sick leave?

Last week, I was home ill the entire week. After a prolonged cold, I suddenly came down with a high fever, body aches, and a nasty cough last Sunday, just as I thought I was getting better. It appeared to be a post-cold viral respiratory infection and my midwife prescribed bed rest, fluids, C-vitamins, Echinacea, and chicken soup. As it happened, Leighton became very ill too, but with the care of good friends, we got both chicken soup and more. Five meals were delivered to us; first, Amanda came over with homemade chicken soup, then Dee followed the next day with her chicken soup. After that, Susan & Dan came over with minestrone soup, and Diane brought us two meals on wheels (among other groceries): a rice dish one day and alphabet soup with homemade carrot bread another day. What became clear to us from this experience is: 1) our friends are amazing cooks, and 2) we have amazing friends.

Sometimes I get so frustrated with this country, and in particular the lack of socialized care. Not only is the US alone among industrialized countries to offer no paid maternity leave (together with Australia, but Australia guarantees at least one unpaid year off work), nearly half (48%) of private-sector workers—and nearly 80% of low-wage workers—do not have paid sick days to care for their own health (to learn more, visit everyonegetssick.org). Most of these people work for smaller companies, so the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is no good to them either. FMLA guarantees 12 weeks off in any 12 month period to employees who work for larger companies (min. 50 employees) for the birth or adoption of a child, to care for a family member, or if the employee him- or herself has a serious health condition.

While home from work last week, I certainly did not feel like I was on sick leave; I was managing my courses from bed and took care of other business too over email. According to St. Olaf College's Faculty Handbook, "Faculty will be paid for a reasonable number of personal absences due to their own illness or injury and for absences due to the illness or injury of their dependent child." This week, I'm meeting with Human Resources to find out what exactly "a reasonable number of absences" are, and how a faculty goes about taking out an actual sick leave.

In the meantime, as I'm stewing over the many flaws of this country's health care system (or lack thereof), my friends were a reminder last week of what I love so much about this place: it's people. The individuals and their stories, their capacity for care and love for community. It's ironic that the government of these people deny us the means by which we could be an even stronger community. But I am hopeful that change is possible; as Daddy Dialectic (who is also "Sick of it!") writes, "small victories can lead to bigger ones."