Stop smoking/Go to bed!

[Imogene]

I was coughing

I sneezed! ONCE! Not my usual twice in a row!

Oh, crap... I WAS sick!

[Lace Neil Singer]

You had the plague! XD And the Dreaded Lurgy!

[Seshat]

I would seriously feel like such (read: more of) a leper if I had to wear a mask when ill.
I don't want to insult a social trend or anything, but I couldn't imagine being forced to work with a mask on.

I have to wear a mask on 'dust storm' days, and when I was seriously chemically sensitive, I wore a mask any time I left the house. It sucked, but breathing filtered air makes a huge difference.

[pacman]

Hmm. While reading this kind of posts I get really thankful of the Nordic social security system. Ok, taxes are high (I'm paying 22% tax of my groceries, most of them anyway), like 20-25% tax off your salary/paycheck, but everyone gets free healthcare. AND days off with an approval of a doctor you get your sickleave paid too (unless it's longer than 1 month in a row). I'm... I'm shocked of the American system. Sorry.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I'm not American; we get free healthcare too. It's just that I need a doctor's sicknote to get paid sick pay and there's hardly any point in going to a doctor for a cold. Besides, I'd probably get something far worse from the waiting room. O_o

[crazylegs]

I'm not American; we get free healthcare too. It's just that I need a doctor's sicknote to get paid sick pay and there's hardly any point in going to a doctor for a cold. Besides, I'd probably get something far worse from the waiting room. O_o

1) You're ill, you do not have 'a cold' you have in infection, it requires treatment
2) Unless you're snuggling up to someone in said waiting room. I doubt it
3) in a previous post you said about your three absence policy, is it three days, or three periods of absence? Boots has a policy of three periods of absence irrespective of length, then you get disciplinary, not three days. Might be worth a look.

[edit, the op DOES NOT work for Boots, but it sounds like a similar policy that I am using for demonstrative purposes)

[Gabrielle Proctor]

kinda wish the states would adopt this trend... here in japan - and in other asian countries - when people have colds or etc, they wear little dust masks when they go out in town. that way when they cough and sneeze they don't get it on others.

I always wondered that. I assumed it was because they were sick from watching anime. A character would get sick and wear one of those masks. Also, I see random people in a video of streets in Japan who wear them.

If you wore one of those in America, people would just give you weird looks. They would probably wisper to themselves, "Oh look at that poor fool who thinks he's a doctor...or a robot...I can't decide."

Hmm. While reading this kind of posts I get really thankful of the Nordic social security system. Ok, taxes are high (I'm paying 22% tax of my groceries, most of them anyway), like 20-25% tax off your salary/paycheck, but everyone gets free healthcare. AND days off with an approval of a doctor you get your sickleave paid too (unless it's longer than 1 month in a row). I'm... I'm shocked of the American system. Sorry.

Grrrr...politics. Yeah, a lot of people here think that if they socialize healthcare, the next stop is communism. I personally think that socialism, on a small scale, is appropriate. Like for a small, struggling village, not a large country. But, I wish that Americans wouldn't be so scared of socialized healthcare. Right now, I have no health insurance. I can't afford it! So, I have to be super careful when I drive and keep up my immune system so I don't get sick enough to go to the doctor.

I wouldn't mind paying more taxes for free healthcare.

[pacman]

Yeah. The most impressive part is you can call in sick and not have a doctor's sicknote for first three days of your illness. And by the law the employer has to provide healthcare (free) for their employees (mostly they buy it from some private healthcare company) and you can call to the doctor and have an appointment made. So you don't really need to sit in the lobby with other sick people in case you don't want to. Mostly if you can't get an appointment to a doctor for the same day you can at least see a nurse and they can give you a sicknote for max 3 days.

It's actually quite nice to work here, compared to many other countries. Except the taxes are high and tuition is expensive. But, having winters regularly at -20 degrees Celsius, it's normal to have to warm the houses rising price of living. And insulating the houses too while constructing. And insulating the plumbing and everything... But, at least we don't get in panic every time the forecast predicts snow.

EDIT: Methinks Finland is far away from communism...

[Lace Neil Singer]

1) You're ill, you do not have 'a cold' you have in infection, it requires treatment
2) Unless you're snuggling up to someone in said waiting room. I doubt it
3) in a previous post you said about your three absence policy, is it three days, or three periods of absence? Boots has a policy of three periods of absence irrespective of length, then you get disciplinary, not three days. Might be worth a look.

Three days off, separately. And I need to save mine for the migraines I'm sure to get in the summer. Besides, I'm flipping well USED to chest infections now; given the same argument, a customer could not catch one off my as they are unlikely to be snuggling up to me or poking around in my chest cavity. If I took time off every time I got a cold or chest infection, I'd be off all winter long. -.-

[Primer]

If you wore one of those in America, people would just give you weird looks. They would probably wisper to themselves, "Oh look at that poor fool who thinks he's a doctor...or a robot...I can't decide."

or a Michael Jackson wannabe...