the flu

Sometimes I think about my professional position and I get discouraged. I went ahead and got an advanced degree, and although I got somewhat of a pay increase, I'm still underpaid relative to the local industry average (and way underpaid compared to other local scientists in general), my schedule is still all over the place, and the benefits suck.

I've been out sick with the flu. I'm basically a healthy person, and this one common bug sucked up my entire sick leave. That is, one week.

I'm still not really well - I'm still worn out and have some sort of lingering vertigo that has me convinced I'm going to faint if I stand for more then ten minutes or so, plus I'm still all stuffed up. But I'm not feverish or sleeping 15 hours a day any more, so I've been dragging my ass in every day.

I know some folks who are in my organization who are not terribly healthy. So they burn up their sick leave, then their vacation time, then they start taking unpaid leave, then the next time there are layoffs, they're on the list to be cut.

I don't really have an answer for that. I'm not exactly feeling sparky - maybe if I could get over the flu, I'd be more optimistic. Or more coherent...