I'm sick!

                I came from the country, where many people simply think, American workers are the best in the world. Moreover, we used to know that American business structure is the most efficient in the world. I'm sure, no one never questioned about benefits system available for American workers presuming the benefits are quite good for the best employees.
                Nowadays, when Internet connects everyone and everybody, many people know about some real problems with American business system. And reality is we, as employees, cannot afford to be sick. Moreover, we rarely talk about sick days. We talk when we are sick as a dog and have to take day or two to stay at home. To tell you a truth, our leaders, even they are public persons, are not the exclusions. Believe it or not, a real conversation begins, when one of them becomes sick. For sure, we don't have to wait for any high-profile accidents and have a healthy and enough tough conversation about one of the primary life benefits as sick days.

                  My first stop is a website of U.S. Department of Labor, where I found a quite interesting statement: "Currently, there are no federal legal requirements for paid sick leave." Now we're really in trouble, because our lawmakers don't care about our health, well-being and comfort as the best employees in the world. As history shows, the story begins in 1500 BCE, when at least some of the workers who built the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs received paid sick leave as well as state-supported health care. My dears, where are we?... It looks to me, frankly speaking, our system is quite outdated, and most of the countries already have federal requirements for paid sick days. As Wikipedia says: "At least 145 countries ensure access to paid sick days for short- or long-term illnesses, with 127 providing a week or more annually."
                  My second and a very important stop is a short breakdown of Hillary Clinton on a campaign trail, which sparked a lot of medical monologues about health of Presidential candidates and, of course, about sick days. Five days out of work. Who can do such thing?.. Most of us rarely can take one to two days or a couple hours for routine medical appointments. We used to carry some medicine in our purses and quietly take during lunch time. Nowadays sometimes and some workers can work from home, which can be helpful in "live-or-die" situation. This year for first time in American history the name of the woman will be on Presidential ballot, and, as a woman, she should crystal clear understand most of the problems with our Labor system. Who and when asked any of Presidential Candidates: "Why Americans don't take sick days?" When will our HEALTH be the most important question on a campaign trail? We want to be superior in a lot of things. No problem, we can, but one and the most important thing is our people. They have to be preventively healthy, active and proactive, willing to be an energetic and smart workers, and, very happy people in a real life. Most of writers used to portray American workforce as a HARD workers. Hard times are over, energetic and smart time is in. Most of jobs need a combination of energy, intelligence and even resourcefulness. Capable, brilliant workers mean a better, even excellent, health care, labor law and equal opportunities for women and men. Working on some article for Russian readers, I found an intriguing fact about women in Scandinavian countries. Almost 92% of age-eligible women work in that countries. It means only one thing: they are equal and have a better Labor Law. Our 75% women, who work, go through hassle to build a healthy family and career. As a result, we have kids, who are not the best students, one of the highest divorce rate in a modern history and non-stop talk, just a talk, about equal pay. And it's not the end of the story. We promote and elect wrong, but always available and only for promotion, people on some key-positions in a country, who do a defective work. I specially used word "defective", because every new candidate promises us a better future, but it's getting worse. Our bookshelves are filled with self-help books, our leaders constantly talk only about positive changes, but our law-makers are very slow to change some really important rules for better life.

                       Positivity, confidence, and willingness comes with a fitting and ethical laws. It's not something belongs to socialism, dictatorship or capitalism. It belongs to a society, which takes care of all equal citizens, who are willing to be active social contributors. If you believe, you actively enrich your country, please, raise your voice for better and healthier future. We're not going back to dark times, when a good health was a privilege of lucky ones.



P.S. Many years ago Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev noticed how nicely were fed American workers in their cafeterias. Came back to Soviet Union, he ruled to organized the same canteens for Soviet workers. There is no Soviet Union and Nikita Khrushchev anymore, but for many of us healthy style still starts with food we eat at lunch. Please, check your cafeteria! We still have to be the best!