No personal days?

Discussion in 'Labor & Employment' started by pjohns, Aug 15, 2019.

  1. pjohns

    pjohns Well-Known Member

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    I just learned that our usual server, at the pizza place that my wife and I frequent about twice per week, has no personal days--none.

    I found this to be utterly bewildering. And highly irritating.

    Although I am well into retirement--it has been almost 14 1/2 years now--if I had been applying for a job during my working lifetime; and if the interviewer had indicated that there were no personal days allowed by the company (even if the hourly wage were substantial), the rest of the conversation would surely have gone something like this:

    Me: "Back up just a little, please. What was that you just said about personal days?"

    Interviewer: "I said that there are none given."

    Me: "It sounded like that is what you said. I just could not believe that I heard you correctly."

    Me again: "I think that we have discussed all that we need to. But I do wish you a pleasant rest of the day."

    And then I would have simply walked out. Briskly.
     
  2. Capt Nice

    Capt Nice Well-Known Member

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    Since I retired in 1989 I have no idea what a 'personal' day is. Obviously a lot has changed since I left the work force. I suppose a personal day now and then would be a reasonable trade off for having to be burdened with a company lap top and company cell phone 24-7 like so many are these days.
     
    Last edited: Aug 15, 2019
  3. Creasy Tvedt

    Creasy Tvedt Well-Known Member

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    I'd be surprised to hear that any fast-food-tier server was given paid personal days.

    I've always thought that those sorts of jobs were "You don't work, you don't get paid" gigs.

    If you're looking for cushy perks and paid time off, it seems to me you should be aiming a little higher than slinging hash in a pizza joint.
     
    Last edited: Aug 15, 2019
  4. ToddWB

    ToddWB Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I haven't had a 'vacation' in 40 years... and I generally work around my estates on th weekend.. the only time I have off is a few hours on Sunday, when I'm in church.. the world owes me 80 weeks of vacation time...dammit!
     
  5. ToddWB

    ToddWB Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Looks like the world doesn't care... dammit!
     
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  6. Creasy Tvedt

    Creasy Tvedt Well-Known Member

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    I get gobs of paid time off, but my job is a bit more complicated than taking orders, and shuffling slices of pizza and cups of Coke around.
     
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  7. Diablo

    Diablo Well-Known Member

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    You owe yourself 80 weeks of vacation.
     
  8. roorooroo

    roorooroo Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Glad you have that freedom to not accept that job. Also glad that the employer has the freedom to determine the requirements of the job he is offering. He has freedom, you have freedom, and that is how it should be. All this "government dictating every aspect of life" is, well, it just sucks.
     
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  9. flewism

    flewism Well-Known Member

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    Supply and demand, hell if your skill set was in such demand you could negotiate twice or 3 times as many "personal days" if that was your thing.

    Servers at pizza places not so much, face it there is such a high percentage of the population without any real skill set and in all reality pizza servers can be trained within a week.
     
    Last edited: Aug 15, 2019
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  10. Creasy Tvedt

    Creasy Tvedt Well-Known Member

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    Okay, I'm not all that familiar with paper hat jobs, seeing as how I've only ever worked one in my life, and it was a looooooong time ago.

    Even being clueless, the idea of a fast-food-tier level server getting PTO just seemed ridiculous to me, so I asked around and got input from some people who would know much more than myself.

    Yeah, it's pretty much a laughable concept. It's just not a thing.

    A person who would turn their nose up at a low-level server job that didn't grant PTO, yeah, that person is basically unemployed.

    "Don't work, don't get paid" is basically the fast-tier-server industry standard.
     
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  11. HonestJoe

    HonestJoe Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Why exactly? If they’re offering a decent number of days annual leave and have decent policies and systems around booking leave and account for things like sick leave, carers leave and maternity/paternity, why would personal days be an unconditional requirement?

    I have to point out that I’m in the UK and “personal days” isn’t a very common thing here but I also think we tend to get more annual leave and regulations that are somewhat more favourable towards the employee compared to the US. Even so, I don’t see why a lack of personal days would be an automatic deal-breaker without considering all the other elements of an offer.
     
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  12. pjohns

    pjohns Well-Known Member

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    Well, I did not retire until 2005.

    A personal day is a day off, with full pay.

    Some companies require that an employee ask in advance for a personal day; others do not.
     
  13. pjohns

    pjohns Well-Known Member

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    I fully agree with you. I, too, would not want this to become a matter of government policy.
     
