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Sickness absence associated with shared and open-plan offices (2011)

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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Re: Sickness absence associated with shared and open-plan offices (2011)

#141

Post by ghaff »

WalterSear wrote: post #136
ghaff wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's mostly a fairly recent trend even in the US. For most of my career, I had separate vacation and sick days (as well as, possibly, personal/floating holidays). I'm not sure when the shift occurred but apparently a combined pool is pretty much the norm these days.

The new trend is 'unlimited' vacation days, where nothing can impact you vacation time, because you have to fight with your manager for it.

Fortunately, it's a trend that seems to have had fairly limited pickup. It really does seem like a bad system in practice. I have always, other than the odd day lost when I've hit a cap or whatever, used every day of vacation I've been allotted. In past roles, I've even taken month long vacations where I was totally out of touch.

I would not want to be in a situation where my vacation time depended on some prevailing sense among coworkers of the appropriate number of days to take off.

Re: Sickness absence associated with shared and open-plan offices (2011)

#142

Post by MSM »

mattrices wrote: post #132
d23 wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Be realistic. We're talking about the 99.9% of other people who don't have that condition.

The point is not all sneezes are due to colds. There are other causes that account for much more than .1%. Don't reinfoce societal pressure with biased probability analysis.

>Don't reinfoce societal pressure with biased probability analysis.

They aren't saying don't sneeze, they're saying cover your sneeze. It doesn't matter why you are sneezing, covering it is the standard.

Re: Sickness absence associated with shared and open-plan offices (2011)

#143

Post by moron4hire »

ghaff wrote: post #121
logfromblammo wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vacation leave and sick leave are mentioned in law, and companies are required to keep funds in reserve to pay for those balances. PTO was invented to stop people from using sick leave when they weren't sick, and to avoid having to keep the cash liability for leave balances on the books. Usually, the combination results in fewer days of available leave, and since vacations are often planned months in advance, people…

PTO balances are typically still liabilities because they're owed to employees when they leave modulo accumulation caps or use it/lose it policies. It's pretty much inevitable that pooling sick time and vacation time results in a lower total. People aren't really expected to use all their sick time in a given year if ever. But for those who do plan to maximize their use of vacation, it means there's not a lot of marg…

Even worse: so-called "unlimited" leave policies. It's basically "no obligation for leave at all". Hence why it's very popular with the startup crowd these days.

Re: Sickness absence associated with shared and open-plan offices (2011)

#144

Post by visarga »

jackhack wrote: post #106
tcfunk wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Expecting that people should control their sneezes is a ridiculous cultural norm.

Expecting sick people to not fill a room with hundreds of millions of aerosolized particles when that could be clearly avoided is a result of simple respect for those around you and evidence of manners and good breeding. Cover your sneeze. Cover your cough. Stay home when sick. These are kindergarten-level cultural learnings.

> Cover your sneeze. Cover your cough.

Face masks FTW! Then you can creep out anybody.

Re: Sickness absence associated with shared and open-plan offices (2011)

#145

Post by omginternets »

jackhack wrote: post #106
tcfunk wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Expecting that people should control their sneezes is a ridiculous cultural norm.

Expecting sick people to not fill a room with hundreds of millions of aerosolized particles when that could be clearly avoided is a result of simple respect for those around you and evidence of manners and good breeding. Cover your sneeze. Cover your cough. Stay home when sick. These are kindergarten-level cultural learnings.

>Cover your sneeze. Cover your cough. Stay home when sick. These are kindergarten-level cultural learnings.

Yes, fine, but none of these involve suppressing a sneeze. The goalpost has shifted.

Re: Sickness absence associated with shared and open-plan offices (2011)

#146

Post by ghaff »

moron4hire wrote: post #143
ghaff wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PTO balances are typically still liabilities because they're owed to employees when they leave modulo accumulation caps or use it/lose it policies. It's pretty much inevitable that pooling sick time and vacation time results in a lower total. People aren't really expected to use all their sick time in a given year if ever. But for those who do plan to maximize their use of vacation, it means there's not a lot of marg…

Even worse: so-called "unlimited" leave policies. It's basically "no obligation for leave at all". Hence why it's very popular with the startup crowd these days.

From an accounting perspective, there's also no (or very limited) liability associated with accrued vacation time. (There may be some associated with required sick days.) If someone leaves the company, there's no accrued time to pay off.

Re: Sickness absence associated with shared and open-plan offices (2011)

#147

Post by WalterSear »

ghaff wrote: post #141
WalterSear wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The new trend is 'unlimited' vacation days, where nothing can impact you vacation time, because you have to fight with your manager for it.

Fortunately, it's a trend that seems to have had fairly limited pickup. It really does seem like a bad system in practice. I have always, other than the odd day lost when I've hit a cap or whatever, used every day of vacation I've been allotted. In past roles, I've even taken month long vacations where I was totally out of touch. I would not want to be in a situation where my vacation time depended on some prevailing…

> Fortunately, it's a trend that seems to have had fairly limited pickup

It's been the case at the last four places I worked: large corporations who knew their H1B workforce wouldn't ask for time off, and startups where I wouldn't get any spare moments to meet with my managers to ask for vacation.

(Fwiw, the vacation time at the start ups was perfectly decent, given the situation. I think I took ~3 weeks off each year. At the big company, it was a total fiddle.)

Re: Sickness absence associated with shared and open-plan offices (2011)

#148

Post by brightfog »

gourou wrote: post #128
brightfog wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes true but a missing whiteboard often leads to well executed specs and mockups.

What interactive online tool are you using to explain/come up with a solution to an issue?

There isn't any dedicated interactive online tool for explaining I am aware of.

The most powerful tool for collaboration and communication though is screen-sharing + your mouse cursor + your voice available in any video calling software.

Re: Sickness absence associated with shared and open-plan offices (2011)

#149

Post by debaserab2 »

louprado wrote: post #97
debaserab2 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Counter PSA: Did you know that your body is sneezing for a reason and taking all the air out of it may be counter productive and actually lead to more sneezing?

Unless I inhaled pepper that never happens. I've watched others learn this technique too even large men. It can take years of practice though, just like learning any good habit/manner.

As someone with severe seasonal allergies, it certainly does happen to others. Its not about manners or habits for everyone.
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