Angie Pittsenbarger
M11
I believe that discrimination happens in the workplace more often than not. I used to work with a teacher who was a single man with no children. He was always complaining when mothers would take a sick day in order to take their kids to a doctor’s appointment or stay home with an ill child. I would sit in the lunchroom and hear him vent about how he had to stay and work the afterschool sessions because moms with kids would get to stay home. He would say that he was going to find a kid so he could take days off too. We women in the room would defend that, (especially single moms) don’t have choice, unless they had to bring their sick child to work with them, which I have also witnessed.
As a mom who had the privilege of staying home with my children for 12 years, I realized that I was spoiled, because now, as a working parent, I would not have known what to do if I had a job back then. The Sick Leave Act states that “employees are entitled to use up to 8 absent days per year in order to care for an ill child younger than age 16, on account of their accrued personal sick days’. I wish this certain man would understand this. I kept telling him, ‘just wait till you get married and have kids,’ hopefully he will have a different opinion. I believe this has caused some quiet resentment in our work environment, but since he is no longer employed with us, he can go bug some new co-workers.
Works Cited
All Rights, The Sick Law Pay: Absence Due to a Sick Child. 17 February 2017