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  14. pjohns

    pjohns Well-Known Member

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    I always had a rule (which was quite inflexible): If I needed the job more than the company (apparently) needed me--and as a specific individual, not as merely a filler of an important job position--I would decline the job.
     
  15. pjohns

    pjohns Well-Known Member

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    Part of my would-be response is visceral: I simply find it offensive--enormously offensive--for a company to offer no personal days.

    As for "annual leave," I am quite unfamiliar with it. Perhaps it is merely a UK (or even European) thing.

    Where I last worked, we had both personal days and sick days--nothing else.
     
  16. Moonglow

    Moonglow Well-Known Member

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    I was self employed for 35 years so I could take off anytime or any day I needed...
     
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  17. HonestJoe

    HonestJoe Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Annual Leave is what we call our yearly allocation of paid vacation days. I'd forgotten that there is no mandatory paid vacation in the US so "personal days" would be a necessity rather than a bonus. That puts your response in a different context. :cool:
     
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  18. Robert E Allen

    Robert E Allen Banned

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    No personal days is normal..
     
  19. pjohns

    pjohns Well-Known Member

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    Well, it certainly was not "normal" when I worked.

    Things must have changed. Significantly.

    And not for the better...
     
  20. Creasy Tvedt

    Creasy Tvedt Well-Known Member

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    There was never a time when pizza joint waitresses got personal days, it just never happened.

    Bottom-tier waitstaff jobs have always been 'punch in/punch out' jobs, and you only get paid when you're punched in.

    There may be the odd employer that does it differently, and grants their worker bees PTO, but it's certainly not 'the norm' now, and it certainly never was the norm.

    This is why one should always aspire to "a career" rather than "a job", because of reasons exactly like this.
     
    Last edited: Oct 15, 2019
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  21. Robert E Allen

    Robert E Allen Banned

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    I am 48 years old.
    My first job out of highschool was at a cabinet shop it was a straight hourly wage.
    After 5 years or so the company grew and two years an a row they were able to put together a Roth IRA and max out their contributions for most of the employees.
    Even so that was the only official benefit
    I then worked for a fishing lodge , that was wages plus tips and lunch
    Then i worked for a few fly fishing stores all of which offered hourly wages and store discounts.
    Then i worked for a fishing rod manufacturer where i got an hourly wage. For a couple years i got health insurance that i couldn't afford to use. And the last 3 years or so o got a week paid bacation each year
    Then i worked for a large outdoor store.
    1 weeks vacation after a year and had options for health insurance

    Then i worked for another fishing store and got a straight hourly wage and a weeks vacation, plus the owner bought out fishing licenses.

    Never had personal days or sick days.
    Except for a few vacations i was at work or not getting paid.. and you know what? There is nothing wrong with that.
     
  22. Creasy Tvedt

    Creasy Tvedt Well-Known Member

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    The only paper hat job I ever worked was as a bag boy and a shopping cart wrangler in a grocery store. That was over 30 years ago, and if I had asked the boss for a paid personal day off back then, I imagine I'd still be able to hear the echo of the laughter to this very day.
     
  23. pjohns

    pjohns Well-Known Member

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    When I was quite young--almost 55 years ago--I briefly worked for a pizza joint; and I simply do not remember just what their policy was.

    For the last 17 years of my working life, however--which ended in 2005--I worked merely in a warehouse; yet I certainly did receive paid personal days.

    If this was not the norm, then it is certainly news to me--especially considering that this employer was never especially generous.
     
  24. pjohns

    pjohns Well-Known Member

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    Were there mom-and-pop companies? If so, then it is certainly understandable.

    But the person in question works for a large chain.
     
  25. Badaboom

    Badaboom Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Where I work we get:

    4 weeks paid vacation after one year + 1week if you have an unversity degree + 1 week after 20 years and starting at age 60 you get +1 week per year up to 65 years old.
    We can also cumulate 35 hours in a bank since my employer doesn't pay overtime. Once you hit 35 hours you are obligated to take a paid day off. You can also ask for a day off once you have at least 7 hours in the bank.
    For sick days, you get 10 days per year that you've work there. In my case that means I have up to 200 sick days available at 100% salary. If you take more than 3 days you have to provide a medical justification from a doctor and may have to be evaluated by the comapny health services. If that isn't enough to cover treatment I then go on the insurance program for 80% of my salary indefenitively in case of serious illness like cancer for example.
     

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