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Why is it people feel entitled to take sick days?

As I look around Bermuda, I see more and more examples of the tail wagging the dog. It is ridiculous and just speaks to the way things have changed.One morning a few weeks ago I was interrupted from my most diligent efforts to complete my ‘to do list’ by a group of students, teachers and parents marching on Parliament, to protest against the Ministry of Education’s decision to move various principals.We complain about education and then when Government try to fix it we object to them fixing it? Geesh! No offence, but some of the principals may have been part of the problem; so kudos to the MoE for trying to fix this.Then there’s the general poor work ethic of many members of the workforce, which continues, despite us being in a recession and with unemployment still a problem. You would think that people would step up their game, especially those who have jobs, in an effort to keep them.As part of this, many organisations are reporting continued problems with sick leave, possible abuses of sick leave, etc. Then when you raise the issue, you get push back from the unions. I have my own thoughts about the KFC fiasco which I will keep to myself, but I digress.Let’s say here that if a person is genuinely sick and will infect others in their workplace they should stay at home. If a person’s child is sick they should stay at home to look after that child. But sickness should be the exception rather than the rule.People should not be deliberately calling in sick the day before a holiday in the knowledge that they can also be off sick the day after the holiday without needing a doctor’s note. If you take how yesterday’s holiday fell as an example, people then essentially have a five-day weekend.Yes folks, this happens. You would think that in a depressed economy people would work a little harder, realise that they are blessed to have a job, take steps to protect their job, work a little harder than they did before, cut out any slacking off that may have been done in the past, etc.But oh no, not us. We still hear people saying, ‘I am entitled to my eight sick days per year and my God I will take them’.The latest idea someone shared with me was employees should appraise their supervisors.What would be the point of that? Did you ever give your teacher a report card in school? Do teachers ever give principals a report card or review? No, this just isn’t done. Perhaps it’s new age, cutting edge and/or out-of-the-box thinking but what it really suggests is that staff either don’t have enough to do, or are spending too much time worrying about what their bosses are doing and not focusing on just doing their jobs.A bredren of mine owns his own business and has this issue with his staff. He says he wishes that people would just do their job. In 2012, in an effort to keep organisations fiscally sound so that they can afford to pay all staff without having to make anyone redundant, that means embracing other duties, things that may not be on your job description.All of this tells me that we live in a space and a place where the tail is wagging the dog. People have developed a sense of entitlement that results in them not producing as much as they can and should produce. The workforce needs to be developed. Peace…………………….DJLT.

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