paid time off" means you get paid on a day where you're not working. Why does it matter if you're on a beach or have the flu?

I agree that I prefer to have it all lumped into PTO.  But I also understand why a company would prefer to only pay out unused Vacation and Personal time, but not Sick time.  And that's the way it was where I worked:  when I left, my unused Sick time didn't pay out but the other two did.

Again, I don't see why there there needs to be a differentiation. The company should be thanking you for working more days than "you had to". It doesn't matter why you chose not to use your days.

[kphoger]

I don't see why there there needs to be a differentiation. The company should be thanking you for working more days than "you had to". It doesn't matter why you chose not to use your days.

Except that taking a vacation or some personal time is a choice you make, whereas getting sick is not.

[hotdogPi]

whereas getting sick is not

• Eating something you know you're allergic to because it's delicious and the tradeoff is worth is (yes some people do this)
• Intentionally getting a mild case so you won't get a severe case much later in life
• Going to an indoor event with thousands of people in mid-2020 (this one is just stupidity though)

[ZLoth]

To this day, companies that differentiate between PTO and sick pay make absolutely no sense to me. "Paid time off" means you get paid on a day where you're not working. Why does it matter if you're on a beach or have the flu?

Especially when you are that weird guy in the department who never gets sick, or doesn't have children.

Of course, my company switched from PTO to Vacation Time Off last year... so it's now "unlimited" (right )

[kphoger]

Eating something you know you're allergic to because it's delicious and the tradeoff is worth is (yes some people do this)

I had a co-worker at that very company who would do this.  He was allergic to practically everything:  wheat, dairy, and soy being three notable examples.  Every so often, he'd say 'to hell with it' and order a pizza.  Because it was worth it.  But he'd do it on a Friday, and not have to miss work because of it.

[JayhawkCO]

I don't see why there there needs to be a differentiation. The company should be thanking you for working more days than "you had to". It doesn't matter why you chose not to use your days.

Except that taking a vacation or some personal time is a choice you make, whereas getting sick is not.

Sure. But taking a day off for being sick is. Not saying it's ideal, but I've worked with a cold many, many times. Some people will take the day off at the first sniffle.

Now that I'm fully remote, I don't get why people on my team take sick days as often as they do. Sure, there are times where you're so sick you can't even type an email, but those are relatively few and far between for most of us. It's not a big deal to me to have a big box of Kleenex at my desk, or even working from bed. In fact, I've been sick most of the week, but it hasn't prevented me from completing what I need to get done for the week.

[webny99]

To this day, companies that differentiate between PTO and sick pay make absolutely no sense to me. "Paid time off" means you get paid on a day where you're not working. Why does it matter if you're on a beach or have the flu?

Because employees get shortchanged when they're all lumped together. Explicit separation makes the policy both more fair and more visible to the employees. Not differentiating is essentially equivalent to just offering less time off but expecting it to cover a wider range of absences.

[JayhawkCO]

To this day, companies that differentiate between PTO and sick pay make absolutely no sense to me. "Paid time off" means you get paid on a day where you're not working. Why does it matter if you're on a beach or have the flu?

Because employees get shortchanged when they're all lumped together. Explicit separation makes the policy both more fair and more visible to the employees. Not differentiating is essentially equivalent to just offering less time off but expecting it to cover a wider range of absences.

How are you shortchanged if everyone gets three weeks off? If instead, you get two weeks of PTO and one week of sick leave, and you're particularly ill that year, you have to take the days anyway (or unpaid days).

[webny99]

To this day, companies that differentiate between PTO and sick pay make absolutely no sense to me. "Paid time off" means you get paid on a day where you're not working. Why does it matter if you're on a beach or have the flu?

Because employees get shortchanged when they're all lumped together. Explicit separation makes the policy both more fair and more visible to the employees. Not differentiating is essentially equivalent to just offering less time off but expecting it to cover a wider range of absences.

