Not for the hn user base maybe, but for a lot of people it is. I worked part time out of college, only job I could find, worked 36 hours a week, anymore and they'd would have to give me benefits. If I had to take time off that came out of my pocket. This is a reality for a lot of people.

This exactly. I haven’t had to take time off work for any personal reason or because I was sick in years - and then I was actually in the hospital. I can work from home, catch up on the weekend etc. But my wife can’t exactly work from home as a special needs bus driver.

It kind of is, especially if you're imapired by not owning a car/driving license.

I usually have to take time off work or at least make my time up if I need to visit one of those places as it's an hour + half train journey after to get back to work.

My work starts at 8:45am and those places open at 9am usually too so I can't just pop in before work etc.

> it's an hour + half train journey after to get back to work

Maybe it'd be worth finding a doctor/dentist/barber/whatever closer to your place of work?

There is a barber close to my work but not much else. Middle of nowhere really.

For most of us here, probably not. For shift workers or those who otherwise work a strict schedule, it at least requires a fair bit of advance planning if not close to impossible.

that is true, but even that i find that frustrating. the reality is what it is but it bothers me people working shifts don’t have sick hours or the mobility to take care of themselves during the day like this.

No, but taking a few hours off is annoying if it means you have to reschedule a bunch of things. I would much rather run “errand” type things like this in the early morning before work.

When I look at my work calendar, then it's really tough to find a couple of connected hours during a working day without a meeting I need to attend.

are these meetings really so critical that you can’t miss them for a few times a year or even once a month?

No, nothing is critical, nobody will die when I'm not there. But those meetings are basically the core of my job, so it would be really weird to not prioritize them, they are the main reason why I'm getting payed.

I also do accommodate if I need to work outside of normal working hours, if I work with India or the US if the customer needs me earlier or later.

I guess that is why I kind of expect others who provide services also sometimes to go the extra mile, and to be honest most of the time you can find someone who does it.