[ilbegone]

I worked for a multi billion dollar corporation for fifteen years. The upshot of paid sick time is that a person who suffered legitimate, documented, and verified illness could eventually be fired for "abusing" paid sick time.

And this was with union representation.

Worker's comp was another matter. They would have literally wheel someone in from the hospital on a gurney with IVs dangling for a couple of hours a day if they could have gotten away with it to keep from taking a hit on industrial lost work time.

Don't come to work if you're too sick or otherwise unable to do your job, and it's within an employer's right to send a disabled employee home until the employee can do the job.

Habitually hanging out at the water cooler rather than performing assigned duties is cause for dismissal, as is confusing the restroom with a library.

I wish working next to a smelly coworker was the the worst complaint I could register, but that would be rather hypocritical - there are times I have been a rather smelly person myself. But, I've never worked in an office either.