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Pet Peeves v. 5.0

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voxmystic said:
is that grocery clerk's lousy $10 an hour worth making dozens of people sick? really?
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To some people it is worth the "measly" $10/hour that they earn.

Many people in many countries cannot afford health care, and many of those people cannot afford to miss even one day at work.

You have to understand that some people do not make a lot of money, and the jobs they have are, well, their jobs. No matter how much their wage is, the amount that they make hourly is what keeps them afloat (or in some cases, not), and often times that means that they cannot to financially afford to miss 8 hours of work to get better.

You could always just wash your precious lettuce off with a fruit/vegetable wash and find more important things in your life to gripe about. :|

Suggested reading: Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America

Moving this to Second Opinion.

SO mods, feel free to shift back or somewhere more appropriate. <3

Homeless -> SO
 
It's also the employers fault for putting huge pressure on staff to not be absent through illness or parental leave. Employees leave is expensive for the company, and unfortunately abused by many. Even 100% proved genuine absence can and will be penalised. Jobs are precious. Blame the capitalism empolyer, not the poor person on the checkout. Do you really think that rather than be at home wrapped in a blanket watching TV with a mug of coco, she'd rather be sitting at that lousy checkout scanning your lettuce?
If it upsets you so much why not call her boss and tell him that you'll cover her for the next 2 days so she can recover. Where have you been & what have you been doing for the last 10 years that this situation baffles and confounds you so much?
 
I agree, that is pretty fucked up.

I think this belongs in the pet peeves thread as it ticks all the boxes :D
 
pet peeves? really?!

my child missed 46 days of school last year due to illness. if all parents kept their sick kids home, they'd all get sick less.

it's a matter of living in a system that glorifies money over health, and of inconsideration affecting others' quality of life. but if you think that's petty, i'll just delete it.

perhaps if you or your child catches the swine flu because someone couldn't afford to keep his/her germs at home, you'll be a bit less dismissive.
 
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voxmystic said:
it's a matter of living in a system that glorifies money over health
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Quite. But your post didn't convey that you understood this. Your post implied that you were angry at the sick individual, i believe you used the terms 'inconsiderate', and 'common courtesy' regarding her presence at the checkout. I'm sure no one considers the issues leading to her attendance as being petty.
 
voxmystic: seemed like a valid pet-peeve to me. :\ but if you felt it was something more, you can always use your blog to vent your frustrations. :)
 
of COURSE i understood that the problem is deeper than with just the cashier. i'm not stupid. i was emotional, though. i was upset when i wrote it, at being exposed to germs AGAIN, because, for whatever reason, people won't or can't keep their communicable illnesses to themselves.

i never meant to blame the clerk. but i'm pissed at the system, and at the fact that everyone seems to just buy into it like it's okay.

if EVERYONE at the SAME TIME just decided not to play that game anymore, the system would have to change.

thanks, but i have a diary for personal venting, and just as many people read it as the blogs.
 
Unless you live in a sterile bubble, you're going to be exposed to germs. Germs spread. It's a fact of life. People get sick. People have to go to work when they are sick. IT. HAPPENS.

Comparing your child's illness to the cashier's isn't fair. Your child doesn't have bills to pay, mortgage/rent to pay, children to take care of, etc. :|

At the end of the day, you don't know the cashier's personal life. If it bothers you so much that there are germs floating around EVERYWHERE, then I don't know what to tell you. Invest in some hand sanitizer and take vitamins like the rest of us.
 
Rogue Robot said:
People have to go to work when they are sick.
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negative. you have been taught this, but it was not always so. and if their going to work sick does more greater harm than greater (not personal) good, then it should be stopped. that's harm reduction.

my child's illness is absolutely pertinent, because they were SENT to school by parents who won't/can't miss work. they're in kindergarten. they don't decide these things for themselves. and again, this is new. my stay-home mom never sent me to school sick.
 
voxmystic said:
negative. you have been taught this, but it was not always so. and if their going to work sick does more greater harm than greater (not personal) good, then it should be stopped. that's harm reduction.
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please don't take my quote out of context. it went with the rest of what i said. some people have NO choice in the matter.

we live in a very difficult time right now. you don't know if the cashier has been doing the best that they can to avoid spreading germs. you are assuming they are not just like you are assuming that they actually do have a choice whether or not to go to work. like i said before, in the same post you quoted, you don't know anything about this person other than what you saw during the small duration of time you were there.

i'm guessing with your germ phobia, you do not handle cash then?

there are, as i mentioned, cleaners to wash vegetables and fruits with that treat for bacteria and germs. what about the other people at the store who handled it before you did? or the people who put it in the truck? or the people who picked it? or what about the soil that it was grown in?
 
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If someone was sneezing on my lettuce and than told me she was sick. I wouldn't be buying that lettuce and I would bring my cart with me to pick out a new one and probably throw it in a bag. Just in case she got offended and decided to cough on my carrots. :)

peace.
seedless
 
rogue robot, i'd love to discuss this in greater depth with you (and all bl'ers) when i've finished writing the damn thing out in longhand, and re-written it as a thread submission (my mobile phone is without cut-and-paste capabilities) in another forum, in a manner that better represents my real, not reactionary, feelings about it.

in the meantime, i just want to respond to one thing you said. nobody has NO choice. about anything created by humans. the alternatives might be less-than-savory, but i can't imagine a human-made situation in which there is NO choice.

**edit** unless a person is somehow physically restrained, overcome, or incapacitated, that is.
 
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*lol*@"I like long walks on the beach."


...


People that drive very badly--like cut you off because they don't know how to correctly cross a parking lot--and then look at you like you are a mixed nut for being a little annoyed at their stupidity.

I really should buy a pair of these for driving:

07.02.04.Patti.jpg
 
vox-- It's kind of hard to get better if you can't afford to eat because you took time off. Unfortunately, many people in the service industry have rather dire financial situations. A little compassion goes a long way :)

Peeve du jour: the inverse relationship between time and money. The more of one I have, the less I have of the other. A weak peeve, but it's all I've got right now.
 
Dave said:
vox-- It's kind of hard to get better if you can't afford to eat because you took time off. Unfortunately, many people in the service industry have rather dire financial situations. A little compassion goes a long way :)

granted. and i'll be the first to admit that i was being a complete ass when i wrote the original post.

i'm not an unsympathetic person. for service people, i'm especially empathetic; as a "starving artist", i had plenty of day-jobs waiting tables, cooking, and tending bar. i may have gone to work sick, too. i don't remember. but, as i mentioned, i have a kickass immune system, and very rarely get sick.

my little girl, however, has a less developed immune system, and gets sick when she's exposed to germs. and i'm a rabid mom who despises seeing her baby suffer.

yes, i was mean to the cashier. it's not her fault. it's not my little one's fault, either. she should not be expected to suffer for the cashier. but she is, and she does.

it goes deep. it's not easy. i'm sorry for being a jerk (which i WAS), but i want to see something change, because this victimizes more people than just the grocery clerk.
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now THIS is a pet peeve:

bob's texas style potato chips are the same damn chips as tim's cascade style chips. same red stripey bag, just with a different name, and a different state sillhouette. do they think we just won't notice that they're blatently playing on people's regional loyalties? calling them capitalist pigs does a disservice to pigs.
 
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