Member-only story
Why Bother With a Job?
The unspoken benefits of being an employee are vanishing.
I spent most of the morning in the office bathroom.
At first I thought it was a mild hangover— sometimes the extra beer with my Sunday night popcorn makes for a rough Monday morning. But after the fourth or fifth trip to the stalls, it dawned on me that I’d caught whatever it was that had leveled my son over the weekend.
Luckily, I made it home before spiking a fever and spewing all over the bathroom, but just barely. The rest of the day was spent shivering in bed.
The following morning, I wasn’t feeling much better. I called in sick, but due to some “important” open topics, I felt obligated to put in a few hours of work anyway.
A Little Bit Sick Doesn’t Count
This has happened a handful of times since the kids started daycare. They bring some random bug home, I call in sick, yet end up working a few hours anyway. There’s a huge sense of guilt that goes along with not logging in, no matter how shitty I feel.
But that day, while languishing on the couch with a bucket, I wondered: if I can’t take a real sick day when I’m actually sick, what are the benefits of being an employee?
