Random Thoughts That Don't Deserve Their Own Thread Go Here

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by Lathum

I love the fact that my company doesn't separate the two. We get what is called earned time. Sucks if you get sick but for someone like me who never does or guts it out I get tons of vacation time.

Yeah my new job, I've got PTO (Paid Time Off). It's all lumped together.

[21C]

At my job, I get 11 weeks paid vacation a year. I get 32 sick days a year that accrue for a four-year rolling period. I also get long-service leave where I currently have 18 weeks accrued - even though I have used probably twelve weeks in the last ten years.

And I work from 9 to 3.

[cuervo72]

Were you not in Australia I'd ask if you were in Congress.

[molson]

Originally Posted by 21C

At my job, I get 11 weeks paid vacation a year. I get 32 sick days a year that accrue for a four-year rolling period. I also get long-service leave where I currently have 18 weeks accrued - even though I have used probably twelve weeks in the last ten years.

And I work from 9 to 3.

Are there people that call in sick 32 days a year? (And have to dip into their 11 paid weeks vacation)?

I think I have 12 sick days a year and that seems excessive, to the extent they're used for actual illness. I'd love if they were just lumped together with vacation time, because it really just seems like a "benefit" that nobody would ever actually use. I guess it's possible someone is sick for 2 weeks, but not every year.

I haven't used a sick day in the 5 years I've been at my job, and the other 12 employees I'd say are averaging around 1 or 2 sick days every other year. And the nature of the job is kind of such that if you're sick and leave early Monday, you'll have to do extra hours towards the end of the week anyway to catchup, so you're rarely actually using sick time - everything runs by the hour with no set working hours, so you always can manage to get your 40 hours in even if you take a little time off for being sick, or just for taking half days.

Edit: Traveling for funerals can count as sick time, but if I flew back east for a relative's funeral, there's no way I could take 2 weeks off for it without requiring my co-workers to go over 40 hours. And I guess I'm pretty brainwashed because I wouldn't want to take all that time off anyway. I like working and I like to be busy. I guess it'd be awesome to work 6 hours a day and have 11 weeks of vacation, but damn, as it is I'm pretty ready to go back to work even after a 3-day weekend. I'm sure I could adjust and make take up surfing or become a heavier drinker (or both).

[Scoobz0202]

Originally Posted by 21C

At my job, I get 11 weeks paid vacation a year. I get 32 sick days a year that accrue for a four-year rolling period. I also get long-service leave where I currently have 18 weeks accrued - even though I have used probably twelve weeks in the last ten years.

And I work from 9 to 3.

Read the first sentence and thought, "Wonder what country this poster is from.."

[Grover]

Michelle Obama is a minx. That is all.

[21C]

Originally Posted by molson

Are there people that call in sick 32 days a year? (And have to dip into their 11 paid weeks vacation)?

Not many but some have tried to take advantage of the system. There is one person who recently had heart surgery (he is 44 and superfit) who has had to use up most of his sick leave.

The 11 weeks of vacation is because I am a high school teacher and those are for the breaks between terms.

I haven't had any sick days this year but I would guess that I typically have between 5 and 10 a year. Being around 1000 students during flu season will usually do you in. Besides I subscribe to the view that you are only going to make others unwell if you come to work when you are sick with the flu.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by 21C

Not many but some have tried to take advantage of the system. There is one person who recently had heart surgery (he is 44 and superfit) who has had to use up most of his sick leave.

The 11 weeks of vacation is because I am a high school teacher and those are for the breaks between terms.

I haven't had any sick days this year but I would guess that I typically have between 5 and 10 a year. Being around 1000 students during flu season will usually do you in. Besides I subscribe to the view that you are only going to make others unwell if you come to work when you are sick with the flu.

Yeah, unfortunately in America, everyone thinks it's their god given right to come to work and make everyone else sick.

It's a combination of selfishness ("but I won't get paid and I'm too closely budgeted in my $100K per year job"), a false sense of self importance ("if I leave, the world will fall apart"), and lack of concern for their fellow man ("it's only the flu- after all, I get to decide what's bad or good for everyone else")

SI

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Yeah, unfortunately in America, everyone thinks it's their god given right to come to work and make everyone else sick.

