My boss once told me "90% of the ridiculous policies are in place to prevent the 10% that abuse it". It's a sad shame, but there are people that really abuse sick leave and the rest of us have to pay for it.
In South Africa all employees are entitled to AT LEAST 4 consecutive months of maternity leave, up to 1 month prior to giving birth, or earlier if a doctor says so. You're also required by law not to return to work for at least 6 weeks post giving birth, unless a doctor okay's it.
I'm not sure how you would go about getting pregnant just to "abuse the system". "I know, I'll get pregnant, go through nine months of hormonal and physical changes that'll mess with my body in crazy ways I didn't know existed, go through a major medical procedure, and then keep another living being alive while going through even more hormonal and physical changes just so I can get some paid time off work."
Yeah sorry I wasn't clear, I meant stupid policies in general, like fixed working hours, set time for lunch breaks, not using printers for "personal use". Normal people wouldn't abuse thigs like these. Oh crap I need to print out a proof of payment. Shit I can't use the work printer because it's against policy. Fuck I have to waste my lunch break going to the post office. Another guy is printing out pages and pages of lecture notes for his kid. How do we solve this? Create a draconian policy like "NO printing for personal use". That's the typical knee jerk corporate reaction to managing the 10% of people that abuse things instead of having to deal with abusers on a case by case basis.
It's a sad shame, but there are people that really abuse sick leave and the rest of us have to pay for it.
That is one (very popular) way to look at the world. Alternatively, we could accept a certain amount of abuse in order to make sure that good folks get what they deserve.
But even the U.S. justice system is (ostensibly) geared toward "it's better to let 100 guilty men go free than convict 1 innocent man" with the presumption of innocence and all. While the justice system is hardly the paragon of impartiality, it's at least on paper just. I'm just astounded so many places aren't so.
Preemptive denial of privileges in anticipation of abuse is very wrong and I'm not entirely convinced these policies were enacted post abuse in many workplaces.
Do those 90% of ridiculous policies cost more than the benefits that enforcing the 10% of abusers abide by them achieves? Sorry, horrible sentence structure, but hopefully you get the point - I purport that this bureaucratic absurdity is misguided.
In South Africa all employees are entitled to AT LEAST 4 consecutive months of maternity leave, up to 1 month prior to giving birth, or earlier if a doctor says so. You're also required by law not to return to work for at least 6 weeks post giving birth, unless a doctor okay's it.
http://www.labour.gov.za/DOL/legislation/acts/basic-guides/b...