• (cs)

    The hallway thing is too surreal. Eventually, though, I'd have made a point to go through the hallway regardless of where I was going.

    It's what we do with silly policies here, and eventually they get amended enough to where it's not a problem.

  • (cs)

    I'm calling BS on this story. BTW, it sounds like a rehash of a previous article.

    If the story is true, there are 2 big WTFs:

    1. Why would anyone switch jobs right before having a child? I know the new job paid more, but if he got there and got fired or quit he wouldn't have any money for his brand new child.

    2. Why would you leave your phone on and answer it while your wife is in labor?

  • Basseq (unregistered) in reply to brettdavis4

    Brett, the bigger WTF is that cell phones aren't allowed in hospitals, especially patient rooms.

  • (cs) in reply to Basseq
    Basseq:
    Brett, the bigger WTF is that cell phones aren't allowed in hospitals, especially patient rooms.

    O'RLY?

    that's news to me an my father is a research patient and has had 37 operations

  • SomeCoder (unregistered)

    Pretty sure this one has been posted before....

  • Some Girl (unregistered) in reply to brettdavis4
    1. Why would anyone switch jobs right before having a child? I know the new job paid more, but if he got there and got fired or quit he wouldn't have any money for his brand new child.
    Perhaps his wife was the primary breadwinner?
  • Frost (unregistered) in reply to Kazan
    Kazan:
    Basseq:
    Brett, the bigger WTF is that cell phones aren't allowed in hospitals, especially patient rooms.

    O'RLY?

    that's news to me an my father is a research patient and has had 37 operations

    YA RLY. That's not to say they physically enforce the policy, but pretty much every hospital has "no cell phone" signs.

  • tsr (unregistered) in reply to SomeCoder

    I'm crying foul if only because I'm pretty sure FMLA applies even to men when their wives have babies, certainly it's unpaid time off, but it's still legally required time off, which means demanding that he come in would set them up for a pretty nice lawsuit (unless they're claiming this is before FMLA)

    Captcha: Dolor (Pain)

  • Waffle (unregistered)

    First !

    (sorry about the delay : I had to restart my computer before re-typing my message because I got the captcha wrong.)

  • SoonerMatt (unregistered)

    This is going to sound crazy, but I REALLY like their policy on server hardware. My current shop is strictly Dell and Sun. I have worked in previous shops where we build our own. On my own time I use white boxes.

    Disclaimer: This is for services that can be failed over, load balanced, clustered, whatever...

  • (cs) in reply to Basseq
    Basseq:
    Brett, the bigger WTF is that cell phones aren't allowed in hospitals, especially patient rooms.

    That's pretty amazing information to me, as I've used my cell many times while in the hospital to keep my office up to speed with what's happening, get a ride when I was being discharged, etc.

    In fact, I've had a nurse hand me her cell phone to use so I didn't have to get mine from the other side of the room to make a call.

    Maybe, though, things are a little behind the times in the hospitals you deal with? Like they're still in the '90s?

  • (cs)

    Unfortunately I will confirm that this story is true. I didn't think about the cell phone at time time, and nobody really made a big fuss. The corridor issue was true as well. That was a very crazy place to work. I also switched jobs because I was coming off of a tech support job, and my hourly rate had qualified us for state funding for prenatal and labor care. I did submit an earlier version of this story to the sidebar, so it's possible you read it there.

  • Shenanigans (unregistered)

    1.) Switching jobs doesn't make sense when you are week away from having a baby. If this is a true story, that's the true WTF.

    2.) Employment laws allow for paternity leave along with maternity leave.

    3.) Of course the evil boss is fat and ugly, otherwise it wouldn't be a WTF!

  • Bigsby McDougalheimer (unregistered) in reply to Frost
    Frost:
    Kazan:
    Basseq:
    Brett, the bigger WTF is that cell phones aren't allowed in hospitals, especially patient rooms.

    O'RLY?

    that's news to me an my father is a research patient and has had 37 operations

    YA RLY. That's not to say they physically enforce the policy, but pretty much every hospital has "no cell phone" signs.

