Sunday, February 15, 2009

The Frog and Paid Sick Days

For the past year, Bryan had been working as a web designer at a Silicon Valley firm. Because his job had flexible hours, Bryan was able to work on his masters at San Jose State during the day. His job didn't pay a lot but Bryan liked it.

The only problem with his job was that it didn't have paid sick days. The last couple days Bryan had been sick with the flu. He had stayed home because he had felt awful.

However, he couldn't stay home any longer. If he did, he would be late on the rent. Bryan had been late twice in the past with rent. His landlord warned Bryan if he were late again, she would evict him.

Bryan stared out his bedroom window and saw a frog. The frog motioned Bryan to open the window. Bryan opened the window and let the frog come in.

"Dude, you look horrible," said the frog.

"Dude, you're a frog. You can't talk," said Bryan. "All those meds that I took are making me hallucinate."

"Dude, I used to be a prince and now I'm a frog," said the frog.

"Dude, if a hottie kisses you, will you turn back into a prince?" asked Bryan.

"Bro, that's so old school. Nobody turns into princes anymore. We're proud to be frogs and we fight for the rights of workers," said the frog.

"What kind of workers' rights?" asked Bryan.

"Dude, our top priority is paid sick days," said the frog.

"Dude, I need paid sick days," said Bryan. "I'm sick and I don't want to go work but I have to go. If I don't, I won't be able to pay my rent."

"Can't someone help you?" asked the frog.

"I've got no one," replied Bryan. "My grandmother died of breast cancer three years ago. All she left was a ton of bills because she had no health insurance. I never met my father. And my mother is somewhere in Florida. She's been in and out of rehab all of her life.

"Bro, that's why I'm here," said the frog. "I'll help you."

"How?" asked Bryan.

"Dude, clap your hands three times and say I want paid sick days."

"Dude, that's not going to work," Brian whined. "I must be dreaming, because none of this is real."

"Dude, this is not a dream. Now, just do everything I say."

Bryan nodded his head. He then clapped his hands three times and said the chant.

"Now what?" asked Bryan.

"Check out your cell phone," said the frog.

Bryan pulled out his cell phone and looked at it. He had a text from his boss. The text read,

"Effective today, we are instituting a policy in which all workers will have paid sick days. Too many of our workers are coming to work sick. When they do, they infect the other workers. This decreases our productivity and in the end, it hurts our business.

"Dude, that's great," Bryan said. "I'm going to text my boss and let her know that I'm staying home today."

Bryan then sent a text to his boss.

"Dude, I'm glad that things worked out," said the frog.

"Thank you," said Bryan. "Is there anything that I can do for you?"

"Dude, sign the petition for paid sick days for California workers," said the frog. "Tell your friends and co-workers about our petition."

"Sure," said Bryan.

1 comment:

  1. I plan to follow the frog's friendly advice - and sign that petition! We can win this if we
    each sign and get our friends to sign! How about it? No more wishful thinking - but lots of signing. 9to5 will take our signatures to Sacramento on March 23rd. If you want to go, just contact 408-206-7992.

    ReplyDelete