But Seriously...

Comedian/youtube personality/entertainer/whatever they call themselves nowadays, Nicole Arbour, posted a video on her youtube account where she rants against fat shaming, and fat people in general. I'd post the video, except youtube deleted her channel for the video and claimed she violated their terms of service.

So here's her video on Facebook instead.

What are your thoughts?

Spoiler: mine

I think that's middle school bullying at it's best. HOWEVER, if she dedicated the video solely to ranting about overweight people who refuse to buy two airline seats even though they clearly need them and are inconveniencing other passengers, she'd be my new hero.

Either way, I think the biggest asshole in all this is youtube for taking her video down. If she wants to be like that, let her do it, and let her deal with the fallout. But don't censor her because you disagree with her.

 

Obama signed an executive order requiring federal contractors to provide paid sick leave.

So 7 days paid sick leave per year. You 'earn' the sick leave, getting an hour for every 30 hours worked, up to the full 7 days. It won't go into effect until 2017.

I work at a company this would effect, and I just don't see how it isn't obvious how abused this is going to be. Granted, it's only 7 days so it won't be a complete disaster, but if it holds up I have no doubt I'll see people abuse the fuck out of it in 2017. I already see people abuse non-paid leave to the absolute maximum, so please don't tell me 'it's just going to be that occasional rarity'.

My thoughts are just give people a set number of paid vacation days a year, and let them use it as they see fit. Paid maternity and paternity leave is fine, even make it mandatory if you want, but only mandatory when the kid is born. Beyond that it should be at the company's discretion. Just to be clear - I would have no problem with this stuff if I wasn't aware just how much people are going to abuse it.

I don't like how he forced this through in an executive order either.

 

Look people can be shitbags, sure they'll "abuse" it, take all 7 days as soon as they get them, point is for the people who don't it's a really nice benefit to have.

I get 10 sick days a year, earned at a little over a day a month, I used one last year and I have have something like 179 hours banked.

Paid leave, whether you want to call it sick or vacation should be mandatory, leaving it up to a company's discretion just means most of the average workers get screwed because companies aren't going to offer competitive pay and benefits if they don't have too.

 

That's what I'm saying though. There should be some mandatory paid time off. I just don't like separating sick days and vacation days. At some companies this would make sense, at mine it does not, because sadly too many people abuse everything. The thing is too many people are incentivized to blow through both since it's all paid time off anyway, regardless of whether they were actually sick.

Like, I said though, at 7 days this isn't a huge deal, and really it's probably fine since companies aren't currently required to give any paid time off.

 

So, serious question here. Currently I offer 1 week vacation after a full year worked, two weeks after three years and that's it. Do I now have to offer the week vacation plus 7 sick days, and then two weeks plus 7 sick days when this takes effect? We're a small business if that makes any difference.

 

I'm not 100% sure because this just came out and the descriptions are a little vague at the moment, but I'm pretty sure you don't since you aren't required to give paid vacation in the first place. However, if you do give people vacation and then they burn it all up February you still have to pay them the 7 sicks days they take in July. That's how I understand it at least.

Of course, the companies can probably adjust their vacation policies as they see fit to work with the new executive order.

 

Interesting, I'll have to do some research on that.

 

I work for a company this would effect. I currently get 28 days of PTO per year (I can use them for vacation or sick days). I have used two sick days in the last 8 years. I usually work when I'm sick purely because I look at those days as vacation. Every day I'm sick and don't work is one less day that I get to spend golfing, skiing, drinking, etc. This is good because I would actually use a sick day if it was slotted that way.

 

This is a concept completely foreign to me. Here it is mandatory to have 4 weeks paid leave plus sick leave for full time and part time workers. You also get 12 weeks long service leave after 7 years (in my home state, it's either that or 10 years depending on which state you live in).

Yeah, people take the piss sometimes and "chuck a sickie." But that's better than people working when sick and the risk of infecting other people in the office.

 

I guess because a lot of lesser skilled industries afford their employees the most minimal of rights, this is a good thing. Lots of people can't call out sick because they will just get fired.