    Sorry but you are wrong about this. While it is a well known fact you can't even turn a cell phone on in an areas where pacemackers and other equipment are in use, cell phones are perfectly fine in almost all other areas of most hospitals and if you look closely, you will see numerous people talking on the damn things all day long. Wish they had a no cell phone policy in all areas, but that is just not the case.

  • Troy (unregistered)

    Pfft Costco. I get my servers from Wal-Mart!

  • JC (unregistered)

    Ive worked at ap lace where one particular corridor was out-of-bounds (It ran past the exec's offices). Unfortunately for them, it was the shortest route from the developer's pit to the front entrance and we just didnt give a shit about their policy.

    They moaned, we shrugged. What are they going to do? Fire their whole developer team for walking down a corridor.

  • Tom (unregistered) in reply to KenW
    KenW:
    Maybe, though, things are a little behind the times in the hospitals you deal with? Like they're still in the '90s?

    Cell phones are still prohibited in ICUs, even at big hospitals in big cities. I had a family member in intensive care for a month earlier this year, had to turn off the phone every time we went in.

  • Anonymous (unregistered)

    Just to clarify, you can't use a cell phone in ANY part of a UK hospital. I know, because I've spent months on end in the bloody places, from the ER to the operating theatres, wards and outpatients (I'm a biker, damn things are dangerous). But this is just the UK; further more, I understand that they are considering changing this rule based on the fact that there is no solid evidence that GSM signals actually interfere with any of the medical equipment.

    But please, let's not get into an argument about whether you can or can't use cellphones in hospitals because the rules change from place to place!

  • (cs) in reply to Bigsby McDougalheimer
    Bigsby McDougalheimer:
    While it is a well known fact you can't even turn a cell phone on in an areas where pacemackers and other equipment are in use, cell phones are perfectly fine in almost all other areas of most hospitals and if you look closely, you will see numerous people talking on the damn things all day long. Wish they had a no cell phone policy in all areas, but that is just not the case.

    Yeah, every hospital I've been in had no problem with cell phones (except one where the signal was horrible). I saw a few doors that said no cell phones beyond this point... but they also were rooms where you can only enter while wearing scrubs or operating gowns... this at a heart specialty hospital.

    An EMT friend of mine actually called my cell minutes after my first child was born, and the nurse answered it for me...

  • YetAnotherDave (unregistered)
    I'm crying foul if only because I'm pretty sure FMLA applies even to men when their wives have babies, certainly it's unpaid time off, but it's still legally required time off, which means demanding that he come in would set them up for a pretty nice lawsuit (unless they're claiming this is before FMLA)

    FSM knows that labor laws are never violated.

    From my perspective, the real WTF is that nowadays "I'm not getting my email" is getting equated with "a patient is having a heart attack". It's just email, people.

  • Tyler (unregistered)

    The sad thing is, the part about coming into work while your wife is in labor happened to me.

    When my first kid was born she had a hard labor - over 20 hours. After my daughter was finally delivered, I went out into the hallway to start calling people and noticed I had voicemail. Thinking it was some family member calling to check on things I checked it out and found it was my boss asking me to call him.

    Stupidly thinking he wanted to know how things are, I called him and he asked where I was. I told him I was still at the hospital and that my daughter had just been born. His reply, "Since you're done, aren't you coming to the corporate meeting?"

    I think my stunned silence gave him my answer. I left that company 2 months later for a much higher paying job.

  • (cs) in reply to mrmunkey
    mrmunkey:
    Unfortunately I will confirm that this story is true. I didn't think about the cell phone at time time, and nobody really made a big fuss. The corridor issue was true as well. That was a very crazy place to work. I also switched jobs because I was coming off of a tech support job, and my hourly rate had qualified us for state funding for prenatal and labor care. I did submit an earlier version of this story to the sidebar, so it's possible you read it there.

    Here is the link to the original story: http://forums.thedailywtf.com/forums/p/9680/177426.aspx#177426

  • ChiefCrazyTalk (unregistered) in reply to Kazan
    Kazan:
    Basseq:
    Brett, the bigger WTF is that cell phones aren't allowed in hospitals, especially patient rooms.

