It's been a week since this happened, but I had a painful ear-infection (Otitis Externa and a severe one at that – both ears, left one worse than right, because the infection in the right ear was caught early!) and needed painkillers (Ibuprofen 400 – 2 pills, every 4-5 hours, so over recommended daily dose!) to dampen it (it didn't fully go away).
I contemplated staying home (would have been justified IMHO – especially since Germany doesn't have sick-days that you can take and if you are out? Well, tough luck! Nope, if you want to stay home you just have to go to your doctor and have him check you over and declare you unfit for work!), but didn't!
Well, it got worse about 2 hours into my work-day and I did go to the doctor (well: His stand-in, my regular doctor was on holiday) and he declared me unfit for work ASAP and sent me to the ENT-Doctor (sadly the appointment was the next day, it wasn't possible on the same day)…I went back to work (shouldn't have and never will make that mistake again!) to pick up my things (I always carry a basket full of usefull things, like a water-bottle, some meds (including painkillers) etc…well, when I wanted to leave my boss accused me (in front of the other staff!) of being basically a lazy ass whiner! Well, next time I'll send your sorry ass a text, leave my things and go home! Seriously, fuck this behaviour! Just because you mentally impaired boomers think that working yourself to the bone and being loyal to companies is a good thing? Yeah, nope!
In the end, I didn't force the issue (I am still on probation because I've just started working there a few months ago, so they can easily get rid of me!) and worked despite the pain, being awfully slow and prone to errors because of the pain!
Still, it made me hate the place even more and the system that allows this…damned I am not a socialist or communist, but I do get why people want stuff like that, because capitalism is only ok if it is heavily regulated, with workers' health and well being being of the utmost importance! I mean yeah it pays ok (could still be better, sure but it isn't that bad), but the other benefits aren't good:
– No Home-Office (unless you break bones and have to stay home – as has happened to a coworker who broke a rib and was then guilted into working from home instead of you know recovering from his injury!)
– Shitty hours (43.75, so I have to be there at 7:15 AM which is even harder for me, because I am nightowl person!)
– No other benefits except access to cold, sparkly water from a tap with a cooling unit and gas-cylinder attached!
– Bad (and falling apart!) office equipment (el cheapo China office chairs, bad keyboards and mice which are also run down, the wheel in mine for example often doesn't work, some PCs have failing SSDs (random shutdowns, boot-device not found etc.), the monitors aren't good (my secondary is really dim, even an highest brightness-setting), our Enterprise-Software is cheap, unrealiable junk, we aren't even allowed to automatically generate and send E-Mail-Invoices! Nope, you creat and export them by hand and then send them off one by one!)
– etc. etc.
Sure I like the people more than at my last job (last company demanded less hours, but was as shitty as this one otherwise and the people were worse…still, I don't want to freaking work there anymore! I feel like a slave and valued as such!)
ps: Next job will have home-office! Not negotiable…seriously, I have great equipment here, including a real ergonomic office chair…can't stand regular ones anymore…seriously, I'd probably make for a bad employer because I would purchase decent office equipment, so I wouldn't squeeze for every penny I could make 🙁