Three-day weekend
I'm off work tomorrow. That's right - a three day weekend. The owners and many of the employees of the company I work for are very religious (a particular religion that is very strong in family values). One of the positive aspects of that is having Good Friday as a paid holiday. While I do not hide my disdain for organized religion in general, I often take time to praise these people and their beliefs. To them, family comes first, no questions, no exceptions. If necessary, the customers can wait. Also, if an employee takes off for family medical reasons, they can take that as sick time. Don't have to use vacation or personal time. This came in very handy for the three years my ex had some serious medical issues. I had the freedom to drop whatever I was doing and leave to attend to her. If someone could fill in while I was gone, that was great. But there is much of my job that only I can do, so a lot of things had to wait. To my knowledge, there was only one customer who became irate over having his repairs delayed a couple of days and the founder of the company simply said, "His schedule is important to him, but your wife is more important to us." We have a benefit I'd never heard of before coming here - Emergency Medical Hours. Earned sick leave accumulates forever. When you hit 48 hours the excess rolls over into the Emergency Medical bin. Should tragedy happen, once all the regular paid time off is used up, you can start drawing from the Emergency Medical. I currently have 62 hours and 42 minutes banked there. Should I leave, I will be paid for that unused time. One final praise for these people. There was an older couple working here several years ago. The wife retired, then about a year later the husband passed away suddenly. The offer went out to the employees that anyone who would like to help could donate any unused time off to her, including the Emergency Medical time. They were able to "raise" several thousand dollars for her. So this is a good company founded and run by good people. Yes, they are tightly wrapped up in their religion, but that is their business. Every religion has its good and bad members, just like any other organization. Here I have had the honor and privilige of knowing some of the very good ones.
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