As stated in her previous post, the Panda Bear still is suffering from a dental abscess. Her mouth is still swollen and she feels tired. Her dentist started a root canal on Monday which will be finished on Friday. For other personal reasons, she happened to have today off. She had planned to do all sorts of wonderful things on her day off. She planned to relax by going to the library and reading a book. She also planned to talk to friends, do a post, and take additional steps for WOMAC-War On Mice And Clutter. ( Incidentally Mr. Panda and the Panda Bear caught one mouse with a clue trap Monday-it took two glue traps next to each other to catch the mouse. The Panda Bear thinks the mouse came in by a back screen door-this is where she can tell there has been mouse activity).
However, this morning the Panda Bear had to use the computer to communicate with some people. The computer is taking the place of the telephone for the Panda Bear. She talked on the telephone to a friend who was very sick with cancer and was worried about death. She purchased two books online(note time off for workders can be good for a consumer based economy). It is 2:45 PM and she is just getting to writing her post.
When the Panda Bear's mouth began swell up on Monday, she saw a Physician Assistant(PA) in Urgent Care who gave her a prescription for an antibiotic. He did something even more remarkable and amazing than that-he(without her asking about it) advised her not to go back to work that day and gave her a sick note to take back to work explaining she was advised to take the day off. Most Medical Doctors(MDs) the Panda Bear has dealt with make it fairly obvious that they don't like writing sick/well notes for employers and don't seem to understand the need for them. The Panda Bear thinks the PA more understood the need for a sick note because he himself is an employee while many physicians and dentists are self-employed or on a totally different type of employment arrangement from most workers.
One of the main theses behind the Panda Bear Blog is that there is a major disconnect between physicians, employers and employees regarding health matters. Physicians are poorly acquainted with the rules and stresses of employment and often employment policies work against average people getting the best healthcare.
The Panda's Bear's present employer combines sick and vacation time. The Panda Bear likes this over having separate sick time. She thinks today she is in some grey area of being sick and well. She tends to think that most physicians and dentists would not say she is sick enough to stay home from work yet the Panda Bear does not feel great. Under some sick policies if she took time off it would be a "vacation" day. The Panda Bear has found it frustrating (though she is not glad she does not have major illnesses) when she has had separate "sick" time that her health problems weren't considered severe enough to qualify for sick time.
In a previous post the Panda Bear said she was going to see a work career coach through her employer. Well it took two months but she has an appointment with the counselor on October 13. To see a career coach, the Panda Bear had to complete an application and get a reference from her manager. In addition, before the session she needs to complete a questionnaire defining her goals.
The career coaching is for entry to mid-level personnel. While the Panda Bear is not an entry level worker she is not part of the corrupt oligarchy that only seems to care about their own members. However, the impression of the Panda Bear is that she is probably one of the more advanced clients of the coach.
As stated in previous posts, the Panda Bear career has been stalled. She has been doing the same thing for about sixteen years and has advanced herself by switching organizations. While she is good at her job and considered to be smart, whenever she asks about a promotion(which would be going from a mid-mid level position to an upper-mid level position) her superiors will look at her as though she is absolutely crazy. The Panda Bear has at times received increases of responsibility that have not lead to promotion. The Panda Bear has come to feel that the rewards of the paid work place should be tangible(i.e.pay raise, bonus, merit award, better working conditions, title change).
According to the SecondAct, there are some hot career opportunities in Information Technology for workers over 40. The Panda Bear had previously tried to break into IT and was not successful. She has several programming certificates with an A+ average. She has found employers don't want to train people at all(in all of the Panda Bear's jobs from 1993 on she was an up and running quick employee). In the 1990s, the Panda Bear thought employers were able to bring trained workers from abroad rather than hire Americans. After 2001, the Panda Bear has heard that many American companies have their programming work done abroad where they can pay their workers less. The Panda Bear does not want on extra work if it is not going to lead to some kind of advancement;she would rather have fun.
SecondAct, also states there is a need for customer service representatives. The Panda Bear wonders where SecondAct got their information. All the customer service jobs and help desk jobs now seem to be handled overseas where often the person you are spreaking to is hard to understand.
What can be done to get American companies to hire Americans? The Panda Bear does not like senseless nationalism but the Panda Bear thinks there something unpatriotic about American comapnies hirng foreign workers rather than Americans. Should the brightest and best be America's own citizens?
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