I mentioned this on Fisheaters, and I wanna hear what y'all say, too.
(Background: "What is call?"
Call is like overtime.
Let's say the hospital department you are in needs an extra hand. They look at the list to see who is on the "call schedule." If they need you, and you're on the call list, they call you in to work that night.
For simply being available on the call list, you get an extra 2 bucks for every hour you are on call. So, if you are on call for 8 hours, you get 16 dollars.
But, let's say the DO call you in, then you are doing overtime work, and you are making time-and-a-half.
So, it is to the advantage of someone trying to earn a little extra money to grab "call time" when he can.)
Okay, so the story goes like this. I'm the kind of guy who likes to ask for call here at the hospital where I work.
I was asking for some call, when a co-worker near me said: "Hey, it was YOUR choice to start having kids. That's no one else's fault but YOURS."
Now...nowhere in the conversation had I mentioned that I am having money problems (I'm not), or that I am having trouble supporting my family (I'm not). It never entered the picture. This lady came out of nowhere with that statement.
It has upset me greatly.
First, to suddenly attack me for asking for call. Second, to base the attack on the idea that I am having children. As if children are a disease. A mistake. A liability. A bad investment. As if she were subtly ostracizing me. 'Oh, how dare you have children.' She knows that I am a Catholic, and that I believe contraception is wrong, and that a married couple's duty is to have the children that God gives them. And I believe she wants to attack that--subtly--when she can.
I'm pretty mad now. I think that, if that kind of a scenario happens again, I will state this:
"How dare you try to call me out for being a family man. As if that is a bad and unvirtuous choice, and a poor decision. If you try to call me out for my Catholic belief in the institution of family again, I will make a formal complaint with upper management that you are discriminating on my family values and my religion, and I will fill out a form on you."
Thoughts, folks?
What would you do? What shall we Catholics do, as we are singled out more and more each day for simply supporting family?