Antiwork

A little back-story: Small company in Europe. Bosses who expect everyone to work as hard as they do even though they get profit share and none of the employees do. Fixed salary, no OT paid but “time for time” is the norm. As you can expect, time for time is a fairytale when you're doing 100hr weeks just to keep the place from crumbling. Done enough OT to have a full years worth of paid holidays. Current employer offered to increase my salary by almost 40 percent without benefits once I told them I was leaving. New employer is offering 20%, indefinite contract, full benefits, bonus scheme and 10-20% YOY raises for the next 3-5 years. If I'd stayed, I'd basically be stuck on that wage for the rest of my life as that was far and beyond the ceiling of said position. I'd more than likely be the first…

So I’ve been quarantining the 4 last days due to having Covid. I’m currently STILL symptomatic and have tested positive 2 more times since my initial test last Wednesday. My job has been blowing up my phone telling me to suck it up and come in because they’re shortstaffed. I told them I’m still sick and still displaying symptoms and they told me it doesn’t matter if I have gone 24 hours without a fever. My absence is an inconvenience to them. Mind you, I don’t receive PTO or any type of compensation for the time I’ve missed and THEY’RE the ones being inconvenienced!

I’ve been feeling very sick for the past few days with dizziness and nausea (non covid related). The place I work at has a culture where employees work as much as possible and stay in the office as long as possible. Management makes you feel guilty if you miss a day or if you take off an extra 30 min early for family matters. I’m currently in graduate school and I have a speech to give today as part of a project, and I find myself feeling guilty I have to skip it, just like I’d feel guilty about missing work. It makes me feel like I’m too lazy and I just need to suck it up and go in anyways. It’s a bizarre feeling and more kids in this country need to be taught that health comes first.