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Sick leave for hangovers
Why not make it official here, even though this could cause raised eyebrows?
That would be a medical note from a licensed professional stating the illness being treated is a hangover.
Yes, a hangover is now sanctioned by a European Court as an illness. In alcohol-plagued Guyana, that could be a boon for imbibers. On the other hand, it would be an unqualified disaster for workplaces already burdened with the ancient standard of 28-days sick leave entitlement annually.
It is one entitlement never wasted, but fully exploited on Mondays, days after holidays, paydays, birthdays, wedding days, farewell days, and all the other days that leave very few actual workdays left.
The ‘sweet’ seasoned celebrators know how to work the system. Now if what happened in Europe gains traction here, then it could be one extended happy hour when the music and clinking of glasses have stopped and when some precious recovery time is desperately needed.
According to an article in the New York Times dated September 24, “German Court says a hangover is an illness.”
How about a grand round of cheers for the wisdom of the court? People stuff themselves daily with red meat to the point where arteries are clogged and hearts are stopped, and that is labeled cardiovascular disease, with sick leave authoritatively issued. They are just as quickly and wordlessly received in workplaces, with a prayer offered. Why not for those who drink themselves to oblivion? After all, the political, social, and financial environments are all very stressful.
With regard for heredity factors suspended momentarily, many do the same with carbohydrates and poisons and harm themselves irreparably for a lifetime of struggle through the onset of diabetes and hypertension, and the associated personal, family, industrial, and social costs and nobody blinks an eye. In time, the same could be the norm for a hangover, which is almost similar to the fallout from red meat.
One thing should be made clear: this paper does not support excessive drinking or alcohol-related irresponsibility in any form. Now the harsh realities must be faced. Alcohol and alcoholic swoons have been part of man’s greatest pleasures and greatest self-inflicted pains since time immemorial. Some reversals have been registered, but they are still minute. It has been his greatest prop, his deepest craving, and his sharpest trial. It is not going anywhere – and certainly, not here in Guyana; or in the sprawling abundance of its settled culture.
With alcoholism already recognized as a disease, and now the first creep of hangovers diagnosed as illness in Germany, this could lead to the unseen cures of other places. The stage may have been kindly, but unwittingly, prepared to give some relief, not to just boozers, but to management and companies plagued by the downside withdrawals of overconsumption of alcohol.
Consider the following. When there is a frequency of medical notes for this or that disease, sufferers are given extended time off. When it becomes clear that individual performance is going down, or that there are health and safety issues for colleagues or community, then the mechanism of a review board is triggered.
When such a board determines that there is a problem, and that there is exposure, then the affected worker is helped on the way out. It is a part of normal and sound corporate standards and practice. Insurance companies could lobby for their best interests, which include better management of higher risks and the associated medical expenses, through legislation that provides narrower limits of coverage.
It should be remembered that sustained alcoholism produces more than the next day torture of a hangover. There are correlations to hypertension, heart disease, liver disease, brain damage, and much more. Those are all extremely expensive medical propositions. In addition, mortality rates are affected, which means that life insurance liabilities exist and multiply.
Those are the bloodless, clinical aspects of taking the German Court’s decision to a logical conclusion. On the personal side, individuals could be forced to be much more responsible, knowing that quality of life, workplace considerations, and long-term prospects come more under the microscope and at sensitive levels.
The ruling of that German Court could lead to new places. Even unanticipated blessings.
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