How are you shortchanged if everyone gets three weeks off? If instead, you get two weeks of PTO and one week of sick leave, and you're particularly ill that year, you have to take the days anyway (or unpaid days).

Perhaps this is overly cynical, but I'm assuming the premise is that you would only get two weeks off, not three, because I think most employers would prefer not to account for sick time if given a choice.

But if they're required to do so (as they are in New York), they generally still offer the same two weeks in additional to the sick time. Hence, the employee ends up with both sick time and PTO totalling three weeks, whereas if they didn't differentiate they would have only had two weeks PTO and been expected to use that to cover sicknesses, appointments, etc.

[kphoger]

I don't see why there there needs to be a differentiation. The company should be thanking you for working more days than "you had to". It doesn't matter why you chose not to use your days.

Except that taking a vacation or some personal time is a choice you make, whereas getting sick is not.

Sure. But taking a day off for being sick is. Not saying it's ideal, but I've worked with a cold many, many times. Some people will take the day off at the first sniffle.

Now that I'm fully remote, I don't get why people on my team take sick days as often as they do. Sure, there are times where you're so sick you can't even type an email, but those are relatively few and far between for most of us. It's not a big deal to me to have a big box of Kleenex at my desk, or even working from bed. In fact, I've been sick most of the week, but it hasn't prevented me from completing what I need to get done for the week.

In the real world, sure, people work when they're sick.  But that's not exactly the sort of work environment HR departments want to promote.

[JayhawkCO]

I don't see why there there needs to be a differentiation. The company should be thanking you for working more days than "you had to". It doesn't matter why you chose not to use your days.

Except that taking a vacation or some personal time is a choice you make, whereas getting sick is not.

Sure. But taking a day off for being sick is. Not saying it's ideal, but I've worked with a cold many, many times. Some people will take the day off at the first sniffle.

Now that I'm fully remote, I don't get why people on my team take sick days as often as they do. Sure, there are times where you're so sick you can't even type an email, but those are relatively few and far between for most of us. It's not a big deal to me to have a big box of Kleenex at my desk, or even working from bed. In fact, I've been sick most of the week, but it hasn't prevented me from completing what I need to get done for the week.

In the real world, sure, people work when they're sick.  But that's not exactly the sort of work environment HR departments want to promote.

Or we could just have all of the days off be counted the same, then it's "don't ask, don't tell".

[vdeane]

I should add that I also agree with this. I don't necessarily agree that sick time needs to be unlimited, but providing at least a week (which is mandated here in New York state) and keeping it separate from regular vacation is a good baseline.

If there's a mandate, then it must not include "keep it separate from vacation".  My one private industry job was four weeks PTO, with no separate vacation/sick/personal; it was all one bucket.  It did indeed create an incentive to try to minimize use for actual sick time off, since using it for that would cut into potential vacation time.

Shall I assume, then, that you aren't the only one who knows how to do your job?  My process changes bit by bit over time, adjusting to needs.  So, while my closest co-worker knows the gist of how to do at least part of my job, I still have to train her for a couple of days anytime she needs to cover for me.  And there are other tasks that she doesn't know how to do.  And my boss doesn't know how to do any of my job.

I do actually have a similar issue, but the vast majority of what I do is not imminently urgent, the actual workload varies (so taking time off in April is a very different proposition to the beginning of November, for instance), and most of the time is not taken as solid weeks off but days here and there to create long weekends (usually four day weekends, but it varies by thing like where holidays are positioned and how far away I'm driving for a roadmeet; for example, the family amount of vacation is probably high this year because Christmas is a Wednesday, causing me to take a whole week off, while in 2027, it will be a four day weekend and could even compress to a three day weekend if I really, really needed to).  And anything that isn't a family gathering tends to be scheduled around work (the weekend my parents and I spent in the Thousand Islands last year was actually strategically located between the end of a quarterly payment cycle as Labor Day).  And yes, I do find that I often have a mountain of email and a few phone messages to deal with when coming back from even a long weekend, so on longer trips I'll often sign in periodically to filter through things that are just informational vs. to be dealt with on my return vs. actually urgent enough to warrant immediate attention.

