This week a few wags (on both sides of the House) had a laugh at my expense as I struggled through a couple of speeches and an oral question with a pretty bad cold. Fair call, I probably would have been better to stay at home in bed rather than solider on and spread my germs around the place. But that’s the Kiwi way, isn’t it? Stay at home to recover and you’re ‘soft’ and need to ‘toughen up’. If it’s good enough for Colin Meads to play on with a broken arm, surely we can put up with a bit of cold and flu?
Well actually, that’s a pretty crap attitude. Most of the time we’d be better to spend a day or two in bed, get rid of our germs, and then head back to work. That way we’d avoid spreading our bug and probably be back to full health a lot quicker. If we went to work while crook we’re probably not that productive anyway.
So why on earth does the National government feel the need to perpetuate the idea that anyone who takes a day off to get better is shirking? John Key’s suggestion that someone taking a single day of sick leave could be forced to go to their GP to get a ‘note’ is just stupid. Here in Upper Hutt it’s almost impossible to get an appointment with a GP anyway. Not content with loading them up with the burden of dishing out cold and flu pills, now John ‘the Nanny’ Key wants them to sign-off every sore throat, runny nose, or headache…
