mardi 3 juillet 2007
A few weeks ago, I was feeling poorly. I had a bad all day long headache, a very sore throat, feeling a bit feverish, etc. I decided to take a sick day and go to the doctor. I called in that morning and was told I would need to bring in a note from the doctor to excuse my absense, otherwise it would be considered unexcused. Okay, fine. I went to a different doctor than my regular doctor, who is closed on Wednesdays. The doctor asked how long I would like to be on sick leave, and I told him "Just today is fine". He wrote me some prescriptions (infection of the throat due to allergies), I paid him the 21€ consultation fee (which I guess I will later get most of it back from the health system) bought my medicines, and went on my not quite so merry way. The next day, I went in to work and proudly presented the note from the doctor. All is fine and dandy until I receive my pay for this month.
(interjection- I am not complaining about MY workplace. From what I understand, all of France is like this. Therefore, I am just explaining to you the system in general).
Yep. One day less of pay. Argh. Thank goodness I didn't take the doctor up on his offer of two or more days.
Lesson learned.
I guess if you are sick for more than three days, the health care system will pay your salary. (but I don't know if it is the full percentage or not, so I am not willing to experiment just to find out.)
But I prefer the American sick leave system- you earn two days or so per month which you store up and then use when you need them- 2 days for a cold there, 3 days for a flu here, half a day to go to a doctor. Because really, if you know you will loose pay for being absent, you are a lot more likely to go to work, be unproductive because you are sick and miserable, and therefore get everyone else sick.
Now, I am not making a judgement on the American vs. French health care systems. I (thankfully) have not seen enough of either to really have an informed opinion, though actually I think they both have their pros and cons and are therefore probably about even, it just depends on what you need from the health care system.
Anyway, back to work.

1 commentaires:

Anonyme a dit…

I like that two days per month idea...at my job, we just received unlimited sick days. But, because they were "unlimited" that meant we weren't entitled to a certain number of days per year...which meant if we were ever sick and out of the office, they really held that over your head when you returned or spoke ill of your absence while you're home sick in bed.

Two days per month would be great...that means you don't have to justify your absence to anyone. I think the system at my girlfriend's job in Oklahoma is that way, too. Lucky skunk, she is...

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