I don’t used to feel that bad when I’m sick because I get to miss school (now work). Every time I’m sick, I just call and say that I’m not coming in and I get to rest at home. At my work, I get 48 hours of sick time a year. Even if I don’t use them (I used a total of 4 hours last year), I lose them since they do not accumulate so it made sense to use them.
However, as I got older and more in tune with finances in general, I realized that getting sick can potentially be quite expensive. In this post, I won’t go into the costs of major sickness and only want to talk about the common stuff like cold and fever etc. How much does these costs us?
Seeing the Doctor
We have health insurance at work but we still have to pay a fee of $20 every time we see a doctor. If I have to see my family physician and then he refers me to some other specialist, the costs of this adds up pretty quickly. Usually, they also prescribes some type of medicine, costing even more money.
Lack of Opportunity to Decide
Seeing the doctor are obvious costs, but how about the missed opportunities because we were sleeping to recover our energy or we were at the doctors waiting for our turn? The world is revolving constantly and it definitely won’t wait even though we are sick. For most of us, this is usually not much of a problem when we just have a flu or cold but as we become older and our responsibilities grow, the potential that any missed chance be significantly costly increases.
Misjudgement because of Mental Weakness
Even if we had the chance to decide, we might not be in the right mindset to make a judgment. Would we decide to buy or sell a stock when we are really sick? What if we had to for some reason? How about negotiating a deal for our work place when we are sick? In these scenarios, a wrong judgment could even cost us our business or job.
Final thoughts
Okay, maybe I was exaggerating a bit and that it is not this bad. However, I am not as focus when I’m sick and I often make decisions that I regret later in these situations. As we grow older, the decisions we make will have a bigger impact on not only us but everyone around us. Therefore, we must take more care with our bodies when we are healthy so we get sick less often. When the times come when we do feel sick, we must take extra care in making important decisions so it doesn’t cost us unnecessarily.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
In norway we have something we call a personal message (I think, just translated it out from Egenmelding, not sure if its right) wich you can use 3 or 4 times (one of those), up to 3 days each time if your sick. If it is something thats over 3 days you have to go to the doctor, wich is pretty cheap actually.
Cant say I lose money on being sick, I get paid even though im sick. Its much like vacation, only you are sick… hehe
But the worst thing I know is when people abuse that, say they are sick just to skip work.
48 hours isnt much in a year, lets say you got kids, is that under those 48 hours to? if the kid gets sick and you have to stay home with him/her ?
I couldnt blame you for that. Sick persons are really out of focus. At the same time being sick is very costly so make it a habit to eat healthy foods because as we grow older we are much prone to sickness.
Wow! This is my read of the day
Keep up the good work!
-Mike
It has been a controversional topic at my old job working for a Fortune 500 where we don’t rollover sick days nor do we get paid for any unused portion at the end of the year.
Paying the unused portion can be considered a bonus for staying healthy but a lot of companies don’t see it that way.
As for parents with sick kids, it is true that it is tougher for a single parent with 40 hours of sick time versus a couple with 80 hours of sick time so they can switch days taking care of their kid(s)
But you are right about one thing, taking the opportunity to get better needs to be more appreciated as we get older cuz we could inadvertidly get our coworkers sick which can ramp up expenses, ie. higher health insurance premiums, loss of bonuses or pay increases. etc…
I wonder how small businesses handle this.