The Sniffling Waitress: When youâre sick AF but still have to work...
Iâve gone on a temporary hiatus until Iâm done feeling like garbage. By the end of this I will have missed a week and a half of work. Thanks to yours truly, work.
So my job has this policyâŚ
If you call out of work youâll need to provide an official doctorâs notice.
Last Saturday came around and I woke up with fever-like symptoms; the chills, body aches, nausea, etc. But I came into work anyways. The manager-boyfriend said my boss would appreciate it more if I came in and asked to be sent home versus calling out from home.
He made me stay both morning and night shifts.
âJust take some Dayquil, youâll be fine,â he said.
Yes, the Dayquil did its job of masking my fever so I busted ass at work like I normally would on any Saturday night. After all, I didnât feel sick so why not try and make more money? This was my first time using Dayquil, the results blew my mind.
I was in for a rude awakening Sunday morning. My gums were all swollen, my tongue and throat were sore, a cold sore was showing its ugly face inside my lip. Needless to say I wasnât able to eat anything but porridge-like foods, and talking was kind of a chore as well.
So I went to the doctor to get my noteâŚ
$138 later they told me I had a virus. Didnât say what kind, but $138?!?! I texted my mom and told her our new insurance policy sucks.
âI know,â she replied.
Not to mention the $50 spent on numbing mouthwash and drugs to rid of the sores.
Total it cost me almost $200 to provide my job with an excuse to be absent from work. Do you see whatâs wrong with this picture? I always wondered why my co-workers would come to work running high fevers and nearly getting sick on the job. Itâs because they canât afford to see a doctor whom they need a note from or else theyâll be written up for not coming in for their shift.
And other establishments require the same, while others donât of course.
Solution: Have a few servers who want extra hours to remain on call in case somebody calls out. There. Problem solved. Can I go home now?
So what do you do when youâre too sick to go into work but canât afford a visit to the doctor?
1) Call out and explain your situation: âIâm sick as hell, I need to rest, my health is more important, Iâm not full of shit, hereâs a selfie of me with my head in the toilet.â
2) âIâm not safe to be around guests.â They canât argue that. They might try, but ultimately theyâll look extremely unprofessional.
3) Just tell them no. Have a backbone! Donât ask if itâs alright you donât come in, tell them youâre not coming in and thatâs final. Hmph!
4) Get fired. Sometimes this can be a good thing.