Man who wrestled shark away from kids fired for missing work

[Admiral Yi]

Handing out squeezy balls would be cheaper.

[dps]

The other problem with the Australian beach stress therapy narrative is: how did Captain Scammy know how long the stress was going to last when he bought his tickets?

This is actually the part that is not controversial - if it works as it does in Poland, if you get a medical leave, the doctor ordains you X number of days for your leave. If, at the end of the period, you still feel bad, you can go to the doctor to have it extended, but the duration of the leave is not shortened because "you felt better already".

As I'm currently experiencing, Austrian doctors will write you ill open ended at times and make you come in for follow ups and actually enter the date when you're fit to go back to work when that's actually the case.

Yeah seems a bit odd to give an arbitrary amount of time off / stick to that even if the patient is better.

It's essentially up to the doctor as to how to handle it--some doctors will fill out the paperwork with a specific return date, others will leave it open-ended--but most employers will press for the employee to obtain a specified date from the doctor as to when they can return to work;  the employer generally feels that they can plan how to cover the employee's absence better that way.  Granted, if the employee is still unwell at the end of that time, the doctor can still refuse to release them and extend the leave (keeping in mind that under FMLA, the employer only has to allow you 12 weeks a year of medical leave--after that they can terminate you if you're still not able to return to work).

If the doctor does put you out for 8 weeks, but you feel fine after 7, you can go back and ask the doctor to release you early, but especially if you're on hourly wages instead of salary, your employer might or might not have work for you that week on such short notice anyway.  A lot of people wouldn't bother trying, unless they really needed the wages (in the US, employers aren't legally required to pay you while you're out on medical leave.  Some do, because of contractual obligations or do so voluntarily, but most don't).

I've seen all sorts of different situations arise with medical leave.  Employee who feel that they're recovered plenty well enough to come back to work, but whose doctors won't release them early;  employees who are clearly well enough to come back to work but who are deliberately putting off going back to the doctor because they know he'll release them and they want to stay out as long as possible;  employees who clearly don't need to be on medical leave but whose doctor is willing to write up the paperwork for them and say that they do need to be on leave as long as they pay for an office visit (and on some occasions, I've suspected that they've asked for a little bit of extra pay); doctors who will tell you over the phone that your employee definately needs to go out on leave, but don't want to be bothered with actually filling out the paperwork;  people who are clearly unwell and need to go to the doctor but won't because they're afraid that the doctor will put them on leave and they don't want to go;  etc.

[garbon]

Darling, I went on leave. No need to explain it to me.

[dps]

Darling, I went on leave. No need to explain it to me.

Cool, but even though it was posted in response to you, it wasn't just for your benefit.

[garbon]

Darling, I went on leave. No need to explain it to me.

Cool, but even though it was posted in response to you, it wasn't just for your benefit.

[Jacob]

So it seems that most of the people in this thread who object to the fellow wrestling sharks while on stress leave in Australia object to the whole concept of "stress leave" altogether rather than whether it's taken in Australia or whether one wrestles sharks or not while taking it.

[Valmy]

So it seems that most of the people in this thread who object to the fellow wrestling sharks while on stress leave in Australia object to the whole concept of "stress leave" altogether rather than whether it's taken in Australia or whether one wrestles sharks or not while taking it.

Stress leave in theory may be a good idea theoretically, if easily abusable, to me.  I mean it might be good if somebody is seriously about to crack under the pressure for them to take a week off before some serious crap goes down.  But people pretending to be sick is already pretty rampant.

As far as the thread, generally people like to brag about how hardcore and ruthless their workplace is while they post on Languish during business hours.

[Malthus]

So it seems that most of the people in this thread who object to the fellow wrestling sharks while on stress leave in Australia object to the whole concept of "stress leave" altogether rather than whether it's taken in Australia or whether one wrestles sharks or not while taking it.

I think most people are objecting to it because they feel that the guy was basically lying about being stressed in order to take a nice vacation. While many if not most people goof off from time to time in ways more or less dubious (like posting to Languish while at 'work'  ) there is a natural human tendancy to have a laugh when someone else gets caught in some spectactular manner doing it.

