The Coronavirus thread

Quote: petroglyph

I lived near Mt. Saint Helens "when she blew" and my kids were in grade school with mostly loggers kids. That's Hi-lead country, none of that feller buncher stuff, : ). One of my grandmothers actually lived on a logging train as a child for awhile, [narrow gauge railway].

The spotted owl debacle was a very sad happening "in my world". It changed a lifestyle and culture that had existed at the forests edge since Lewis and Clark came over on a canoe. The Sawyers, choker setters, and landing guys were some of the hardest working, most honorable people I have ever met in my life. I worked hard as a career, but hanging out with loggers in steep country is something others should get to experience. It amazed me seeing the physicality of these workers, allowed them to have 6-8 thousand calorie a day diets and be slim. Honest as the day was long.

Spent many nights swilling and cheering "Hobo Jim".

Yes mostly feller bunchers in my area. My brother-in-law was a logging contractor at the coast. Million dollar mobile spar poles, 8' chain saws for the big stuff, and an hour boat ride each way to get to work, fun stuff. That era is pretty much gone now. Still lots of trees just not allowed to cut anything anymore on the coast.

Quote: rxwine

Without test kits, it looks like no one is getting infected. Interesting strategy.

The flip side of your take (which as usual a not so subtle slam of your President) is that all the testing in Korea finds many low impact cases of the virus that probably never be documented. When you include all these people in your counts of infected people of course your death rate will go way down.

On a completely different line. Germany has just ordered 10,000 more ventilators. It will take the manufacture the rest of the year to deliver all the units. So much for those that think a few weeks of staying away from each other will be waiting it out. We need to stop destroying the world economy and get on with life, and for some death, and start socializing again it won't change a thing long term to stop every large gathering. Everyone on this board should be prepared to lose a friend of loved one and not be looking for someone to blame unless you like conspiracy theories. If which case China created the virus, spliced in the HIV gene sequence and has the cure which explains why the cases have basically stopped in China. Feel free to create your own conspiracy and you are welcome to include Trump in it.

In the meantime I'm off to enjoy 3 days at a casino resort.

Quote: Gandler

I think all employers should grant at least 10 sick days a year (preferably more, and allow rollover year to year), so I do not think the sick day proposal is unreasonable.

I'll try and beat AZ to the punch..... I worked with between 10 and 20 doctors as partners for 24 years. Average sick day per doctor was less than 1 per year. Last 6 years as salaried employee we had paid sick days. Probably averaged 3-4 days per doctor.

So who pays for these 10 sick days that will be bestowed upon the employees? How about doing what a lot of companies do and give PTO which can be used for sick or vacation?

I had saved up around 95 days of sick time when I retired. Payout was almost zero. Had I been unethical I could have called in every Friday for my last two years of work. Others nearing retirement seemed to be getting 'sick' quite a lot.

There are OR employees that will get sick the exact number of sick days they are allotted every year. Quite a coincidence!

Quote: SOOPOO

I'll try and beat AZ to the punch..... I worked with between 10 and 20 doctors as partners for 24 years. Average sick day per doctor was less than 1 per year. Last 6 years as salaried employee we had paid sick days. Probably averaged 3-4 days per doctor.

So who pays for these 10 sick days that will be bestowed upon the employees? How about doing what a lot of companies do and give PTO which can be used for sick or vacation?

I had saved up around 95 days of sick time when I retired. Payout was almost zero. Had I been unethical I could have called in every Friday for my last two years of work. Others nearing retirement seemed to be getting 'sick' quite a lot.

There are OR employees that will get sick the exact number of sick days they are allotted every year. Quite a coincidence!

When you say average 1 sick day per year, I assume you mean sick days actually taken? I don't know the last time I have used a sick day, but it's nice to have many to fall back on.

If you encourage saving sick days (by allowing accumulations) it encourages people to save year to year, and then if they do have a genuine major illness when older they can take a couple months off.

If you have a use it or loose it policy for sick and vacation days, it encourages a lot of people to call out the last month of the year.

The company pays for it as a benifit like many already do.

I have nothing against a streamline PTO, my main complaint is they tend to cap the limit you can accumulate much lower than if you accumulate sick and vacation days. (I have seen many cap it at 30-90 days).

