Cellar Scribblings

[serious crayons]

Ours was that way, and then the company went to a "lump" system. We were told the company had to do this because of a new city ordinance. (Don't ask me why or how the city has the authority to regulate employers in this way within its own bounds. I don't know the answer to that. It just does.)

That sounded so weird I had to google it. I discovered Minneapolis and St. Paul both have ordinances requiring employers to pay "sick and safe time," even to part-time workers. What?? I've worked part time jobs and never knew I was eligible for sick pay, nor received any. I don't get sick very often, but it's happened now and then over the years.

I'm not quite sure how that relates to lumping sick days and vacation days into PTO, but I guess if a city can do the one thing it can do the other.

[CellarDweller]

Hiya BetterMost friends.

Yesterday was a crazy day at work, today went much better.

Aside from the fact that it's friday tomorrow, two of my coworkers will be out, so I'm hoping for a quiet day.     i'ts also payday! 

Ours was that way, and then the company went to a "lump" system. We were told the company had to do this because of a new city ordinance. (Don't ask me why or how the city has the authority to regulate employers in this way within its own bounds. I don't know the answer to that. It just does.)

I like it lumped together too, Jeff.  It's easier to track.

It would be illegal in both NZ and Australia to lump them together. In NZ the minimum is 5 days per year sick leave (even if you only work 1 day per week) while in Australia it is 10 days but that is for a person working 5 days per week, so a person working 1 day per week only gets 2 days sick leave (now called sick and carers leave so you can take time off for a sick child).   As a teacher, my vacation days were of course fixed (about 55 days) but I had 22 days sick/carers pay on full pay and another 22 days on half pay per year. I think 20 days accrued to the next year and, as I never took more than 5 days in any one year, I had a huge amount when I left but I did not get pay for them.  I only took it as carer's leave once when my mother (aged in late 80's by then) moved home. Some women teachers seem to have a sick child every 2 weeks and knew in advance (as they booked all their classes for the day into the library which annoyed me as the teacher/librarian).  I did occasionally have a "sick of work" day but never more than 2 or 3 in any one year and, as said, never more than 5 sick days in any one year.

Here, with sick days and vacation  days, if we don't use them, we 'lose' them.  Some jobs will pay you for unused sick days, but not my job.  I would assume most jobs don't.  We are allowed to carry over 40 hours to the following year, so I do that as a buffer, so I always have that extra week, just in case it's needed.

That sounded so weird I had to google it. I discovered Minneapolis and St. Paul both have ordinances requiring employers to pay "sick and safe time," even to part-time workers. What?? I've worked part time jobs and never knew I was eligible for sick pay, nor received any. I don't get sick very often, but it's happened now and then over the years.

I'm not quite sure how that relates to lumping sick days and vacation days into PTO, but I guess if a city can do the one thing it can do the other.

I can't remember if I had sick days way back in the day when I was a part-time worker at the grocery store.

[brianr]

In NZ, casual employees are entitled to sick leave and bereavement leave after 6 months of starting work if during that time they have worked:
an average of at least 10 hours a week, and at least one hour a week or 40 hours a month.

After I resigned from full time teaching (Australia) in 2002, I sometimes worked part-time which meant I had a fixed number of days per week for 1 term (10 weeks). I received sick pay and also pay for any public holidays (if a day I would have otherwise worked) and the following school vacation.
Other times I worked casual which meant I did not get any of those benefits but received a lot more pay per day to compensate.
I resigned from full time work in September 2002 at the end of term 3 (4 terms per year). I was paid for the following 2 weeks school vacation and also 3/4 of the long vacation (about 5 weeks) at the end of the year (Dec-Jan). I had worked in that job in a Catholic School for nearly 8 years so also received pro-rata the 10 weeks long service leave that I would have been entitled at the end of 10 years (compulsory to be paid if leaving after 5 years service).
Much better than when I left  the State system at the end of 1975. I had worked 10 years (began teaching in 1966) but had taken 6 months leave in 1974 to travel overseas so had only actually worked 9.5 years and lost all my long service leave. I was told if I went back to work full time with the State system for a year I would have been able to get that 10 weeks pay but, although I did part-time and casual work in State schools over the next 7 years, I was never employed full time again

[serious crayons]

Here, with sick days and vacation  days, if we don't use them, we 'lose' them.  Some jobs will pay you for unused sick days, but not my job.  I would assume most jobs don't.  We are allowed to carry over 40 hours to the following year, so I do that as a buffer, so I always have that extra week, just in case it's needed.

I do the same. We, too, can carry over 40 hours, which I always do.

I think we also have a thing where if you have a few more hours than that left over, they go into a bank you can use if you have to take a long-term sick leave. But the rest you lose. And so far I only have a week's worth of that LT sick leave.

I work in a unionized paper, and the Newspaper Guild (the union) is currently negotiating our contract for the next two years. Needless to say, raises are scarce. In the previous contract we got something like a 2% raise over two years. So yesterday the Guild leaders had a "pi day" event where they brought in about five different kinds of pies from area grocery stores and restaurants and cut out pieces representing the amount our raises fell short of the cost of living. Each pie was labeled with the price it had been in 2016 and the price it was now -- each had gone up about 20-25%. 

Of course everybody then could eat the pies. Lucky for me, they didn't have any kinds I like that much. Generally I like pie, but I try to avoid sugar (for Lent and for the rest of the year, too).

[CellarDweller]

Hiya BetterMost friends.

Friday was a much better day at work, and I was able to leave on time.

I met up with a friend after work, I hadn't seen her since my birthday, and it was good to catch up.  We talked for about 2 hours on her front porch.

It poured like crazy later that night......I think it was our first thunderstorm of the year as well.   Thank God it came through, it was not hot, but still humid.

So with Spring around the corner, I decided to update my bedroom a bit, and get some cleaning done.

I took down my old curtains, and blinds.  I cleaned the windows, as well as the window frames, soaked the blinds in the tub and rinsed them off, and put them back.

Then I got rid of my old curtains and bedding, and put on new ones I got today.  It was time for a change.  I infused the local economy today. 

Total purchases were new curtains, new magnetic curtain holders, sheets, pillowcases, bed skirt, bed cover, and decorative pillows.

[CellarDweller]

Here are the old curtains.  Pic is a bit dark, the panels on the sides are dark red, and the panel in the center is gold.



Here are the new curtains. 

This time, I got a pattern, and the colors are dark red and perhaps a blend of cream and grey.  The magnetic curtain holders are those discs in the center.  The disc is split in half, and you loop it behind the curtain, and then attach the magnets to each other to keep it in place.

[CellarDweller]

My original bed cover, skirt and pillowcase from when I moved in 6 years ago. (I had more than one pillowcase, but they were the same color-grey - and they matched the sheets).




New bedding I got today. New skirt, new bed cover, new sheets and pillow cases, and some decorative pillows.

[serious crayons]

Great updates, Chuck! And what a nice big window.

[CellarDweller]

Thanks Katy!

They're actually two windows.  Right down the middle there is a division, so I'm able to open them up to let fresh air in, and flip them in to clean them.

[serious crayons]

Thanks Katy!

They're actually two windows.  Right down the middle there is a division, so I'm able to open them up to let fresh air in, and flip them in to clean them.

I wonder if they're Marvin Windows. I've been doing a side freelance project writing content for the Marvin Windows' website, and that "wash mode" that lets you flip the windows in so you can wash them from inside is one of their special features.