Bob, the janitor, asked me if I got a flu shot. Correction, he said, 'You got a flu shot, didn't you?'
It wasn't that hard to guess, they had brought in nurses from a local hospital to administer shots to whoever signed up. The company pays for it because our busiest time of year coincides, in part, with flu season, and after a few years of getting wiped out by massive absenteeism, we decided to spend a couple hundred bucks on prevention.
It's totally voluntary, and only maybe 25% of the company seems to sign up for the shot. Whatever. If you want to spend a week on the couch when you could be making overtime dollars, it's your budget and your misery.
I realize it's not a perfect shot. But it's better than nothing.
But Bob said he didn't trust these 'government flu' shots. Then again, this is a guy who refers to the grass roots organization fighting the terrible Resolution #1710 ballot initiative here in Gardner, as 'those right-wingers.' As someone who wrote a check to support the effort, I resent being lumped in as a 'right-winger.' Yes, I believe you have the right to carry a gun. But I also believe you have the right to use narcotics, get married to someone of the same sex, etc.
I pointed out to Bob that the shots were not government provided. They were employer provided, out of a sense of greed: it costs the company more to have a guy out sick than to get him the shot.
Bob doesn't quite see the difference between the company and the government. This isn't a huge corporation, by the way. It's maybe 150 people tops. He was just sure they're using me as a guinea pig to test all these new exotic things on me. For whatever reason.
And whoever 'they' are.
But something else bothers me about this whole exchange: he said I'd gotten a flu shot as if he just knew it to be true from looking at me. This reminds me of times when I've confessed to atheism when theology comes up in conversation. I say, 'Well, I'm not really a Christian,' and the other person says, 'I know.'
You know?? Based on what? The Wiccan tattoo on my forehead? My 'Kiss Me, I'm a Druid' T-shirt? How do you know I'm not just a really foul-mouthed, yet devout, Southern Baptist?
Okay, that's a stretch. But I could easily be a Quaker or a Unitarian or something if I thought there was anything to it.
2 comments:
Maybe he saw your name on the list and is just messin' with ya. LOL!
I've not gotten the flu shot in about 10 years and I work in healthcare. We just don't do it....
I hate it when people make assumptions based on ??????!
I've been sick with whatever my son brought home from school, for about two weeks, and I look like hell. If I have on my "I'm sick comfort clothes that don't match and have stains, but are really soft", and I haven't dragged my red nosed, greasy-haired, swollen eyed self into the shower for a couple of days, I look like I probably live behind a dumpster.
Thankfully my husband knows I clean up nice. But after two weeks I feel like even he is having to squint to make sure it's true.
I always get flu shots. I'm just waiting to get well before I go get one.
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