Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Hump Day is Here



Here we are another week is halfway over, and payday is two days away, what more could I ask for? It would be nice to have another week in Cozumel right about now, but I will be there before I know it in August.

As a Tribune employee my paycheck is viewable on Tuesday afternoon, as I scanned my paycheck I noted I was charged with one day of vacation, damn if I can recall taking a day off the last two weeks? Some things are very hard to remember, but taking a day off is one of the few things I don't forget.

Next Monday is a holiday for the Tribune company, and they always place a notice regarding non-essential employees, taking the day off. I will be working on Monday, will you? Most of us essential employees do not have three day weekends, so we must make them, sometimes by calling in sick or using a floating vacation day.

Sick days and the usage of sick days is always debatable with management, some of us have always used up all of our five sick days, while others never used a sick day. The Tribune Company started a new policy regarding sick days this year, use them or lose them.

Many of my co-workers that took the sick day pay every year are now using their sick days, management frowns upon this, but the employees see it in a completely different light than our managers see it.

Working for a company that never closes, means the blue collar workers are at work while most of their friends and family are off work. Management has no clue how hard it is to come to work on Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years Day, because their at home with family and friends.

I see my sick days as a mental health day off, a day to re-charge my mind, and upon my return to work, I perform much better. Using sick days will actually save the company money with fewer mistakes and higher performance on my part.

If sick days cost the company so much in overtime, why not take them away from the employees?

Stay healthy,

Eddie

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Because sick pay is a benefit to make it a great company.But the CEO COULD SAVE MONEY by returning to the old system the company as a whole would benefit. The healthy people would be smiling with pride and dignity.Hope you see this JEFF reguards COMPANY MAN

Edward Padgett said...

I wonder what percentage of employees used sick days before the new policy (use or lose) was implemented?

Anonymous said...

Please tell me I'm not hearing this !!!!( err reading )!!!gee some of us MUST have gone too one of LAUSD schools. kurtich & Co must be laughing their heads off

Anonymous said...

Hey, sick days are not the only use them or lose them benefit. We are getting screwed and are not paid off at the end of each year if we do not take the 6 weeks of short term disability at 100% pay Tribune provides! And how about long term disability? Man, we are really mistreated.

Let's see, 5 weeks vacation, 4 personal holidays plus maybe a few LOH days... We are not here 10% of the time and with 7 hour shifts... Maybe my mental health is better than I think.

Anonymous said...

this is a no brain issue before if we didn't use them we got paid,now the company is banking on theirs a few that still will not use their sick days and now we don't have to pay them cash stays in pocket,also threat that if you use your sick days you will not get a raise its all part of the white collar world .they think its fair because as managers they have their own policy and trying to make names for themselves power money the root of EVIL Rick Hernandez O.C. operator