ABC-7 Viewpoint: Sick Days Have The Day Off

I asked KVIA Operations Manager Chris Swann to lunch the other day. I watched in astonishment as he barely opened his mouth to mutter, ?I can?t eat. I had a wisdom tooth taken out this morning.?

Nevertheless, there was Chris back to work minutes after a painful tooth removal. A day or so later I saw an article in the Wall Street Journal chronicling a doorman at a Tampa hotel who hasn?t missed a day of work since 1985. One time Antonio de Sousa?s car broke down on his way to work. He couldn?t wait for a tow truck and ran five miles to get to his job on time.

You might call these tales of insanity. I provide them as examples of dedication.

I certainly don?t expect KVIA employees to answer the bell like Chris has here for more than 20 years. He did miss a day and a half one time when hospitalized for an emergency appendectomy. The invasive kind.

I honestly can?t remember missing a day of work since I was hospitalized for parathyroid removal surgery in San Antonio about 20 years ago. I remember having a plastic surgeon do out-patient surgery on me to remove a dangerous sun-related growth on my forehead. I got into work a little late that day ? around lunchtime. I was working at an Amarillo TV station in 1980 when our first daughter, Brigitte, came into this world. It was a different era then. The general manager told me that I could be there for the birth of my daughter, but he expected me to get to work right away. My wife?s delivery was the typical all-nighter. Little Brigitte popped into this world at 6:50 AM ? plenty of time for me to make it to work by eight.

Wall Street reports that fewer employers these days are rewarding perfect attendance with cash or gifts, often because they don?t want people coming to work sick. When you are cranking out five hours of news every day like we are, it?s a strain when more than one or two people are off. Still, I get it that sick people are more likely to get healthy people sick. You can?t win on this one.

I remember working at the KTSM-TV news desk years ago when a reporter called in on December 26 and said that he was going to be sick ?the rest of the year.?

He didn?t want to lose those unused sick days no matter the impact on our operation.

These days we have a Personal Time Off (PTO) policy at KVIA. I love it.

Everybody gets a bank of days off based on your years with the company. If you get sick, it eats into your paid time off.

If you are Chris Swann, that leaves unused sick time for whatever he wants. Of course, Chris doesn?t take all of the time off he?s afforded anyway.