    O'RLY?

    that's news to me an my father is a research patient and has had 37 operations

    Certain areas of the hospital technically do not "allow" cell phones - but I've even seen doctors use cell phones in the ICU! And I've used a cell phone while visiting in the hospital many times in spite of the warning signs.

  • (cs)

    It never fails to amaze me how businesses think that they own you and HOW DARE YOU not come in for an "emergency" because some fuckwit CEO can't read his email while your wife is giving birth. The nerve of this guy, to put his family above his JOB.

    Why oh why are idiots like this allowed to run businesses?

  • IrishlyRucked (unregistered)

    I work in a hospital. And with the current state of technology, the only thing you have to worry about with cell phones is getting signal. Modern pacemakers (Like the one my father just had implanted) are not affected by cell phones, though they even do testing to make sure. There are some areas inside hospitals that restrict cell phone use, but those are more the exception than the rule.

  • Anonymous Coward (unregistered)

    TRWTF is that his wife got one of those antiquated C-sections. She should have upgraded to the D-section.

  • Jamie (unregistered)

    hehe

    no idea about the issues with mobile phones in hosptials, but the one that really bugs is me is having to turn your phone off on a plane

    surely Al Queada etc would have managed to take down a plane by now if it was at all possible

  • Anonymous Public Servant (unregistered) in reply to tsr

    Depends - I know for state employees in Florida you use your paid leave first (which can include annual/vacation if I recall correctly) before using unpaid leave. In addition, people can donate their unused sick leave to you to make sure you continue to get a full pay check for the duration. FMLA covers any major illness regardless of gender and yeah, is a lawsuit waiting to happen, if it is not provided for.

    I was able to work out a very comfortable time-off schedule on two different occasions when our daughters were born.

  • (cs) in reply to Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward:
    TRWTF is that his wife got one of those antiquated C-sections. She should have upgraded to the D-section.

    Not to mention a C++ section.

  • asdf (unregistered)

    FMLA only covers companies with 50+ employees within 75 miles of the employee's location.

  • Anonymous (unregistered)

    So it may just be me, but does anyone else find that stock "cute baby" photo scary as hell? He's all cute and clean and happy, not even remotely like a real baby. And the look on his face, damn, that smacks of purest evil - almost as though he can sense the exact moment that I'm going to die... and he's revelling in it!!! He's picturing my last breath and he loves it, replaying it over and over again in his mind, getting more and more joy from the final anguished look of horror on my twisted, bloodied face. [image]

  • AnonymooseCanuck (unregistered)

    Wowzers,

    I don't think I would change jobs before having a baby that's for darn sure.

    I must work for a very family oriented company then. We have a small IT group, and while we share some enterprise responsibilities for "local issues" we generally run things ourselves.

    I got married last year and took a week off around the wedding to get things organized, and have a small honeymoon afterwards.

    Had a circuit turnup scheduled 2 days after the wedding, I left instructions with the site contact, and was voluntarily going to call in to get the turnup done, it was afterall only going to be a half hour.

    Unbeknownst to me The director of the company started calling the other members of the IT team to find somebody else to do it so I didn't have to be bothered...

  • Leo (unregistered) in reply to Jamie
    Jamie:
    hehe

    no idea about the issues with mobile phones in hosptials, but the one that really bugs is me is having to turn your phone off on a plane

    surely Al Queada etc would have managed to take down a plane by now if it was at all possible

    The bigger issue is that if you are on a plane and start babbling loudly into your cell phone, the other passengers will break a window and throw you out.

  • Guido (unregistered)

    The story goes that when my father was born, my grandfather switched shifts and went to the hospital. He was fired for doing so, so he organized a union.

  • Jay (unregistered) in reply to Basseq
    Basseq:
    Brett, the bigger WTF is that cell phones aren't allowed in hospitals, especially patient rooms.

    Yes, the fact that many hospitals have rules against cell phone use absolutely proves that if someone claims he used a cell phone in a hospital, he must be lying.

    If he claims that he drove at 60 mph when rushing his wife to the hospital, that is also an obvious lie as the speed limit is 50.

