As we walked across the car park a cow-orker and I were speculating about what sort of injury we would be prepared to suffer from a reversing car in order to get some free time off work ; it's not been a good day! We thought that a broken leg (clean break of course) or a fractured arm might be about as much as we would be prepared to take. This led me to thinking about why you would have to suffer an injury at all. Why not simply allow employers to set up a ‘Pain Room’ whereby you are strapped into a chair and your fellow workers can administer a set number of electric shocks to you depending upon how much time you want off. Once you’ve suffered the requisite amount of pain, you are entitled to a corresponding number of days extra leave. I’m sure that this would be immensely popular, especially with your cow-orkers & bosses who, let’s face it, hate your guts and would happily administer the shocks and, furthermore, be glad to see the back of you for a few days. Press the red button labelled “PAIN!!!!” to vote now!-- DrBob, May 15 2009 "That's odd. Didn't I just hear [Jinbish] mumble something about 'Where did I put my morphine? I'm gunning for two weeks off...'"-- Jinbish, May 15 2009 What do cow-orkers do? And do they stop at bovines?-- loonquawl, May 15 2009 Correspondingly, you could measure how much pleasure would be required to be given to you and your orquers de la vache in order to make you work through the weekend. This would help calibrate the [pleasure|pain] [more work|time off] scale.-- hippo, May 15 2009 I'm wondering if this is free time off as in Paid Time Off or free time off as in Free Time Off. I could withstand a lot more pain for moola.If it were just Free Time Off I would cave like a sissy.-- blissmiss, May 15 2009 > What do cow-orkers do?
You might be trying to point out a typo, but that's one of those deliberately repeated typos (like "my elf" and "viola") that makes anything hilarilously funny it appears in. That it appears twice means it's twice as funny. (Sorry, DrBob. You've made me laugh for real often enough that I feel safe complaining about this one.)-- jutta, May 15 2009 Good point [bliss]. I think [DrBob] means the paid kind of time off you refer to. In other words, 'free' time off doesn't cause the person to lose out on their wages/salary.-- Jinbish, May 15 2009 Also, [DrBob], does the pain have to be injury-based? Could it include subjection to disease?... Or even extreme emotional distress?-- Jinbish, May 15 2009 If your job already causes you daily blood loss does it qualify you for early retirement?-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, May 15 2009 Sad as it seems, jutta, the second cow-orking incident did give me pause for thought. If I was after a couple of extra days leave I might go so far as to claim that I was agonised by the decision, as I normally try not to be too repetitive with my language. On this occasion though, I have to admit that it’s a fair cop, guv!-- DrBob, May 15 2009 bliss, I was thinking of extra paid leave please! Jin, I'm not keen on disease or emotion induced pain as they could have permanent effects and you wouldn't be in much condition to enjoy your extra leave. hippo, yes. I'd happily work at the weekend in return for a good supply of cake. 21Q, yes I know about masochists. I can also tell you that I'm not one of them, so the only pleasure I would get from the experience would be some well deserved time off!-- DrBob, May 16 2009 It's a relevant and controversial subject here in CT. Next week they are voting on a bill that would force companies with over 50 employees to give one hour paid time off for every 8 hours worked. Not just the state workers but every single business.
I can see both sides of this. A small company that has mainly entry level employees would have a tough go of it. I think.
But on the other side of the coin was an example given that recently with the swine flu going round a guy went to work knowing full well that he could make others sick because he couldn't afford to take the day off.
What's a society to do I ask you?-- blissmiss, May 16 2009 It's the mandate that frightens me.-- blissmiss, May 16 2009 It's the fact that it's gone from a "perk" to a mandate that just doesn't seem right somehow.
I've always gotten paid time off as part of the fancy, come hither, terms of employ. But for it now to be a mandate seems out of kilter somehow. From the small business mans side of it at least.-- blissmiss, May 16 2009 So the office whipping boy comes in two days a week, lets the other workers sadistically vent then gets the other three off? I guess if you find sadism really cathartic this might work but I'm guessing that most people will find this gratuitous and "appealing to a prurient mindset".-- WcW, May 16 2009 Well, I have to say that US employment law seems pretty scary. 10 days annual leave a year? That's pathetic. Even the worst off employees in the UK are legally entitled to 12 days (I think, but this might have increased) plus public holidays and we are one of the worst countries in the EU in this respect. Just to make it clear, I wasn't proposing this as compulsory, just not illegal. //I'm guessing that most people will find this gratuitous and "appealing to a prurient mindset".// WcW, well yes, probably. But would you do it is the question?-- DrBob, May 18 2009 Yeah, not you Dr. And I knew we were woefully lagging behind you guys when it came to paid time off. po used to lounge around on the beach for weeks and weeks at a time while I slaved away in my cubicle, when we first started writing one another. Slaved I did. ;-)-- blissmiss, May 18 2009 random, halfbakery