SAMI: No Time to Rest After Surgery
Nov. 7, 2016
Paid Sick Leave Story
While he was in college, Sami supported himself by working more than 30 hours a week at two different jobs. He spent 19 hours each week at a local library and 12 as a basketball coach. Neither job offered him paid sick time.
When Sami broke his foot, he had to take time off from both of his jobs so that his injury could heal. He took out loans and was just getting by on the bare essentials, when he received even more bad news: he was told that for his foot to properly heal, he needed an expensive surgery that his insurance wouldn’t cover.
Sami decided to have the surgery. After it was over, Sami’s doctor told him to stay home and rest to give his foot time to heal. But Sami was worried about the medical bills and did not know how he would pay for the surgery. So he decided to ignore the doctor’s orders and went right back to work at the library.
After returning to work, he had to wear a bulky air cast for over two months. Remembering the experience, he says, “I spent the first few weeks back at work on crutches. My boss was accommodating in finding tasks for me to do that didn’t involve walking, but it was embarrassing for me.”
To this day, he sometimes still has pain in his foot and he believes that his quick return to work after the surgery caused his injury to never fully heal.