It's a combination of selfishness ("but I won't get paid and I'm too closely budgeted in my $100K per year job"), a false sense of self importance ("if I leave, the world will fall apart"), and lack of concern for their fellow man ("it's only the flu- after all, I get to decide what's bad or good for everyone else")

Or a guilt trip from their employer, many of which who believe you're just a lazy bastard if you don't come into work no matter how sick you are. Which is in my experience far more common than your above motivations.

[molson]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Yeah, unfortunately in America, everyone thinks it's their god given right to come to work and make everyone else sick.

It's a combination of selfishness ("but I won't get paid and I'm too closely budgeted in my $100K per year job"), a false sense of self importance ("if I leave, the world will fall apart"), and lack of concern for their fellow man ("it's only the flu- after all, I get to decide what's bad or good for everyone else")

SI

I think if you're not working around kids though, and especially if you don't have kids, adults really don't usually get sick 5 times a year, let alone 10. I think it's more kind of accepted in a lot of circles that those sick days are for opening day, last-minute vegas trips, etc.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by molson

I think if you're not working around kids though, and especially if you don't have kids, adults really don't usually get sick 5 times a year, let alone 10. I think it's more kind of accepted in a lot of circles that those sick days are for opening day, last-minute vegas trips, etc.

I agree. I think most adults tend to get sick between 2-5 days a year between colds and flu- basically one to three times a year. That said, I think if you're sick, you're sick and should stay home. If you're not sick, don't use your sick days, use your vacation.

For people who have kids, it seems to be a different matter. Then I tend to think of the sick days as combined between the parents and kids and it's pretty easy to get up to 10 days. Then again, there are also a lot of people who abuse that, too.

SI

[Ksyrup]

I'm good for a couple of days each spring/fall thanks to allergies. Of course, now that I get to work from home whenever I want, I can be flexible in terms of using my actual PTO for sick time. I'll probably work from home when I'm sick and not take off unless I'm bedridden.

[M GO BLUE!!!]

Is Jaden Smith 2nd in line of succession to rule Freshness?

[DougW]

Getting ready to go see Kiss/Motley Crue; and just found out their Pyro truck flipped this morning and the show is postponed. Luckily, I can still go tomorrow !

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by DougW

Getting ready to go see Kiss/Motley Crue; and just found out their Pyro truck flipped this morning and the show is postponed. Luckily, I can still go tomorrow !

It doesn't inspire much excitement in me for the show if the Pyro truck flipped but did NOT subsequently explode.

[JediKooter]

Why am I NOT surprised by this?

Report: US health care system wastes $750B a year - Yahoo! News

[gstelmack]

It takes more people to process payment for care than it does to actually provide the care, so no I'm not surprised.

[Passacaglia]

If banking worked like health care, ATM transactions would take days, the report said.

I have no idea what that is supposed to mean.

[JediKooter]

I think they are trying to say that if you went to the ATM to get 40 dollars, you would have to wait a few days before it would spit out that 40 dollars.

Unless I'm missing something.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by JediKooter

I think they are trying to say that if you went to the ATM to get 40 dollars, you would have to wait a few days before it would spit out that 40 dollars.

Unless I'm missing something.

Because your trip to the ATM would result in printing a ticket inside the branch, which would then require someone to take, fill out all the appropriate forms to request the money, then mailed off to the bank's central office, who would review to determine if the $40 was acceptable, or maybe $40 is not customary for people in your area to withdraw money so they only want to give you $20, then put the money in an envelope to mail back to the branch, who could then put the money in the ATM for you to get.

[fpres]

If banking worked like health care, ATM transactions would take months (with a 90% success rate considered "good"), the report said.

corrected

Other than that, the article is pretty spot on.

[Ksyrup]

This is not a joke - I just found out that a girl on my daughter's soccer team is named Anemone.

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

Because your trip to the ATM would result in printing a ticket inside the branch, which would then require someone to take, fill out all the appropriate forms to request the money, then mailed off to the bank's central office, who would review to determine if the $40 was acceptable, or maybe $40 is not customary for people in your area to withdraw money so they only want to give you $20, then put the money in an envelope to mail back to the branch, who could then put the money in the ATM for you to get.

Sounds about right. And good luck if you have to reschedule your trip to the ATM.

