Sick days

The land of the free.....that's where I'm from. The land where you are free to take a sick day. Well, here in Korea it's more like you are made to feel guilty if you need to take a sick day because they treat work as if it's a nonnegotiable. They are slave drivers, never are prepared for the occasional day that someone's immune system is just not working, and so expect you to work nine hour days with bronchitis.

Well back in November that's exactly what I did. I was sick for about 2 months and couldn't take a day off work. They don't give you paid sick days for starters, they instead take it out of your pay and  they also have no substitute teachers here making sick days seem even more problematic. It is made into a huge inconvenience and you are basically being penalized for being sick. Finally my continuous cough turned into bronchitis and I was at my wits end. I even cried in front of my boss (how embarrassing) because all I wanted was to have some time to get over these germs that were infecting my body. I took one sick day in that whole two months, and lost about $120 out of my paycheck for it.

This means that in 8 months of work I have taken ONE sick day. That's unheard of, and is pushing on ridiculous, considering how sick I have been here. But I find myself at a crossroads again. I now have acquired another cold here that feels a lot like strep throat. My glands are swollen and huge like oranges, it hurts to eat and drink, and on top of that I am coughing and have a fever and chills. How do you teach 5 year olds who need you to dictate their every move when you can't talk without a sever pain piercing your throat. The fact of the matter is that I need to take my 2nd sick day tomorrow, go to the doctor, and get some antibiotics to clear up whatever this is that is ailing me. I have no energy to deal with tattle-tellers and "Ms.Nikki help me, I poo-pooed." I just need to rest.

After all, that's what doctors always tell you....rest or else you wont get better. But how can you when your job won't support you for taking a day off work? I already informed someone at my job I wouldn't be coming tomorrow and did they say, "feel better, I'm so sorry your sick"? No they said, "OK." I'm inconveniencing them. I'm a horrible person for getting sick. So once I get my antibiotics I will probably try to work through it so I don't get glares from coworkers or snide remarks about my absence.

I miss the land of the free, where when your sick, your not made to feel guilty for taking time off work. I miss jobs where you are given 5 PAID SICK DAYS as they understand that we are humans not robots so sometimes we get sick and cannot work.

I guess, what I'm saying, is that I miss America.

Four months to go.....