Recently I became very sick with what I thought was the flu – it wasn’t. It was pneumonia. A lot of people I work with have been dropping like flies, mostly it is flu or colds – it is the season after all. Many of my coworkers are employed on a part-time basis so they have neither sick pay benefits nor health care benefits such as a drug plan. It mystifies me how many organizations choose to save money by hiring part-time staff so they don’t have to pay for benefits-it forces people to come to work when they are sick and thereby infecting other staff members. I’d like to see the financial fallout of these decisions. It leads to more full-time staff having to take advantage of sick pay and other benefits. It leads to reduced productivity at work because sick employees do not have the same stamina as their healthy counterparts. It just makes no sense to me at all. On a human level it just seems evil and wrong. Of course in the world of business all that matters is the bottom line. Still, I would think that bottom line suffers because of the decision not to grant medical benefits to part-time staff. This is just some food for thought. I believe people should come before profits and this is my take on it.
Decisions, decisions
I was raised in a rural area and have to confess that cities continue to intimidate me. My husband has been having issues with his health for many years now and though I’d like to live out the rest of my life in the peace and quiet of the country I find myself thinking of moving closer to the city.
It seems these days that no matter where you live you have to travel for health services, unless you live in a big city. It takes a minimum of four hours for us to travel to the city for specialized health care, and that is if we do not stop for any reason. So, we lose a good part of each day that we travel back and forth. In addition there is usually a fair bit of stress involved from highway construction projects to getting off on the wrong exit, although investing in a GPS unit has helped considerably. More recently I have also mastered Google maps on my cell phone, which is also a boon.
New technology aside, in a society with an aging population I worry we will all be lodged in cities, surrounded by a concrete jungle where high rise buildings block the moon and the stars. Now don’t get me wrong, there is much to offer in urban areas: theatre, concerts, museums, a wider selection of dining experiences and much more. But for me personally I think I would die a thousand little deaths every day that I am unable to view the wide open countryside. Birdsong is very important to me – in the city it’s a strain to hear it above the sounds of traffic. Quiet and solitude are as important to me as the air that I breathe. Both of which are a rare commodity in the city. Somehow we must strike a balance between the physical needs of health care and the profound spiritual needs of the soul. We must!
chopkins2x3 