[Passacaglia]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

Because your trip to the ATM would result in printing a ticket inside the branch, which would then require someone to take, fill out all the appropriate forms to request the money, then mailed off to the bank's central office, who would review to determine if the $40 was acceptable, or maybe $40 is not customary for people in your area to withdraw money so they only want to give you $20, then put the money in an envelope to mail back to the branch, who could then put the money in the ATM for you to get.

This is a bit of a stretch. The other comparisons made in that paragraph, I can see their line of thinking. But at this point, I don't think you're talking about getting money out of an ATM, you're just talking about getting services from a hospital, but calling it getting money out of an ATM.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Passacaglia

This is a bit of a stretch. The other comparisons made in that paragraph, I can see their line of thinking. But at this point, I don't think you're talking about getting money out of an ATM, you're just talking about getting services from a hospital, but calling it getting money out of an ATM.

They were talking about the cost of healthcare, and what I described above is a big reason for the overhead in healthcare. Yes, another big reason is simple overcharging (I wouldn't need a prescription plan if I got the prices my health insurance gets, $60 vs $180 for one example) or multi-charging, but there is also quite a bit of overhead and delay in simply getting payment. People at the doctor's office who have to handle all the filing, plus people at the insurer that have to review and make payment.

More of this is getting electronic which is good, but health insurance rates have been going up like 20% / year which is absurd.

[JediKooter]

I took the ATM metaphor as an example of how inefficient things are in the health care industry. Kind of like that letter from Ford or GM or some other company (can't remember which company) responding to a letter from someone at Microsoft comparing windows to one of their cars. The letter from the car company person basically said, "If our cars ran as well as windows does, it would break down every 2 miles".

[Passacaglia]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

They were talking about the cost of healthcare, and what I described above is a big reason for the overhead in healthcare. Yes, another big reason is simple overcharging (I wouldn't need a prescription plan if I got the prices my health insurance gets, $60 vs $180 for one example) or multi-charging, but there is also quite a bit of overhead and delay in simply getting payment. People at the doctor's office who have to handle all the filing, plus people at the insurer that have to review and make payment.

More of this is getting electronic which is good, but health insurance rates have been going up like 20% / year which is absurd.

I'm not saying there aren't problems with healthcare (although I'm skeptical of your 20% per year figure). I'm saying that trying to compare anything in healthcare to withdrawing money from an ATM makes no sense.

[JediKooter]

I'll take metaphors & similes for 1,000 Alex.

[Sun Tzu]

I honestly believe there are a good number of people that would be happier with a semi-regular dose of MMJ.

I would also like to add the following:

Gunga galunga...gunga, gunga-lagunga.

[molson]

Originally Posted by JediKooter

Why am I NOT surprised by this?

Report: US health care system wastes $750B a year - Yahoo! News

One of the easiest things to do in the world is be some type of hack "medical provider", and bill the government for services you've never provided. They didn't even check for this until very recently, but now, enforcement is still left largely to to state attorney general offices, which only have so many resources. Pharmaceutical fraud is also hilariously easy to accomplish and get away with. I won't get more political in the random thread except to say that making waste and fraud enforcement a priority would do plenty to help the state of health care and free up resources for actual medical care, all while acting as something of a stimulus because you'd have to hire a bunch of people at the state and federal level to combat this stuff. But there's no political party that shares these priorities.

[Radii]

Having worked in Healthcare technology for the last 15 years, I started replying a few times before ending up in a fit of unintelligible rage and deleting what I'd written.

I've been using the "if banking were like healthcare" analogy for a really long time, just with regards to healthcare's approach to advancing technology and creating reasonable standards for the industry, here's where I end up:

If banking were like healthcare, your ATM card not only wouldn't work at banks other than your own, it probably wouldn't work at other branches within your own bank other than the one you opened your account at. Cards would be different sizes, have different information on them, basically each one would be completely unique. About 10% of the time the transaction simply wouldn't work. You wouldn't know for a month if the money was taken out of your account or not, but you certainly didn't get the money. Another 10% of the time you'd get a different amount than you requested. If you got less, haha fuck you. If you got more, it'd be your legal responsibility to fill out 5 pages of forms and return the extra money to the bank within 24 hours or you'd be prosecuted. Despite the fact that the transactions are entirely electronic, most banks would turn off ATM service for 8-12 hours a day during weekdays and 16-24 hours on weekends.

