Not working AGAIN!

ClaRivka

Sun, Apr 27 2008, 9:01 pm

This is starting to get rediculous!
I took a babysitting job about a month and a half ago. For reasons that I dont remember I took off a day here and a day there, probably cuz of sickness, then I took off the friday before pesach, and all of chol hamoed. And today I came down with STREP! As a common courtesy I called the woman up right after yom tov to tell her this. I told her the situation, I am diagnosed with strep, I will not be getting my antibiotics for atleast another hour, my dr said I will b contagious until atleast Tomorro night and if she wants her kids to get sick then I really dont mind coming (Maybe the kid was sick anyway so she eally wouldnt have minded... Who knows?) I just wanted to be straight forward about it and didnt want to hide anthing. Would you be happy if your babysitter came to work while contagious???
Sobasicly she said not to go to work tomorro and that I should come in the following day. OK, so thats one day I'm working this entire week cuz the following day I' m going to Eretz Yisrael for 2 weeks!!!!
I feel sooooooo bad!!!! (Not bad enough to miss my best friends wedding and forego my long awaited trip)
But really, I do feel bad. And I'm also scared, Will she fire me???
If you were in her position what would you be thinking and what would you want me to do?

newmom

Sun, Apr 27 2008, 9:36 pm

Do you want the honest truth? If you were only working for me a month and a half and already took off a day here and there, I would not be happy. Of course I would not want you to come with strept and would appreciate your being upfront. As to your trip to Israel- If you told me that you would be going when I interviewed you, then that would be okay because I would have known in advance and could have chosen not to hire you if that was a problem for me. But if you told me after you started working for me already, and you only worked about 6 weeks, and you took off a few days already, I would fire you no doubt. Hey, if I need to work, I need a reliable babysitter who will always show up, as I have a responsibility to my boss.

Tamiri

Sun, Apr 27 2008, 10:40 pm

[quote="RivkiA"]I def told her up front that I would be taking 2 weeks off right after pesach.

I really do feel bad, I like my job but how can I help it if I get so sick that I cant work?[/quote]

This reminds me of what the beggar in Fiddler on the Roof says to the rich man. The beggar is holding his hand out for alms, and the rich man says he's having a tough time and can't give. The beggar says: "So, if you had a bad day - why should *I* suffer?"

Anyway, in this type of job there is very little responsibility on either end. Let's pray she wants to keep you even after you are gone for 2 weeks. After all, she hired you knowing this, right?

Pizza

Tue, May 27 2008, 6:32 am

It also makes a big difference if she hired you so she can go to work, or because she needs the time to run errands, go to the gym, etc. Also, some peoples' work is more flexible, and she may be able to work around your sporatic availability.

I would make a very conscious effort to be as reliable as possible for the next 2-3 months, to outweigh this past bunch of stuff.