That's actually one of the issues with next year's eclipse: it hits right in the busy part of one of those quarterly payment cycles, and while I can probably navigate around the vacation time to go on an Iceland cruise that someone was talking about (though I'd likely have to dig deeper in my reserves than I'd otherwise prefer; I do like to have a buffer of 100-200 hours so I can just take time whenever and not have to worry about when it's actually awarded), but making sure everything runs smoothly for work during that is an open question.  I am working to bring someone up to speed on this, but it's a slow process and I'd rather not have to make promises about whether they'd be able to fully take over for me for the better part of the second-busiest cycle next year.

At some point, I'll probably have to remember how I used to travel pre-COVID, because that's when I started padding family gatherings (for want of anything else to do with the time), and while I'm not doing it as extreme (no more full weeks off for Thanksgiving like I did in 2020), the habit stuck.  It's especially ridiculous because I have in-unit laundry now, but I've gotten so used to the more relaxed trips with an extra day with my parents that I'm finding it hard to go back (also, I hate listening to the dryer).

[hbelkins]

(also, I hate listening to the dryer).

That sounds like a minor thing that bothers you.

[Max Rockatansky]

(also, I hate listening to the dryer).

That sounds like a minor thing that bothers you.

For my dogs it is a major thing.  They sleep in the laundry room but can't stand to be on there with the dryer is running.  I would imagine the loud noises isn't conducive for comfort. 

[kernals12]

Gerry's Landing Road and the Elliot Bridge in Boston aren't aligned requiring 2 massive pelican intersections.

[kphoger]

What in Helena, Montana...

Before today, I had no idea that 'applesauce' was a slang term for 'nonsense'.  From... the... Roaring Twenties!

Apparently Google figured I must have had a hundred-year-old expression in mind, rather than the kitchen staple.  So it translated it into a Spanish slang word for 'fib'.

  No, Google!  No!

[kkt]

To this day, companies that differentiate between PTO and sick pay make absolutely no sense to me. "Paid time off" means you get paid on a day where you're not working. Why does it matter if you're on a beach or have the flu?

It makes total sense to me.  It's about incentives.  If you use your sick time when you're sick you don't lose your vacation later.  If you have to lose your vacation if you call in sick, you're more likely to go in when you're sick and infect the whole office, your customers, etc.

[JayhawkCO]

To this day, companies that differentiate between PTO and sick pay make absolutely no sense to me. "Paid time off" means you get paid on a day where you're not working. Why does it matter if you're on a beach or have the flu?

It makes total sense to me.  It's about incentives.  If you use your sick time when you're sick you don't lose your vacation later.  If you have to lose your vacation if you call in sick, you're more likely to go in when you're sick and infect the whole office, your customers, etc.

If I'm given 15 days off to use as I see fit, and I'm sick 15 days, I don't get any paid vacation. If I'm given 10 days of PTO and 5 sick days and then I'm sick 15 says, I either still don't get a paid vacation, or I do get a paid vacation and also take 10 days unpaid where I was sick. What am I missing?

[webny99]

I should add that I also agree with this. I don't necessarily agree that sick time needs to be unlimited, but providing at least a week (which is mandated here in New York state) and keeping it separate from regular vacation is a good baseline.

If there's a mandate, then it must not include "keep it separate from vacation".  My one private industry job was four weeks PTO, with no separate vacation/sick/personal; it was all one bucket.  It did indeed create an incentive to try to minimize use for actual sick time off, since using it for that would cut into potential vacation time.

Depending on when that was, the mandate is most likely more recent. It went into effect September 2020. And even then, I don't know if they are actually required to be kept separate, but it's certainly a good idea.