Most importantly, the database that the ATM service uses to look up your balance and process your transaction would be different than the one that bank branches maintained that contained your *actual* balance, so even when it works, every single electronic transaction would be inherently unreliable and potentially inaccurate. This may or may not be corrected within 30 days of the transaction occurring.


There, without typing up 10,000 words on my experience over the last decade+ with healthcare technology, that is what I believe being a banking customer with an ATM card would be like if technology in banking were treated the way technology in healthcare is currently treated.


Final thought: A month ago I connected our healthcare technology company to a major blue cross blue shield payer for electronic eligibility. When we signed up with them, they sent us all their documentation. We received information on their dial-up service. They offer a connection via webservices, but their default is to send out information for dial-up customers, we had to request the additional documentation to connect using another method.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Yeah, unfortunately in America, everyone thinks it's their god given right to come to work and make everyone else sick.

Or worse bring treir sick kid to daycare and get everyone elses kid sick along with the daycare provider, forcing you or your spouse to now stay home with a sick kid.

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

Or a guilt trip from their employer, many of which who believe you're just a lazy bastard if you don't come into work no matter how sick you are. Which is in my experience far more common than your above motivations.

This was my experience when working in the restaurant industry, if you tried to call out sick you were either told no or treated like you were commiting some major crime. They would also make you get your shift covered before letting you stay home.

[stevew]

Originally Posted by DougW

Michael Strahan takes Regis' old job. I like it.

Live! with Kelly & Michael

I actually will watch this show a fair amount and I'm not thrilled. I wish Kelly and Marc was a possibility. Obviously Anderson Cooper wasn't realistic either. At least Tiki destroyed his career so that Strahan could get the opportunity.

[stevew]

Lathum-
Totally agree about the bullshit nature of the restaurant. It's scary to think how sick I would be some days. I'm making like 8 bucks an hour with no health care and you want A doctor's note. Situation is so fuck.

[Scoobz0202]

Originally Posted by stevew

Lathum-
Totally agree about the bullshit nature of the restaurant. It's scary to think how sick I would be some days. I'm making like 8 bucks an hour with no health care and you want A doctor's note. Situation is so fuck.

Pretty much this. I'm 25 and didn't go back to college until Spring of last year. I worked eight years in the restaurant industry and I was always commended because I only called in like one day a year. It had nothing to do with being committed to my job but every thing to do with not wanting to be bitched at and expected to find somebody to cover my shifts. I worked mornings a lot. I'd rather come in with strep throat then attempt to find somebody to cover my shift at 5:45 in the morning.

[stevew]

Did you ever get lunch breaks?

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by molson

One of the easiest things to do in the world is be some type of hack "medical provider", and bill the government for services you've never provided. They didn't even check for this until very recently, but now, enforcement is still left largely to to state attorney general offices, which only have so many resources. Pharmaceutical fraud is also hilariously easy to accomplish and get away with. I won't get more political in the random thread except to say that making waste and fraud enforcement a priority would do plenty to help the state of health care and free up resources for actual medical care, all while acting as something of a stimulus because you'd have to hire a bunch of people at the state and federal level to combat this stuff. But there's no political party that shares these priorities.

To me that is just crazy that it's that easy to do that. It's like those fake faxes for invoices saying you owe X amount for services you never used, but, someone just sees a bill and pays it without any due diligence. Fraud and waste is one of my biggest pet peeves. Especially in industries that have captive consumers like health care. I honestly don't think it's political (maybe there's some), I think it's just good old fashioned laziness and status quo-ness.

Originally Posted by Radii

Radii said: "A bunch of really good things I agree with...".

It almost seems like the health care industry is in some kind of competition to out inefficient and out waste the government or something. Their motto should be: "You think the government is bad...wait until you see us in action".

Dialup? Seriously? Do they still use mimeograph machines to make copies?

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by stevew

Did you ever get lunch breaks?

[stevew]

Originally Posted by Lathum

I worked at Bennigan's and they sold us on this "Lunch Plan." Except that you couldn't take lunch ever. The whole industry seems to suck like that. I worked at multiple places for like 10 years. Lunch is eating a handful of fries out of the sight of management.

[Coffee Warlord]

I cannot believe they found Drew Peterson guilty.

[stevew]

that Drew Peterson movie is awesome.

[Suburban Rhythm]

Originally Posted by JediKooter

It almost seems like the health care industry is in some kind of competition to out inefficient and out waste the government or something. Their motto should be: "You think the government is bad...wait until you see us in action".

