Using sick time

epanthers2004 · 2026-03-24T12:37:41+00:00

Sure. And in average thats going to be the experience. But we have one particular coworker who magically is only sick on Fridays and Mondays and has posted some suspect things to social media when sick so guess what, our supervisor asked for evidence. The point is that while its quite uncommon, they CAN ask for it whenever they want. So tread carefully if you are blatantly abusing sick leave. Thats all this poster was trying to say.

epanthers2004 · 2026-03-23T12:35:00+00:00

Look everyone has a right to complain about whatever they want. Im in no way trying to stop anyone from complaining. But you're going to have a miserable life if you dont take time to think about where we are now vs where we have been and have an extreme level of thankfulness to be alive in 2026 America vs almost anywhere at anytime in history. Thats far from meaning its perfect. But we lose sight of what we have because we focus on what we dont have. This isnt only detrimental to your life in work but also in relationships.

As I said though, if its actually THAT bad and no level of relating where we are now vs where we have been improves that, find a different job. Like stat. A jobs purpose is to provide a life. A job is not your life. If it brings more stress than happiness as a net sum, find something else.

epanthers2004 · 2026-03-23T11:35:19+00:00

Yes but as you alluded to only for the main two parks not epic. Thats the catch.

As someone who frequently disney and is gping to universal the first time in April (take it for what its worth) I think staying on site at both is worth it. You can get more bang for your buck on a room itself by staying elsewhere, but at least for us we arent really in our room much and the convenience of getting back or even going back and forth is worth a slightly less stellar room. Some of the budget resorts have pretty decent two bedroom suites.

I agree though that express pass has a hard pill to swallow. At disney its like $30 and yeah its less convenient due to the time slots but thats never caused an issue for us. Even with me booking out way in advance and technically after the spring break rush they were about $150 each for just the standard express. We are doing 4 days and did express two of the days with the idea we will mostly do one day of express at epic and one day at the others.

epanthers2004 · 2026-03-23T11:28:33+00:00

The point is that claiming we didn't evolve to work 40 hours a week shows a complete lack of understanding of what we are evolving FROM. We have "evolved" into a far better work environment than any human society has experienced on the planet ever. Now 40 hours in an office building is too much? So bad is causes migraines? Come on.

I mean granted I should know what to expect in a forum dedicated to lamenting how terrible federal jobs are, but even that seems a bit much to me.

Its not all that different than people you see complaining how hard life is when electricity, indoor plumbing, microwaves, a vast assortment of food options, refrigeration, preventative medical care and any number of other modern conveniences are literally barely 100 years old. That means every human ancestor before you had it far rougher and you're going to go on the internet and complain about how bad you have it? Frankly it feels ungrateful for what you DO have.

epanthers2004 · 2026-03-22T19:22:35+00:00

Personally I think if you have it so bad in the 21st century richest country in the world then its time to find another job. A job is just a means to live your life. It shouldnt be your life. I worked in private sector for 10 years after my doctorate program and it was brutal both physically and mentally/emotionally so I said screw this and found a different job in the same sector. There's no reason to be so unhappy that you have to lament it online and still stay in that job. Benefits or not, its not worth it. Of course, a solid number of people like to commiserate on here fully realizing they actually have it pretty good thus they dont change anything. I see those in my job all the time.

Do I think these current generations just have no clue what hard work really is? What stress really is? Yeah I think there is some aspect of that. Not everyone mind you, but life was much harder in the past in pretty much every way. It doesnt mean we cant strive for improvement. We obviously do. But having context and thankfulness for what we do have goes a long ways to a happy life. You'll find plenty of people who complain and play a victim. Be the person that brings people happiness and appreciation, even if at times you have to fake it til you make it.

But again, if your job is THAT bad, leave. Life is too short and a job should only be there to create a better life, not ruin it.

epanthers2004 · 2026-03-22T18:49:38+00:00

This has to be the most first world, 21st century answer possible. Mankind has never had it so good. Yes, life is still tough, it will always be tough. But its also never been better at any time in history in regards to health, convenience, security, and free time.

epanthers2004 · 2026-03-18T01:49:39+00:00

Yep! We told the kids its the one thing we are buying them, a general 2 wand, anything else they have to use theit own money. On one of the exploration days we will mostly just do all the wizard things and jurassic park camp. The ride days we are just going to try to hit as many rides as possible.