    This is the sort of reasoning that leads to "No guns allowed" signs. If we put up a sign, OF COURSE everyone will obey it. I'm sure that people who plan to go on mass killing sprees, stuff three guns in their pants and hide two shotguns under their coat, and then arrive at the shopping mall to see a "No guns allowed" sign, immediately say "Oh darn, I guess I can't after all" and turn around and go home. Or go look for a place that was so foolish as not to put up a "No mass murders allowed on this premises" sign.

  • TopCat (unregistered)

    If you look carefully at most of the "Do not use mobile phones in this hospital" notices in the UK, you will see that they are placed there by PatientLine - the provider of the ludicrously overpriced patient bedside phone and TV units. The ban on mobile phones is nothing more than a contractual arrangement with the hospital to ensure that PatientLine has a business.

  • Ivan Alfaro (unregistered)

    Why exactly didn't you beat him?

  • Downfall (unregistered)

    TRWTF is that people choose to have babies.

  • Richard (unregistered)

    Corridor policy.

    We used to have one particular corridor in our old office that we weren't allowed to use. It was a shortcut to the postroom that went through the reception and they didn't like having endless workers walking through reception and making the place look untidy.

  • Zach Bora (unregistered) in reply to Bigsby McDougalheimer
    Bigsby McDougalheimer:
    Frost:
    Kazan:
    Basseq:
    Brett, the bigger WTF is that cell phones aren't allowed in hospitals, especially patient rooms.

    O'RLY?

    that's news to me an my father is a research patient and has had 37 operations

    YA RLY. That's not to say they physically enforce the policy, but pretty much every hospital has "no cell phone" signs.

    Sorry but you are wrong about this. While it is a well known fact you can't even turn a cell phone on in an areas where pacemackers and other equipment are in use, cell phones are perfectly fine in almost all other areas of most hospitals and if you look closely, you will see numerous people talking on the damn things all day long. Wish they had a no cell phone policy in all areas, but that is just not the case.

    In the hospital where I go see my grandmother, cellphones arent getting signals. It's weird... doesnt that stuff go through windows? Am standing next to a window and it doesn`t work.

  • Anonymous (unregistered) in reply to TopCat
    TopCat:
    If you look carefully at most of the "Do not use mobile phones in this hospital" notices in the UK, you will see that they are placed there by PatientLine - the provider of the ludicrously overpriced patient bedside phone and TV units. The ban on mobile phones is nothing more than a contractual arrangement with the hospital to ensure that PatientLine has a business.
    Yes, I think there may be an element of truth to this. I'm not a conspiracy theorist or anything but PatientLine's original business model of installing the hardware at a loss and then recouping the money through usage has fallen apart. The model has already failed them and currently they have no effective strategy for earning the money back. So patients get screwed simply for wanting to phone their loved ones whilst in hospital.

    But hey, at least the treatment and drugs are completely free, eh? It's not so bad having a public health service (I know you yanks don't agree - after all, "socialised medicine" is the ultimate evil, right? Well, enjoy your health insurance...).

  • OhDear (unregistered)

    Smaller version of same story. Showed up for work after a day missed from wife having a baby. My message left saying where I was didn't cut it as a vacation request. A few days later the boss asked me to get some coffee for a meeting he was having. As a programmer I, instead, spent my time packing my desk. Reports from former employees said that he never connected his behavior with my sudden departure.

  • Valerion (unregistered)

    Sounds fairly like my place really.

    My daughter was in hospital needing an emergency operation. I got home at about midnight and ended up working till 3am.

    The next day I had to join a conference call from my mobile from the hospital carpark.

    This came a few months after the CEO demanded that I be bought back from my holiday (I am from the UK and was on holiday in the US) because the system was acting up a bit. Nobody could get hold of me anyway but my boss didn't even try - he told the CEO he tried but he knew I'd have told him to get stuffed had he asked.

  • Matt (unregistered)

    That corridor policy is retarded. I would freely ignore it. We have a door that says "Do Not Exit the building through this door. Which is dumb because the parking lot is right outside the door. Instead they want us to walk out the front door and around. Well, if its raining, or snowing, or hot or cold, that's dumb. So I ignore it.

  • George (unregistered) in reply to asdf
    asdf:
    FMLA only covers companies with 50+ employees within 75 miles of the employee's location.