While I quite agree that wrestling sharks doesn't prove he was in fact lying about being incapacitated by stress, the circumstances of the case tend on the whole to substantiate the "objector's" theory. 

[Barrister]

So it seems that most of the people in this thread who object to the fellow wrestling sharks while on stress leave in Australia object to the whole concept of "stress leave" altogether rather than whether it's taken in Australia or whether one wrestles sharks or not while taking it.

I don't have a problem with "stress leave" as a concept.  And by the way it isn't some kind of separate leave - it's medical leave due to stress.

It is however easily abused IMO.  I've seen too many doctors willing to say just about anything for their patients (and not corruptly - they just accept what their patient says at face value and do not look critically at it).

An old, old gf (who was also a lawyer at M's firm) went on stress leave.  They couldn't say no, of course - she had a note from the doctor.  But she was self-aware enough to go and find a different job while on leave, and never returned.

I've wondered if dating her led to my own being fired (as it happened while she was on leave).  It may have contributed, but I had always struggled to find enough work within the firm...

[crazy canuck]

So it seems that most of the people in this thread who object to the fellow wrestling sharks while on stress leave in Australia object to the whole concept of "stress leave" altogether rather than whether it's taken in Australia or whether one wrestles sharks or not while taking it.

Again "stress leave" is a misnomer.  If there is some underlying mental illness or other medical condition which is causing the stress then that certainly requires treatment and accommodation of some sort.  But if there is no such underlying illness (as appears to be the case in this fact pattern) then termination is warranted.

It boils down to the employee lying about being unable to work for medical reasons.

[crazy canuck]

If that is true, then that is one doctor I would enjoy having under cross examination.

Heh 

Did you see the Prenda Law thread, by the way?

no, I think I missed that one.

[Gups]

The trouble is that it's fundamentally subjective and therefore easy to get a busy docor to sign you off.

[mongers]

I'm not getting the whole slackers charter vibe from what I've encountered in real world situations; a few of my friends/acquaintances have taken leave from work due to stress, before going back to work.

And if there's an underlying theme, it's their responsible people in highish-mid level to high level corporate jobs, who've gotten into a 'state' often because they're thrown ever increasing responsibilities, accept them and eventually 'burn out'.
To a man, none of them are slackers/on the fiddle and I'd suggest more people here wait till they're in their mid to late 40s with a high pressure job before passing judgement, because some of you could well experience something similar.

As to this case, seems like these two people were the driving force behind the charity, before it grew too big and it could well be the case that the professionalising NGO/charity types have been brought in and are now doing what they do best, that is losing sight of the point of the charity and establishing their own nice little cosy administrative/political empires. 
Seen this happen before with charities, so I could imagine the politics of the job might generate a lot of stress; And now the revolution is complete, so to speak.

[Admiral Yi]

As to this case, seems like these two people were the driving force behind the charity, before it grew too big and it could well be the case that the professionalising NGO/charity types have been brought in and are now doing what they do best, that is losing sight of the point of the charity and establishing their own nice little cosy administrative/political empires. 

Does it seem that way because of things you've read or because you're sympathetic to them?

[garbon]

I'm not getting the whole slackers charter vibe from what I've encountered in real world situations; a few of my friends/acquaintances have taken leave from work due to stress, before going back to work.

And if there's an underlying theme, it's their responsible people in highish-mid level to high level corporate jobs, who've gotten into a 'state' often because they're thrown ever increasing responsibilities, accept them and eventually 'burn out'.
To a man, none of them are slackers/on the fiddle and I'd suggest more people here wait till they're in their mid to late 40s with a high pressure job before passing judgement, because some of you could well experience something similar.

At least in America though, it wouldn't do well for said people if they were to reveal the reason they took medical leave. Sort of like how I didn't tell my work was depressed when I took disability. Stress/depression don't engender corporations to look kindly.