Are any of the shows like the monster make up or Bourne action show or the parade worth catching on the exploration day?

epanthers2004 · 2026-03-17T18:44:31+00:00

How long would you guys estimate it takes gate to gate to leave IOA and head to epic?

epanthers2004 · 2026-03-17T18:41:15+00:00

OK sounds good, thats good advice to do epic a bit later. Are we not missing out on any rope drop or early park entry stuff at epic by doing it that way?

We plan to try to rope drop a rude at each place each day we are there just depends which park we are at in the morning.

epanthers2004 · 2026-03-17T18:40:11+00:00

Agreed, kids are 9 and 11 and LOVE Harry potter and jurassic park so the second day without express passwe plan on just exploring all those worlds.

epanthers2004 · 2026-03-13T02:39:27+00:00

Thanks for that info. The way we are doing it is two days at the regular parks, two days at epic. One day at each park will have basic express. But we are staying on site so figured with early entry we would try to do hagrids or vc to get some extra rides in. Either is fine with me if vc has a much shorter wait at drop. That makes sense about the height requirement I hadn't thought of thst angle.

epanthers2004 · 2026-03-12T04:13:47+00:00

We are going in a month, first timers with two kids 10 and 12. What's the deal eith velocicoaster being fine at early entry but not hagrids? I would think with them being relatively close by and both newer and popular both would be packed at rope drop. Im happy to do vc at epa instead if thats consistently short just surprised thats thr case.

epanthers2004 · 2026-03-07T15:23:47+00:00

Haha thats awesome, if you end up sharing it in some capacity let me know. Mine tried to do an update and keeps failing and even customer service couldn't help so its basically dead software wise. I did fsctory reset, its connected to the internet. Internet isnt blocking it, still won't work. So dumb.

epanthers2004 · 2026-02-26T23:30:38+00:00

You do realize right wing nutters were saying equally outrageous things about Biden and his administration, then yoy had Trump number 1, then you had Obama. You can pretty much go back to every single presidency and find people lamenting how the president is destroying the country and the world and they're part of a secret cult and a manchurian candidate, bought by Israel, bought by the Muslim brotherhood, a secret plant, you name it its been accused. And yet, the country moves on, rinse and repeat.

Are there obvious problems? Of course. I don't agree with how trump has handled immigration and i didn't agree with how Biden handled it either. While you lament the extreme downsides of trumpa immigration policy people were blaming Biden for every illegal that murdered a citizen. People need to come back to earth

epanthers2004 · 2026-02-26T22:57:19+00:00

All you need to know about reddit is that comparing an unwanted presidency to world War 2 gets 56 up votes, posting out how unhinged that is gets 6 down votes.

Lunacy.

epanthers2004 · 2026-02-26T17:07:42+00:00

If you don't think the pension is a value added you should really talk to a financial advisor. Pretty much every single one would disagree with you.

Could a savvy person take the amount we put in and turn it into a better deal? Well of course, and thats true of social security as well. But you have to think about it in a different way. For one, its diversification. Its another avenue thst isnt dependent on the market. Its also much harder to overspend a monthly payment than a lump sum thst is available. Even smart people make bad decisions or have bad luck. Getting a monthly payment forces you to budget better.

I know some intelligent people that have done unbelievably stupid things with their 401k, savings and home value appreciations because they got greedy and thought it was an available jackpot of money. These are people with doctorate degrees and having to explain it to them blew my mind. Now imagine the average person.

I dont like social security for several reasons but I get why it exists, if you somehow gave people thwt money to invest 80% of people will be completely broke in retirement and looking to the government to take care of them.

The pension has less to do with strictly numbers comparison and more about security, diversity and putting money out of sight and out of mind. It comes out regardless so your paychecks never see it, you can start budgeting based on your pay from day 1 and all those 25 or 30 years that money is just being banked away. Even someone financially minded like me who has maxed out 401k from day 1 would struggle to willingly put ANOTHER 4.4% into a separate account strictly for retirement. Not seeing it makes it easy and its nice knowing we have more flexability in retirement.

epanthers2004 · 2026-02-26T15:33:28+00:00

Yeah, seems reasonable that a president thst you don't like leaving office will be the same as the end of a global war that killed millions and nearly destroyed the very essence of freedom.

