4 ms·

>Drugs can be the least of healing, and the idea that therapies must be something that you swallow or inject... This quite resonates with the current zeitgeist

>Drugs can be the least of healing, and the idea that therapies must be something that you swallow or inject... This quite resonates with the current zeitgeist, there's no patience and "we" want always instant relief. If I have a cold of fill ill I just rest and recover (which happens seldom luckily). I'm also lucky as my workplace understands this quite good, some days recovery and rest are always better than gonging to work, have a sub par performance and risk infecting others (in an office setting) disclaimer: I work in switzerland, so I have theoretically plenty of paid sick leave

Cthulhu_ 5y ago
The thing is that in the US and increasingly in the UK, if you're sick it's considered your own fault, responsibility, and expense. Employers do not care about you, if you do not work they do not want you. From a purely utilitarian / capitalist viewpoint it makes sense, why pay for a service (an employee) if they do not provide? But there's a difference between an employee and a contractor. And it's not a human way to deal with things. So in the US, since people lose their income and possibly their job, they can't afford to take rest, they'll take some medication to power through it. In my own country, thankfully, we get paid time off if we're sick. If we're sick long-term (I don't know what the cutoff is), the employer has to pay us 70% of wages for a year, after which the government takes over (this used to be two years). It really blows for the employer, but in a lot of cases, it's the job that makes you long-term sick in the first place - workplace accidents, overwork, etc. Overwork / stress was the one for my previous employer, the department managers had multiple roles (people management, account management, hiring, finances, etc) they had to juggle simultaneously and for quite a few, it became too much within 6-12 months. To manage it, the employer offered a subscription to some meditation app, instead of reducing workload or making it OK to go offline outside of working hours. I mean I remember getting a text message at 3 in the morning from a manager telling everyone to not forget to bring some post-its and sharpies to the all-hands meeting the next day. That guy ended up sick for 6+ months after which he quit and became a manager somewhere else.
- Terry_Roll 5y ago
  > The thing is that in the US and increasingly in the UK, if you're sick it's considered your own fault, responsibility, and expense. Employers do not care about you, if you do not work they do not want you. Totally, I used to work for a UK stock market listed company, would always get ill due to their physically toxic working environment, and because it was such a toxic criminal environment to work in I had to leave! The organised crime operating within the company and outside of it follows you around for the rest of your life because smart criminals are relentless, its like a parallel universe with more money than you can imagine. The accounts on www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/ are so typical of what goes on, but people are in fear of their jobs so they dont speak out, only now I think we have reached a tipping point in history.
- bitschubser_ 5y ago
  grewing up in germany I also remember that my parents/grandparents regularly went "on a cure" somewhere in germany (on top of vacation), often somewhere near the sea, which where prescribed and paid partially by health insurance ("parent-child-cures" where also quite common). that somehow changed a lot in my generation... protip for the german people here... you can claim up to 10 days "bildungsurlaub" every 2 years (in some states paid/in some unpaid) and yoga retreats or similiar are also possible ;)
  - Terry_Roll 5y ago
    1ml of sea water contains billions of phages which eat bacteria, so I wonder if there is some truth with the restorative powers of beach holiday.
- puszczyk 5y ago
  > In my own country, thankfully, we get paid time off if we're sick. If we're sick long-term (I don't know what the cutoff is), the employer has to pay us 70% of wages for a year, after which the government takes over 1y sounds like a long time, esp for smaller companies (like if you have say 5 ppl on a payroll). I wonder if they can insure against such a risk (say if an insurer can cover the salary if absence longer than a month). In Poland this is 70% (if in hospital), 80% (if general sick leave), and 100% (pregnancy related). Your employer covers this for 34 days, then the social insurance takes over. IIRC if the absence is over 6 months, then the social insurance stops paying % of your salary and pays some low fixed disability benefit.

Cthulhu_ 5y ago

The thing is that in the US and increasingly in the UK, if you're sick it's considered your own fault, responsibility, and expense. Employers do not care about you, if you do not work they do not want you. From a purely utilitarian / capitalist viewpoint it makes sense, why pay for a service (an employee) if they do not provide? But there's a difference between an employee and a contractor. And it's not a human way to deal with things. So in the US, since people lose their income and possibly their job, they can't afford to take rest, they'll take some medication to power through it. In my own country, thankfully, we get paid time off if we're sick. If we're sick long-term (I don't know what the cutoff is), the employer has to pay us 70% of wages for a year, after which the government takes over (this used to be two years). It really blows for the employer, but in a lot of cases, it's the job that makes you long-term sick in the first place - workplace accidents, overwork, etc. Overwork / stress was the one for my previous employer, the department managers had multiple roles (people management, account management, hiring, finances, etc) they had to juggle simultaneously and for quite a few, it became too much within 6-12 months. To manage it, the employer offered a subscription to some meditation app, instead of reducing workload or making it OK to go offline outside of working hours. I mean I remember getting a text message at 3 in the morning from a manager telling everyone to not forget to bring some post-its and sharpies to the all-hands meeting the next day. That guy ended up sick for 6+ months after which he quit and became a manager somewhere else.

Terry_Roll 5y ago
> The thing is that in the US and increasingly in the UK, if you're sick it's considered your own fault, responsibility, and expense. Employers do not care about you, if you do not work they do not want you. Totally, I used to work for a UK stock market listed company, would always get ill due to their physically toxic working environment, and because it was such a toxic criminal environment to work in I had to leave! The organised crime operating within the company and outside of it follows you around for the rest of your life because smart criminals are relentless, its like a parallel universe with more money than you can imagine. The accounts on www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/ are so typical of what goes on, but people are in fear of their jobs so they dont speak out, only now I think we have reached a tipping point in history.
bitschubser_ 5y ago
grewing up in germany I also remember that my parents/grandparents regularly went "on a cure" somewhere in germany (on top of vacation), often somewhere near the sea, which where prescribed and paid partially by health insurance ("parent-child-cures" where also quite common). that somehow changed a lot in my generation... protip for the german people here... you can claim up to 10 days "bildungsurlaub" every 2 years (in some states paid/in some unpaid) and yoga retreats or similiar are also possible ;)
- Terry_Roll 5y ago
  1ml of sea water contains billions of phages which eat bacteria, so I wonder if there is some truth with the restorative powers of beach holiday.
puszczyk 5y ago
> In my own country, thankfully, we get paid time off if we're sick. If we're sick long-term (I don't know what the cutoff is), the employer has to pay us 70% of wages for a year, after which the government takes over 1y sounds like a long time, esp for smaller companies (like if you have say 5 ppl on a payroll). I wonder if they can insure against such a risk (say if an insurer can cover the salary if absence longer than a month). In Poland this is 70% (if in hospital), 80% (if general sick leave), and 100% (pregnancy related). Your employer covers this for 34 days, then the social insurance takes over. IIRC if the absence is over 6 months, then the social insurance stops paying % of your salary and pays some low fixed disability benefit.