Update on Zombie's New Job

[Barbisi]

Update I/27/26: Zombie13 worked every day since 11/19/25 except for an unpaid day off on Thanksgiving Eve (for a vital medical visit for me), Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Years Day and Saturdays and Sundays. The new company grants no PTO to new employees, and 14 PTO days which must be earned monthly are allowed per calendar year. No separate sick leave PTO exists, so when he began working, he had to work with a viral infection that made him hoarse and cough frequently. He managed to make it through, but I also ended up catching it.
On the plus side, he has begun to accrue a little PTO which he must greedily guard because these are the only vacation days he gets this year. His next paid holiday is not until Memorial Day, followed by July 4, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. If he works a few more years for this company he may earn a little more PTO, but I am not sure if this is actually correct.
As far as we know, no profit sharing or any related bonuses are offered, and yearly pay raises may not be available to new hires, although Zombie proudly boasted that this company is making record profits.
As my husband only half-jokingly said, he is just a "glorified grease monkey" since his entire job consists of heavy hands-on lifting and advanced technical skills assemblage, with only minor computer entries required. Another pro for this job is the core hours are 10am-3pm , meaning if he can't wake up early enough, he only has to get there by 10am, but then he has to stay until 6pm which pretty much means he no longer works out with me on Tuesdays (classes begin at 5:30pm) or Wednesdays (6:30pm),and he only does yoga on Sunday, if he isn't cooking complicated meals or doing the cleaning that I shouldn't do because of my spinal surgery and other chronic injuries. He is thrilled with his duties so far, but I suspect he will eventually tire of an assembly -line style job, with lower pay and much less PTO, not to mention the inability for any kind of promotion with better benefits. [He lost approximately 12 days of PTO and vacation days as well as a 15% pay cut, which we are coping with by not contributing to a 401K or an HSA, since the company only offers FSAs, that too helps him to have a bigger take home paycheck then he otherwise would.]
So far, the only pro for this company to me is the insurance and it is an important one because chiropractic and acupuncture visits are unlimited per calendar year, which runs for us from December-November. PT visits are at 60 (an increase of 15 more from the 45 Premera allowed.) The copays for $35 include all regular office visits and the yearly deductible is only $1500. (I am not sure if MRIs and other advanced tests and bloodwork are included, and if surgeries are more difficult to obtain.)
I am grateful that both my spinal thoracic laminectomy for benign meningioma and Zombie's knee cleanup surgery occurred with the Premera insurance, not only because he was able to work from home while each of us recovered (6 weeks of no bending twisting or lifting for me, which left me immobile during that time, and 2 weeks for him until he could walk well enough to be onsite.) but also because he had earned enough PTO that he didn't have to take unpaid leave (for me) or short term disability for himself.
He has recently also qualified for the most life insurance coverage this company permits via a home medical checkup .
We are both aware he is lucky to have found any decent job at all in these trying times when so many are financially struggling, so although my little rant may sound as though I do not appreciate his job, I am merely stating pros and cons.
I doubt this is another 15-year company (like the abysmal R turned out to be!) but if employment opportunities continue to deteriorate, he may never be able to leave, LOL!

[Carmella]

Thanks for the update. My first reaction was I think Zombie13 was working for my company LOL! On my job I only get 6 PTO days that you have to earn/accrue. We don't have to work holidays, but given we only have 6 days by the end our first year you pretty much have to work holidays. I used a PTO day for Christmas and made up Thanksgiving by working on Saturday.

In my case we are not guaranteed 8 hours a day even though we must be available 8 hours if there is work so accruing PTO is even slower. What we do in response is if taking a day off we use 6 hours PTO which is what I did for Christmas. I actually took off Christmas Eve as well. My second year starts at the end of April even though I did not start working until the first Monday in June--my orientation was at the end of April. Then I will move up to 12 days of PTO.

Mind you this is a nursing home where we are likely to get sick and not supposed to go in if we are sick. At least they do allow us to take unpaid time off which is what I did when I was sick and hand very little PTO. The other pro is one of the gals had very little work hours under 30 and they did not discontinue her health insurance.

It's great you have good health insurance that will make up for some of the pay loss because you will save money that otherwise might have been paying for health insurance and deductibles and higher co-payments. My husband has good health insurance, but they will not cover me since I have health insurance through my job. If I didn't work or was not eligible, I could be on his insurance.

My health insurance is not great. The good part if we have a low amount towards the premium, but the deductibles are higher (not as high as some people I have heard, but still high) and we have limited options in providers. I have to leave my doctor of 30 yrs and wait 3 months for an appointment at a different hospital system if I want to see an actual doctor not a nurse practitioner. And if you have our first visit with the nurse practitioner you have to stay with them and cannot see the doctor.

I know there are great nurse practitioners, but I also know post pandemic there are a lot that are not good. The qualifications are more school based than actual patient care experience which is barely required. The best NP I come across at work with nurses with experience prior to furthering their education. I don't want to take a risk with an NP I know nothing about. I will wait for the doctor who was recommended to me by a person I trust.

Barbisi take care of yourself and your back. It's great you took your precautions seriously which will help your healing/recovery. There's so many people who just start twisting and lifting because they feel better and have no understanding holding off doing those things leads to longer lasting results or they can damage the surgical repair.

Over here it's kind of status quo. My job continues to be stressful and emotionally draining so I am dealing with that. My husband will probably retire by the end of the year, but plans to work part time at the same place afterwards.

It's great to be Post-BK13. I find it so rewarding when I can pay an unexpected bill--like to the vet. Not that I want to spend $300 or $500, but I can do it. Or buying my new expensive all weather tires after researching for the best tires for the Ohio winters--truly makes a difference. I bought them on the discover card, but paid them off within 2 months still under the 0% interest I have until mid February.

With cold/snow we have had this year it's great to know I have a newer car battery and brand new tires and can confidently drive through the snow flurries, squalls and extreme coldness. It also helps I no longer have to drive out east where the snowfall is greater and I am 15 minutes away from work even wth bad weather it might take me 20-30 minutes total. I keep saying it takes longer to snow blow my driveway than it does to drive to work. No more 90 minutes (or longer) commutes in winter weather. Heck in good weather it could take me 60-90 due to accidents backing up traffic. I hated driving that route that should have been a 40 minute ride, but almost never was free of back ups and don't forget spring/summer road construction.