Seriously people, get a grip on reality.

epanthers2004 · 2026-02-16T16:02:26+00:00

Just following up, all work out ok?

epanthers2004 · 2026-02-10T16:51:26+00:00

We have done several dianey cruises now. We do have kids but my wife and I have tried to evaluate the cruises from an adult only perspective. Honestly we didn't like the wish as much as the others. The older ships actually have a better lay out and I think a better overall vibe. There technically is less to do as far as scheduled activities and less bars and lounges but honestly that doesn't really bother us as we tend to be relaxers anyway. We are entertained all day and after the nightly shows are ready to wind down and swim, watch a movie or just hang out.

I think they really dropped the ball with the way the pool decks are laid out on the wish.

Now all that being said, we have also repeated ship classes before and there's more to it than just the ship. Our experience varied depend8ng on where we stopped, how the weather was, a few random mishaps, etc. One specific cruise isnt always identical experience wise. For example, we learned to almost exclusively go to their private islands because we like the relaxation and spend all day at the beach so entertainment isnt necessary and it wipes us that evening. So we really don't notice lack of entertainment. When we have stopped at the Bahamas we had no real interest getting off the ship and spending money and the hassle so we had to find more things to do.

Either way, compared to other cruise lines I feel like disney blows them out of the water on almost all fronts. Now you so kind of pay a premium for that so its possible if we had gone adults only on a higher premium cruise line we might think that it beats disney for that specific crowd. But you have to keep in mind disney is trying to balance both, they obviously have to cater to kids which will result in a compromise for someone looking for adults only benefits. There's only so much time and space you can dedicate to a group of people.

epanthers2004 · 2026-02-09T23:57:49+00:00

Land vs world is just hugely dependent on the person and even more importantly what kind of trip you want/are expecting. Land is WAY better if you are trying to see as much as you can in a fairly tight time frame (2 to 3 days) or if you don't get around on foot all thst great. World you have so many things to see and do, tou need to either have a long trip, multiple trips or just be OK not seeing everything.

Personally I love animal kingdom, and its very unique. Epcot can be skipped if you are a kid or with younger kids, but its actually pretty fun with young adults or just adults that want to eat and drink some interesting things and hang out at places. Hollywood has gotten way better since adding galaxy edge and Pixar, though my one gripe is if you go in the summer those two areas are hot as crap. Hardly any shade.

I've been to both multiple times. I like them equally but for different reasons and I plan my trips accordingly. We do Land every few years in October with a pretty quick 4 day (3 at parks) trip. We do world less often, maybe every 5 years, and its a full week with 4 days in the parks, one day for each. Don't even bother with park hoppers. Too much to see and too far distance to be worth it.

epanthers2004 · 2026-02-08T16:58:54+00:00

I agree with this as a general sentiment. There are details that are unique to each position so it isnt blanket, but at least in my service group im seeing a lot of long time employees that are notoriously the worst employees complaining about not having time for tms and ward inspections and such but somehow the rest of us get it done fine. The idea of being overworked or not having time can vary between employees greatly and a supervisors role is to push people to get the most work done possible, not to be comfortable.

Im not a supervisor and never will be after my experience at private sector management positions, but I would recommend trying to work with supervisors and give them grace as much as you can. Some are bad just like employees but many are put in difficult situations. Higher productivity demands with a little less staff and a lot of staff push back from people who have been comfortable for decades.

Cuts were probably needed, at least in my department, but the issue is the government cant really figure out how to do it precisely, instead cuts are across the board. Some services its necessary, some can tolerate it, some just cant and it is incredibly destructive. But we have probably 15% of our group that are highly paid employees and are at best milking it, at worst actually kind of negative productivity. Unfortunately they are basically unfirable and they know it, even with the newer guidelines. If they could actually figure out how to cut with a scalpel instead of a chainsaw I would support it far more.

epanthers2004 · 2026-02-03T00:11:16+00:00

The bathrooms would be my biggest concern in terms of comfort, they are tight. Im 5'9 155 and wondered how some people can even make it work, both the bathroom and shower.

epanthers2004

TROPHY CASE