Korean Job Discussion Forums

[peppermint]

Does this sound reasonable to anyone else? My school is demanding that the teachers get a flu shot. As if that's not bad enough, we have to pay for this from our own pocket. It's not as though they are looking out for our health, or even their bottom line- there's no paid sick days in the contracts at our school.

People who teach kids always seem to be getting sick, cause of the dear little munchkins and their lack of hygiene, but I teach adults.

[just because]

Just don't do it. If they are so concerned about you they will pay for it. If it is a little bit of control they won'tn pay and you will be more suseptible to the flu. I'm more worried about getting run over by a taxi.
I have a better solution. just eat Kimchi. If it can cure SARS it can keep away the common flu surely

[crazylemongirl]

actually you may develop a flu after you get the shot anyway. also you should point out that there's no guarntee that you get the flu shot your not going to get the flu as the strain you get vaccinated against isn't always the one you will be exposed to.

CLG

[The Great Wall of Whiner]

I would do it provided they put up the cash.

They cannot demand you do something on your own dime.

That's ludicrious.

[Skarp]

This is something I would find objectionable.

How common is this kind of thing? It's very much unproven that you will improve your immunity by getting a flu vaccination. I personally beleive they are not a good idea unless your life would be threatened by a dose of flu.

Does anybody have suggestions for ways of 'proving' you had a vaccination when actually you did not? This might be a diplomatic route for someone stuck in a bind.

Ideas - sending a friend who actually wants the vaccination in your place. Then the school, if they checked would believe you had had it.

Telling the school you already had a vaccination? Are there certificates or something?


Ideas please. No way am I having a flu vaccination.

Do you think an employer would be justified in dismissing a staff memebr for refusal to undergo a medical procedure, especially if it's not in the contract?

Skarp

[Austin]

What exactly are you basing your opinion on?

Obviously, Korea is not the U.S., but people can not have it both ways.

For a comparison: practically every school in the U.S. requires all of their faculty and staff members to have certain shots, as a prerequisite for employment. The burden of paying for those shots rests solely on the applicants applying for those positions.

Certainly, many might dismiss the above as irrelevant, but what precedence are you basing your objection on?

Certainly, just because you do not like the practice, does not make it unjust.

If you do not like your current employer's policies and think your job is not worth it, why not look for employment elsewhere?

Austin

[anae]

Here are the WHO recommendations about the flu shot:
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/influenza/sars/en/


Healthy adults who don't work in health care or institutional settings are usually on the list. However, it is still the best way to prevent the flu. I work in schools, so I always get it and haven't been sick with the flu since I started. I don't really feel all that cheated out of my $15. Who wants the flu?

[peppermint]

[Austin]

It sounds like you are saying that you are opposed to an employer being able to change their policy. Is that the case?

Policies change all of the time, and as an employee, you are often required to abide by those changes. Why is this case any different?

What is so unfair about them asking you to have the shot now, due to their policy changes, as opposed to them asking you before had that been their pre-employment policy?

Again, you do not have to stay at your current place of employment.

If an employer instituted a drug-use policy that required all of the employees to be randomly tested, you would not have to be tested. You could just leave.

[jajdude]

Well I got sick a lot one winter a few years back with flu and fever and so on. Next year got a shot on my own choice, not sick once. I think those shots may be a good idea. Not expensive either. Plan to get one come December.

[Skarp]

The WHO guidelines seem pretty clear. No need for most people to have the jab and a waste of a scarce resource that some people really benefit from - as I understand it anyway. Thanks to anae for the link.


I am a bit irrational about medical intervention and doctors full stop, so I admit my views are extreme.

I wonder what the policy in the school in question is based on. Money?

I always find I get ill when I work too hard, don't exercise enough, eat poorly and suffer excess stress, particularly when it interfers with sleeping.


Skarp

[some waygug-in]

From crackpot corner:

Flu shots!! On my first contract, I had to get shots for the flu, Japanese insefilitis (sp?), and hepatitis (b or c?) I had to pay out of my own pocket for the shots, it was over 100, 000 won. During the course of the following year, I got the flu (or some variant disease) at least 3 times. I have never been sick so often and so severely as since I came to Korea.

All in all, I feel the shots were a waste of money. But you do what you think is right. A healthy diet and exercise will go a long way to help keep you healthy. (especially eating raw garlic) Although that may make being intimate out of the question.

I am a bit skeptical of the medical profession. The whole area of vaccines is something that medical science has been "mucking about" with
for some time.

http://www.tetrahedron.org/http:

Stay healthy.
cheers

[peppermint]

Yes companies do have the right to change policy, but there should be some notification. We were told on Tuesday to have it by Friday. given that there seems to be a risk of at least temporary side effects, I'm not willing to do that, at least not before a long weekend.

[Austin]

Since you have agreed that your school has the right to change their policy, it appears that your only objection is in the length of time that they gave you to decide (quite a back-pedal from your original objection of being asked to get a shot and having to pay for it).

How much notice would you like, twenty-four hours or two months?

In the end, does it really matter how long they give you to decide? Either you are or you are not going to get the shot, so I do not see how their policy is unfair.

Again, the choice is yours to make.

[Gord]

FIGHT POWER! Don't cave in on the flu shot! It's a slipperly slope without end! Next thing, they'll be demanding that you buy soap and water at your expense, and then clean yourself on your own time! That might lead to demands you cut your hair! After that, you'll be hearing things like "buy a nice shirt" and "brush your teeth".

And they will want all of this done, and more, at your expense. DOWN WITH THE MAN! EMBRACE FREEDOM!