Dialup? Seriously? Do they still use mimeograph machines to make copies?

In my position I deal with school districts, county/state governments and managed care organizations.

I do believe sometimes it's a competition of who can force the most asinine things on us to seek payment/reimbursement.

One state education board requires we fill out a form, only for special education kids, that consists of me filling in dates on a blank calendar template, marking the student as present or absent, or the date as a weekend or holiday. I did it the first month in Excel, they called and said "No, you need to use our form...and handwrite the information in".

The catch is this...this is a NEW request for the new fiscal year. Prior to July, this wasn't done. Someone, in the year 2012, decided that, a form they didn't use in the 1980's or 90's of handwritten information, is now necessary in 2012.


Similar story, one agency requested we fax their invoice monthly. My first thought was "meh...I guess faxing is still relevant". At one point I suggested I could send via email, encrypted if needed. No go. "I don't trust that, there is sensitive information on there."

But a fax is OK? Her reason was she checks the fax every few minutes, it's just outside her desk, so nobody else would see the information.

[stevew]

do you work for UPMC by any chance?

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Yeah, unfortunately in America, everyone thinks it's their god given right to come to work and make everyone else sick.

Or sometimes it's because the employee get's penalized on their year end review for attendance. (used to be like this for me in another department at my company).

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by Suburban Rhythm

In my position I deal with school districts, county/state governments and managed care organizations.

I do believe sometimes it's a competition of who can force the most asinine things on us to seek payment/reimbursement.

One state education board requires we fill out a form, only for special education kids, that consists of me filling in dates on a blank calendar template, marking the student as present or absent, or the date as a weekend or holiday. I did it the first month in Excel, they called and said "No, you need to use our form...and handwrite the information in".

The catch is this...this is a NEW request for the new fiscal year. Prior to July, this wasn't done. Someone, in the year 2012, decided that, a form they didn't use in the 1980's or 90's of handwritten information, is now necessary in 2012.


Similar story, one agency requested we fax their invoice monthly. My first thought was "meh...I guess faxing is still relevant". At one point I suggested I could send via email, encrypted if needed. No go. "I don't trust that, there is sensitive information on there."

But a fax is OK? Her reason was she checks the fax every few minutes, it's just outside her desk, so nobody else would see the information.

We've got to be living in Bizzaro Universe. It's the only thing that can logically explain this.

[JeeberD]

Y'all worked for some bad companies...I've never had that problem. I would MUCH rather be slightly short handed than have a sick server or cook in the building. I do usually ask them to try and see if they can find someone who wants to work in their place, but I'm not going to make them come in.

And we give doubles breaks, with 50% off meals before or after a shift.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by JeeberD

Y'all worked for some bad companies...I've never had that problem. I would MUCH rather be slightly short handed than have a sick server or cook in the building. I do usually ask them to try and see if they can find someone who wants to work in their place, but I'm not going to make them come in.

And we give doubles breaks, with 50% off meals before or after a shift.

I would say this kind of treatment is very much the exception.

[stevew]

What's a break, especially if you don't smoke.

The difference between Jeeb's and the typical manager is that jeeber is not a fat retard and/or a underqualified woman.

[Suburban Rhythm]

Originally Posted by stevew

do you work for UPMC by any chance?

Nope. We deal with them some, they aren't bad in my dealings, technology wise.

Originally Posted by stevew

What's a break, especially if you don't smoke.

The difference between Jeeb's and the typical manager is that jeeber is not a fat retard and/or a underqualified woman.

Previous job, pretty sure we've discussed the company I was at, 2 of us would hang outside regularly. My unit manager and her boss both smoked, and questioned what we were doing outside each time. Stock response "Smoke break"...just without the cigarettes.

[terpkristin]

Originally Posted by Lathum

I love the fact that my company doesn't separate the two. We get what is called earned time. Sucks if you get sick but for someone like me who never does or guts it out I get tons of vacation time.

Yeah, us too. We call it "Composite Leave."

Unfortunately right now I'm over the Use-or-Lose cap by about 2 weeks (and will accrue another 3ish days before the year is up) and there doesn't seem to be an opportune time for me to use them. I am thinking about taking the time for my surgery using my leave instead of short-term disability...but that would take me so far under the cap, it might not be good.

Still thinking it over...

/tk