Now, if you're one of those assholes who calls out sick all the time, you can get fucked. But a lot of people have to work sick just so they can eat.

 

For the first point, it's one of the first things you learn to watch out for in management. There are also usually company policies in place to help with not paying for those days off if you notice a pattern forming.

For the second point, that's why I don't understand not having sick leave. I couldn't imagine what that would be like.

 

I don't think I wrote my first point very well. I meant " you get fucked" like "fuck off" and go find a new job. Not liked fucked over.

I've worked with way too many useless people who took sick days so often, you wondered how they paid rent. Then they would bitch about never having money.

 

Heh, running my own practice means there's no such thing as vacation or sick time, just days I don't earn a living.

I know that Massachusetts just had a law go into effect requiring employers to offer certain amounts of sick time and it's probably a good thing for overall productivity.

 

Basically everyone is overworked, underpaid. Every graph that comes up for "American productivity vs wages" says the same thing.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business...ay-and-productivity-is-so-problematic/385931/

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/06/speedup-americans-working-harder-charts



Yes, mandated vacation is not only a good thing, but necessary. A worker shouldn't be in fear of losing their job because they got the flu or want to take little Timmy to the Grand Canyon.

Which also brings up the question as to how all those assholes everyone mentioned not only keep their jobs, but got hired in the first place, then stayed hired. I've known several myself.

 

My company is way too lax about it. It is really, really fucking easy to tell who is full of shit and who is lying. Basically, if they have a real illness they go to an actual m.d. If they do not they go to the local chiropractor. There is one local guy, who as far as I can tell, has his entire business built around writing these bullshit notes. Under FMLA you can use a chiropractor, but only for very specific conditions. HR lets them use a chiropractor for any reason, and it's fucking annoying. Most of the notes actually just say 'his/her issue'.

The other thing is if someone is actually sick they are usually out 3-5 days. The fakers are out much longer, sometimes for 6 months (they allow up to year here). Call me nuts, but if you're so fucking sick you're going to be out for months you're going to visit a real doctor. The thing is, you have to train someone and rehire someone to replace them anyway. A couple days is one thing, but at several months, and then you don't even know if they're even coming back, you have to replace them. When they do get back you have to figure out something else to do with the guy you hired in the meantime. Usually there's a department you can ship them to, but then you have to retrain them again.

This is a fine thing to do I suppose, if you give zero fucks about ever getting promoted or using the current work place for a reference. No, it's not supposed to affect these things, but they're complete idiots if they think it's not going to enter people's minds when they apply for a management job that gives unlimited paid sick leave.

HR should limit the quack notes to what the law permits. True, you can still get a bullshit note from a doctor usually, but a week is one thing. It's a lot harder to find a doctor that will excuse you for 4 months when you can't demonstrate an actual problem. Doctors, at least here, don't like damaging their reputation by writing made up excuses either.

 

I completely agree with this, lower level employees are definitely under paid. No argument here.

But you have to look at the whole situation. Productivity has gone up, true enough. So has the costs of machinery, worker safety, the standards for product safety, health care costs if you provide that, the equipment to stay competitive, and so on. Productivity didn't just go up because workers got better, they have better shit to work with and within stricter standards. So yes, they should be paid more, but the point about increasing costs isn't a phantom.

 

They aren't paid for any of it. For some they have a husband, or wife who covers everything while they go on their long holidays. Others, I really have no idea how they continue to make rent. For non-hourly employees you get unlimited sick pay at 100% of your salary, but if you call in sick your vacation gets used automatically first. I'm sure if I, or someone else on salary started just taking huge amounts of 'sick' time off they would fire us eventually, but I'm not really sure what the cut off is at.

 

The cop that got shot here in Vegas on Sunday was sitting in his car at a traffic light when a dude came up and opened fire.

They caught the guy and he's 17 years old. The DA says he MAY face adult charges.

What. The. Fuck.

If you don't understand by 17 that you don't run up to a complete fucking stranger and start shooting at them, you never will.

http://www.fox5vegas.com/story/29986405/da-teen-may-face-adult-charges-in-vegas-officer-wounding