(Where I work now, you can accumulate up to 1 year of sick days, and up to 3-10 months of vacation days <depending how many years you have worked there>, and unlimited amount of Comp Days <days awarded in lieu of paid overtime>, and unlimited incentive days <days awarded for various things like not calling out sick for 12 months>. But, all leave accumulates and all balances are yours and stay and accumulate year to year until you reach the cap in the applicable categories). I like this system, and especially because I accumulate a lot of comp time, its allows a lot of time off.
Also, they are generous with military leave with pay for Reservists, which I think should be another aspect of leave that should be encouraged (perhaps through tax rebates), and not many people talk of (Perhaps because there is not some appealing lobbying group for Reservists).

Where I work does not pay out sick days at retirement, but you get credited 1 year (if you retire with a max balance) pension credit. If you worked for a County I am pretty sure you would have got a pension allotment for your accumulated unused days at retirement.

Quote: kenarman

The flip side of your take (which as usual a not so subtle slam of your President) is that all the testing in Korea finds many low impact cases of the virus that probably never be documented. When you include all these people in your counts of infected people of course your death rate will go way down.

Already aware of the fact that having enough test kits at hand would have likely benefited the Trump administration in both preparedness and verifying the virus was less lethal than worst case estimate.

Also I’m getting used to being criticized by people who spend far too little time time criticizing the President and think they look balanced.

Quote:

On a completely different line. Germany has just ordered 10,000 more ventilators. It will take the manufacture the rest of the year to deliver all the units. So much for those that think a few weeks of staying away from each other will be waiting it out. We need to stop destroying the world economy and get on with life, and for some death, and start socializing again it won't change a thing long term to stop every large gathering. Everyone on this board should be prepared to lose a friend of loved one and not be looking for someone to blame unless you like conspiracy theories. If which case China created the virus, spliced in the HIV gene sequence and has the cure which explains why the cases have basically stopped in China. Feel free to create your own conspiracy and you are welcome to include Trump in it.

I know you’re Canadian but the idea of volunteering people for death was big criticism of the rightwing here against the left, on possible death panels for economic reasons. If some sick or old want to off themselves for the greater good - I’m gonna leave it up to them, not make it happen.

Quote:

In the meantime I'm off to enjoy 3 days at a casino resort.

Good luck.

Quote: Gandler

I think all employers should grant at least 10 sick days a year (preferably more, and allow rollover year to year), so I do not think the sick day proposal is unreasonable.

The Post Office, and maybe other Federal Agencies, allows the rollover of sick hours. Many use it as a way to accumulate thousands of hours (one I know will hit 2,000 soon and he started at age 40 or so...) that they can use on their way out the door. That means the employee who was paid perhaps $35,000 a year and now makes well into the six figures gets to take time earned at about $16.83 at a cost to the Post Office (us) of $48.08.

I am not sure that rolling over is a good thing for more than one year's worth of time...it is a possibly huge liability to the employer that they will have to pay "someday"...

Quote: RonC

The Post Office, and maybe other Federal Agencies, allows the rollover of sick hours. Many use it as a way to accumulate thousands of hours (one I know will hit 2,000 soon and he started at age 40 or so...) that they can use on their way out the door. That means the employee who was paid perhaps $35,000 a year and now makes well into the six figures gets to take time earned at about $16.83 at a cost to the Post Office (us) of $48.08.

I am not sure that rolling over is a good thing for more than one year's worth of time...it is a possibly huge liability to the employer that they will have to pay "someday"...

That is why I always opt for Comp Days instead of overtime. Time acculanted will always increase in value, especially if you plan on staying the same employer for at least several years.

Quote: Gandler

That is why I always opt for Comp Days instead of overtime. Time acculanted will always increase in value, especially if you plan on staying the same employer for at least several years.

If they allow you to accumulate comp days from year to year at possibly higher pay, it sounds like a bad business practice. They are trading a current expense for a future liability, which can become a problem if there are a large number employees involved.

“I don’t take responsibility at all” - Donny

Such a coward. A truly horrible leader.

Quote: ams288

“I don’t take responsibility at all” - Donny

Such a coward. A truly horrible leader.

I would like a fair investigation into the whole situation and why we had areas where we lacked preparedness.

It appears that Dr. Fauci believed we did not have a proper system in place.

I am upset that the inability to test as soon as we would have liked was not better explained over the past couple of weeks.

It is entirely possible the system was not properly set up to anticipate a pandemic of this nature. Have we faced one like it before? How long did it take to start the testing then? Were there challenges? What could have been done better before this happened and during this situation.

I don't take ownership of things I did not cause.