5 ms·

I have seen companies, that when confronted by this, that will send the employee to a physician vetted by the company to confirm the need for accommodation.

nickpeterson 3y ago
In the end it isn’t about the loss of money, it’s the loss of power. An agreeable doctor giving you reasonable time off to mend feels like letting employees claw back power. It’s the same with work from home policies, they’re not interested in performance, it’s control.
- kortilla 3y ago
  It’s really not. It’s money. A lost employee that you still have to pay for is a huge expense. Most companies costs are dominated by labor costs so anything that could be gamed there that would drive up that cost is scrutinized significantly.
  - djbusby 3y ago
    So? Aren't these companies "good at business"? They should be able to plan around it - if they are in fact good at business. Many of these fast food places have executives whos monthly compensation exceeds the YEARLY compensation of these front-line employees. Its for sure not a money problem - it's an allocation problem.
    - dietr1ch 3y ago
      Being good at business means that they know where they can easily push and get away with it to get more money in the long run. Making it unreasonable hard to take time off will end up in fewer time off over time, and it only takes a couple words from management.
    - kortilla 3y ago
      Being good at business means ensuring you’re not being ripped off on labor costs. We’ve come full circle.
    - pfannkuchen 3y ago
      There are like thousands of times as many front line employees as executives. Whether or not it’s right for executives to make so much, it’s easy to see why a business would be much more worried about cost increases for a role with much higher scale.
    - benlivengood 3y ago
      The executives are good at business so they virtually exclusively license franchises to independent owner-operators who are on the hook to meet franchise standards, pay licensing fees, pay the actual employees, and still turn a profit.
  - x3874 3y ago
    My former place required (and i heard still requires) notes from day one. Guess what? All the time, people went on sick leave at least for a week - gotta pay off the effort to get a note, right? (This was before telemed though. Loved when it became available: Just answer a few questions via forms, submit - get the PDF one hour later. Beats having to take public transport to your GP who is located 30-40min away, while feeling miserable and unfit for driving yourself) Current place wears their reasonable pants, and this is basically standard procedure: just give a quick info if you can't work today and maybe tomorrow; notes required from day three.
  - vintermann 3y ago
    Remember what is discussed in this thread. I would assume that food poisoning incidents are on another level from a few lost work hours. But in a sense I'm sure you're right. What they fear is that if they lose control employees will go berserk with their newfound power and cost them a fortune in labour costs. It's just not a rational trade-off calculation, because then things like food poisoning and contagion would weigh much heavier than they do. Rather it's a game consideration that we mustn't appear weak here. They fear things that could be gamed because it's that sort of game to them already.
genocidicbunny 3y ago
That often opens up a lot of other cans of worms for the company to deal with. I've seen and heard of it happening for some cases of workers comp or extended illnesses, but those were cases where the company was potentially on the hook for a lot of money. The pragmatic companies will usually just quietly settle the smaller claims because it's cheaper than fighting them.
scruple 3y ago
My dad went through this shit at the end of his working life. Physician in the plant, guy had been kicked out of his family practice (his father started the place!) because he was a liability. His go to answer to these guys on the factory floor was, "You're not getting any younger!" He misdiagnosed his wife's breath cancer. All sorts of horrific stuff, considering he was a GP for 40+ years.

nickpeterson 3y ago

In the end it isn’t about the loss of money, it’s the loss of power. An agreeable doctor giving you reasonable time off to mend feels like letting employees claw back power. It’s the same with work from home policies, they’re not interested in performance, it’s control.

kortilla 3y ago
It’s really not. It’s money. A lost employee that you still have to pay for is a huge expense. Most companies costs are dominated by labor costs so anything that could be gamed there that would drive up that cost is scrutinized significantly.
- djbusby 3y ago
  So? Aren't these companies "good at business"? They should be able to plan around it - if they are in fact good at business. Many of these fast food places have executives whos monthly compensation exceeds the YEARLY compensation of these front-line employees. Its for sure not a money problem - it's an allocation problem.
  - dietr1ch 3y ago
    Being good at business means that they know where they can easily push and get away with it to get more money in the long run. Making it unreasonable hard to take time off will end up in fewer time off over time, and it only takes a couple words from management.
  - kortilla 3y ago
    Being good at business means ensuring you’re not being ripped off on labor costs. We’ve come full circle.
  - pfannkuchen 3y ago
    There are like thousands of times as many front line employees as executives. Whether or not it’s right for executives to make so much, it’s easy to see why a business would be much more worried about cost increases for a role with much higher scale.
  - benlivengood 3y ago
    The executives are good at business so they virtually exclusively license franchises to independent owner-operators who are on the hook to meet franchise standards, pay licensing fees, pay the actual employees, and still turn a profit.
- x3874 3y ago
  My former place required (and i heard still requires) notes from day one. Guess what? All the time, people went on sick leave at least for a week - gotta pay off the effort to get a note, right? (This was before telemed though. Loved when it became available: Just answer a few questions via forms, submit - get the PDF one hour later. Beats having to take public transport to your GP who is located 30-40min away, while feeling miserable and unfit for driving yourself) Current place wears their reasonable pants, and this is basically standard procedure: just give a quick info if you can't work today and maybe tomorrow; notes required from day three.
- vintermann 3y ago
  Remember what is discussed in this thread. I would assume that food poisoning incidents are on another level from a few lost work hours. But in a sense I'm sure you're right. What they fear is that if they lose control employees will go berserk with their newfound power and cost them a fortune in labour costs. It's just not a rational trade-off calculation, because then things like food poisoning and contagion would weigh much heavier than they do. Rather it's a game consideration that we mustn't appear weak here. They fear things that could be gamed because it's that sort of game to them already.

genocidicbunny 3y ago

That often opens up a lot of other cans of worms for the company to deal with. I've seen and heard of it happening for some cases of workers comp or extended illnesses, but those were cases where the company was potentially on the hook for a lot of money. The pragmatic companies will usually just quietly settle the smaller claims because it's cheaper than fighting them.

scruple 3y ago

My dad went through this shit at the end of his working life. Physician in the plant, guy had been kicked out of his family practice (his father started the place!) because he was a liability. His go to answer to these guys on the factory floor was, "You're not getting any younger!" He misdiagnosed his wife's breath cancer. All sorts of horrific stuff, considering he was a GP for 40+ years.