    And.. Employees that have worked there for at least a year (plus some hours requirements etc). http://www.dol.gov/dol/allcfr/ESA/Title_29/Part_825/29CFR825.110.htm

    Now, if this were in a modern country with non-caveman laws, yes. In the US, no. Heck, my company doesn't give paid leave for any FMLA unless it's the mom, pregnant, and on mandatory rest. Otherwise, all FMLA is unpaid. Cavemen.

  • stfu (unregistered) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:

    But hey, at least the treatment and drugs are completely free, eh? It's not so bad having a public health service (I know you yanks don't agree - after all, "socialised medicine" is the ultimate evil, right? Well, enjoy your health insurance...).

    what percentage of your income does the government take in taxes in order to pay for this "completely free" service?

  • (cs) in reply to mrmunkey
    mrmunkey:
    Unfortunately I will confirm that this story is true. I didn't think about the cell phone at time time, and nobody really made a big fuss. The corridor issue was true as well. That was a very crazy place to work. I also switched jobs because I was coming off of a tech support job, and my hourly rate had qualified us for state funding for prenatal and labor care. I did submit an earlier version of this story to the sidebar, so it's possible you read it there.

    Your sidebar post doesn't mention the boss's undesirable choice of weekend attire, so I'm curious: did you just omit that from the original version, or was it something Alex made up?

  • (cs) in reply to YetAnotherDave
    YetAnotherDave:
    I'm crying foul if only because I'm pretty sure FMLA applies even to men when their wives have babies, certainly it's unpaid time off, but it's still legally required time off, which means demanding that he come in would set them up for a pretty nice lawsuit (unless they're claiming this is before FMLA)

    FSM knows that labor laws are never violated.

    From my perspective, the real WTF is that nowadays "I'm not getting my email" is getting equated with "a patient is having a heart attack". It's just email, people.

    I can confirm that FMLA covers parents as well. My wife delivered at 6 months via emergency C-section due to really bad pre-eclampsia (google "HELLP syndrome" for details). Our doctors advised us not to put our child in day care if at all possible, so we each arranged to take a large chunk of our sizeable vacation accumulations in sequence, so we could stay home with our daughter. (Note - she was in neonatal intensive care for almost three months before coming home with us.) A couple days before it was my turn to start my several-week stint with the baby, my boss yanked a bunch of vacation days out from under me, basically saying I had to be in those days. I couldn't make any alternate arrangements, so I was forced to take the whole thing unpaid under FMLA.

    And I never came back: I got a job offer with a shorter commute and better pay. And my former employer had to give me a payout for my unused vacation. Assholes.

  • Schnapple (unregistered) in reply to brettdavis4
    brettdavis4:
    Why would anyone switch jobs right before having a child?

    It wasn't before but my dad quit his job shortly after I was born. He's an engineer and it was some pipe fitting company that was sending him on a lot of travel assignments and shortly after I was born they wanted to send him to Indonesia for a few months. He said no and quit (not sure if he quit on the spot but it was pretty abrupt).

    He got a job at a paper mill two months and kept it for the next 26 years, putting me and my sister through college and buying two houses before retiring. He now goes fishing every day.

    But yeah to this day he realizes it wasn't the wisest move to quit with no backup job in place, but it all worked out.

  • (cs) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:
    TopCat:
    If you look carefully at most of the "Do not use mobile phones in this hospital" notices in the UK, you will see that they are placed there by PatientLine - the provider of the ludicrously overpriced patient bedside phone and TV units. The ban on mobile phones is nothing more than a contractual arrangement with the hospital to ensure that PatientLine has a business.
    Yes, I think there may be an element of truth to this. I'm not a conspiracy theorist or anything but PatientLine's original business model of installing the hardware at a loss and then recouping the money through usage has fallen apart. The model has already failed them and currently they have no effective strategy for earning the money back. So patients get screwed simply for wanting to phone their loved ones whilst in hospital.

    But hey, at least the treatment and drugs are completely free, eh?

    I think it's so awesome how your Parliament pays for the subjects' health care out of their own pockets. I wonder where they get all the money! Oh wait... maybe it's really your money!

Leave a comment on “Bringing Up Baby”

Log In or post as a guest

Replying to comment #:

Log Out

« Return to Article