if your job is not important/you dont care about your coworkers increased load lol

I work in a unionized company too and there are some people who call in sick literally 60 times, maybe even more per year and are still employed lol

Did you get the gargle or swab test?

For anyone else who had completed the COVID testing, is the gargle testing pretty much available at every site?

What's the requirement again, no eating and drinking 2 hours prior to testing?

Went to the burnaby central park location as it seemed like one of the few that you can book online. All the Vancouver ones and the one I was originally referred to, the commercial drive location, used a voice mail system of which I still have not received a call back from to book an appointment 2 days later.

I wasn't given a choice there, was only the back of the throat swab for 10 seconds. Really wasn't that bad imo. it's uncomfortable for sure but its not the end of the world like some people make it out to be in videos etc.

the tickle wasnt that bad

that's what she said...............

Didn't know there was a throat swab. Ive only gotten the brain (they call it nose) swab, and its uncomfortable as hell.

Yah the nose one isn’t that painful, but somehow it sticks in your mind (no pun intended) for quite awhile after like some kind of violation feeling lol

Sorry mine was also the brain/nose swap, I said that because it felt like it was touching the back of my sinuses/throat lol

Last night it felt like I had crazy pressure on that side where they poked and that side only, I used a netti pot during the day to flush my sinuses but they were clear. While laying in bed though fuck it felt like that side of my head was in a vice and getting worse so I got up and reluctantly took a Tylenol and Advil, I hate taking that shit but it helped a lot and today I’m back to 100%

I have a friend hosting a Christmas dinner party for everyone who is social distancing from their parents, and he says it's fine because his neighbours will be hosting ppl too, so no one will report him, smh.

He was someone who was keeping safe throughout the year too

Guess we should see more spikes in January

Oh fuck yeah. I’ve been watching what people have been buying this last week.... every single house is doing a party. January is going to be FUCKED.

I don't want to tattle... plus I really need the business but I've been getting large orders for take-out these days. Definitely enough to feed 10+ people easily. :pokerface:

Neighbour (renters) across the street is having a party. Tempted to call it in as retaliation for peeing on my work van the other night. Got it on video too but won't post it as it'd identify my employer.

Not getting why spending 1 Christmas in a quiet restricted small way is such a big frickin deal ??!!

Maybe they're like my cousin and I, we just eat a tonne of sushi :lol (300$ orders for just us two)

I wouldn’t hesitate to call it in if I had video of them peeing on my vehicle...

The Christmas brunch packages we put together paint a different picture happily. Tons of people purchased multiple packages to deliver to friends and family (we can tell obviously by different addresses getting packages for 2.)
Things don't look great on the whole from the way I have seen people in public, but at least not everyone is piece of shit.

Probably because it’s not that it’s 1 night, it’s the previous 9 months?

I know I’ve been feeling it. I’ve been folllwing the rules and staying home, doing my part. But at some point I’m like fuck man, I want to see my friends, want to have some drinks etc. And I’m no social butterfly with endless groups of ppl etc. I have like 4-5 good friends that I’ve seen very little over the last few months and it fucking sucks.

Couple that with the feeling that the end is in sight with a vaccine on the horizon and you’ve got a recipe for an upward trend..

I get it, and I'm with you on how shitty it is. It's fucking harsh, and honestly, a life without social contact is pointless when it's the personality you have. The thing is, it's been 3(ish) weeks. We could see our 4-5 good friends all summer. It had stipulations, but it hasn't been this full on shut off the whole time.
I hate it man. All I do is work and go home. It's a garbage life right now. But if people would commit to it, we'd be back to the being able to see people with caveats, as opposed to not being able to see anyone at all. This summer wasn't ideal, but it's nothing compared to how shit it is now, and it could go back to not complete shit.

The annoying part is that if everyone followed the rules we'd probably be able to have a fairly normal Christmas this year. Now we have the people who follow the rules having a shitty Christmas without family so the people who don't follow the rules can have a business as usual Christmas with family.

It's for the greater good but it's fucking frustrating picking up the slack for other people.

Clearly the let's be good honor system doesn't work. And this half assed everything is essential system will fail. Just brace your cheeks on the aftermath of politicians putting votes ahead of saving lives. Everyone gets a nice Christmas before shutdown.

That isn’t really true, the examples are everywhere.

Places that have very low cases like aus, Korea, etc. All completely shut down and lock down again once there is a slight increase or cases at all.

To say if everyone had followed the rules in sept or October we would be having a normal Xmas now is hard to believe imo.

Re: Sick hours/Sick Calls

The use-it-or-lose-it system is idiotic. For our union, you can accrue hours until a certain maximum. After that, you get nothing so logically speaking it makes more sense to use a day or two and keep hitting the max. When you retire, if you have the maximum, there's a lump sum pay out. Prior to that? Absolutely nothing. So if you're a lazy shit in your 20's and 30's with no shame, you'll just keep calling in sick because YOLO. The only major draw back is if/when you are legitimately sick long term and have nothing in the bank.

I should note that there is a system in place that tracks your sick days in order to try and punish those abusing this benefit. However, anyone in a management role is not monitored by this system. Yet another loophole that can be abused by shitty managers. Personally, I've got 500+ hours in the bank. There are literally people with less than 10 hours out there.

I've heard of other professions where you are rewarded (on an individual basis) for not calling in sick. I think it was firefighters that was the example given to me. This one makes the most sense imo.

The danger with a system that rewards you for not calling in sick is people go to work sick and get others sick too.

You probably have a similar contract to us (HEU FBA) working in health care and some people are just so egregious with it, it really pisses me off, honestly. I would say most people don't abuse it but there are definitely a handful that give everyone a bad name.

I'm at 663 hours in my sick bank after 5.5 years @ 135 hours/year (742.5 hours), which works out to about 11 sick days used over that time frame (average of 2/year). And that's with having significant health issues (Crohn's Disease amongst others).