http://www.profswitzer.com/blog/2009/11/to-pay-or-not-to-pay/ Economics, Politics, Entertainment and Life in Academia Thu, 29 Jul 2010 22:41:45 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 http://www.profswitzer.com/blog/2009/11/to-pay-or-not-to-pay/comment-page-1/#comment-4226 Nik Drescher Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:15:56 +0000 http://www.profswitzer.com/blog/?p=1133#comment-4226 It seems that the corporations/businesses are passing the cost of the sickness onto their employees right now. Employee gets sick, goes out and buys medicine, comes to work sick while popping pills and drops. Sure they might be getting less work done, but how much less and what is that overall cost to the business. If the company only has a 10% decrease in production from a few workers and they get better over the week/weekend I would be surprised if the CDC's statistics work out. Now this is for the common cold or flu. Not something like Ebola. In the extreme (the outlier) case it would most likely be cheaper to pay for the sick leave. It seems that the corporations/businesses are passing the cost of the sickness onto their employees right now. Employee gets sick, goes out and buys medicine, comes to work sick while popping pills and drops.
Sure they might be getting less work done, but how much less and what is that overall cost to the business. If the company only has a 10% decrease in production from a few workers and they get better over the week/weekend I would be surprised if the CDC’s statistics work out.
Now this is for the common cold or flu. Not something like Ebola. In the extreme (the outlier) case it would most likely be cheaper to pay for the sick leave.

]]> http://www.profswitzer.com/blog/2009/11/to-pay-or-not-to-pay/comment-page-1/#comment-4221 Benjamin Seghers Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:48:03 +0000 http://www.profswitzer.com/blog/?p=1133#comment-4221 I think it would depend on the job, frankly. Some jobs are close-contact, others not so much. I don't think it's necessarily true that if it was profitable it would already be occurring, but perhaps that's for some other time. I think the real problem is the type of scaremongering going on over the swine flu. Is it really as bad as the policymakers make it out to be? I don't think it is. (We've had similar sensationalism with avian flu, SARS, etc.) But one of the best ways to placate a population is make them feel insecure and you do that by scaring them. Thank God these heroes have finally done something to save us! Or something like that. Take for example the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IS0tvUQuyI&feature=player_embedded" rel="nofollow">bill (2028) in Massachusetts</a>. Is it really so outlandish that these people might try to enforce mandatory vaccinations or quarantines? It recently passed the Ma. Senate--I'm not sure where it stands now. A "shock" is all it takes. I think it would depend on the job, frankly. Some jobs are close-contact, others not so much. I don’t think it’s necessarily true that if it was profitable it would already be occurring, but perhaps that’s for some other time. I think the real problem is the type of scaremongering going on over the swine flu. Is it really as bad as the policymakers make it out to be? I don’t think it is. (We’ve had similar sensationalism with avian flu, SARS, etc.) But one of the best ways to placate a population is make them feel insecure and you do that by scaring them. Thank God these heroes have finally done something to save us! Or something like that. Take for example the bill (2028) in Massachusetts. Is it really so outlandish that these people might try to enforce mandatory vaccinations or quarantines? It recently passed the Ma. Senate–I’m not sure where it stands now. A “shock” is all it takes.

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