Marla should stay home in bed and get some rest, let her body heal itself. Instead, she has to go to work, and prolong the illness, not to mention spreading it around.
This is one of the many things wrong with the workplace mindset.
You are quite right.
Businesses started “lean staffing” and running on a skeleton crew *all the time* rather than having enough staff to cover the work if someone calls out (just about all businesses, not just retail). Then they also placed the blame on the *worker* for “putting their team in a bad situation” if they needed to call out, rather than blaming their own too-low staffing/payroll for the problems it caused.
Add that on top of decades of suppressed wages, and workers, especially key workers like Marla, either feel they can’t call out if they are sick (either because it screws over the entire rest of the team, or in her case some things would literally not be able to happen, like unlocking the store) or literally can’t afford to call out because missing a shift means not making rent.
It’s a terrible trend.
This is exactly why I love having a job that I can do 90% from home. They still expect me to come in when I can, but if I’m sick or I need to watch my daughter, they’re fine with me not physically being there.
Marla should stay home in bed and get some rest, let her body heal itself. Instead, she has to go to work, and prolong the illness, not to mention spreading it around.
This is one of the many things wrong with the workplace mindset.
You are quite right.
Businesses started “lean staffing” and running on a skeleton crew *all the time* rather than having enough staff to cover the work if someone calls out (just about all businesses, not just retail). Then they also placed the blame on the *worker* for “putting their team in a bad situation” if they needed to call out, rather than blaming their own too-low staffing/payroll for the problems it caused.
Add that on top of decades of suppressed wages, and workers, especially key workers like Marla, either feel they can’t call out if they are sick (either because it screws over the entire rest of the team, or in her case some things would literally not be able to happen, like unlocking the store) or literally can’t afford to call out because missing a shift means not making rent.
It’s a terrible trend.
This is exactly why I love having a job that I can do 90% from home. They still expect me to come in when I can, but if I’m sick or I need to watch my daughter, they’re fine with me not physically being there.