to be annoyed at employers new performance related pay scheme? Part 2.

[bosch]

Well i lost the first round, but I'm off the canvas and ready to slug it out again..

Couple of months ago, I asked if you thought it reasonable that employer was introducing criteria for receiving increments based on your sickness record.

You generally told me that I was living in the dark ages and should get with it girl!

Well, I had had a fortnight off sick with sore throat (self certificated for a week) that was then diagnosed as tonsillitus (drs cert for second week). That means I won't get an increment this year - worth a couple of hundred quid.

I now discover that I also won't be shortlisted for an internal promotion that I've applied for on the basis of the same poor sickness record.

TBH I'm even more about this than the few hundred quid I've lost out on.

I agree that timewasters, shirkers and people who generally pull sickies in pretty obvious ways (after being refused a/l, repeated patterns of Fri/Mon sickies etc) need to be identified/dealt with/reprimanded/sacked if nec. But I was actually ill. And it's not like anybody does my work when I'm off - I catch up. And I'm not allowed in work if I have a sick note. And if I got a sick note off the dr for the first week, it would still count towards my poor attendance record.

Sorry, seethe, I know you're all going to tell me that IAMBU but it just makes me feel so helpless. If I were pulling sickies, I'd pull myself together and learn my lesson, but...well, I was ill. I do my work. I'm not sure what I'm being penalised for.

[ImhavingaBBaby]

urm i dont know if your are or not... i see your point and aggree that you'd think a doctors note would make you exepmt from being assessed on that particular sickness, but i suppose your company feel that theya re easy to get ( i dont know if they are in your area but they are in mine!), you are certainly NBU about feeling penalised amongst others who are shirkers but i think thats where sick is a funny thing, there are people who take the piss but there are also people who feel illness more than others, and i can see how the system would frustrate!

i certainly can see your frustration re the promotion, is there a percentage your allowed to get up to before it counts against you?

[Nancy66]

But you didn't have a Dr's note for your first week off sick?

sounds reasonable to me, sorry.Some people are just ALWAYS off sick and it's really annoying for the other employees

[ABetaDad]

I wholly disagree with the practice of awarding bonus or instituting disciplinary action or putitng notes on employee files or whatever based on the degree to which an employee is sick.

It makes people come to work when they are ill. I would not want a chef in a restaurant or deli counter worker coming in with gastro eneteritis. Would you?

If a worker is continually sick then they need to be refered to the company doctor for a proper assessment and examination.

[ABetaDad]

Truth is many employers clearly would like to be able to sack any employee who takes a day off for any reason and yes I do include maternity leave. They are in the most part poor employers, are rotten to customers and suppliers and are run by bad managers. They make poor invetments as well.

Rant over.

[hercules1]

Tbh if I worked with you and you had a week signed off yourself with a sore throat I'd be peed off.

[Longtalljosie]

You had a fortnight off with tonsilitis?!

I used to have it so bad the doctors were visibly shocked when they looked down my throat and only had a week off, max.

That said, I think sickness record needs to be looked at in the round, not just as a result of one incident.

[BennyAndJoon]

A single period of sickness with a doctors note to cover you once you were past the first week does not sound excessive to me (our GPs will not give you a note before 5 days unless you pay for a private one!!)

They should be using a better formula - the one I remember (I think) is

(number of days sick) x (Number of different periods of sick)squared.

so taking 10 days off in one lump gives you a score of 10, but taking 10 days off as the odd day here and there gives you a score of 100.

The higher score is worse BTW.

[bruffin]

I used to gt really bad tonsillitis and it took much longer than a week to get over. I would have a week off school then go back for a day and was just as ill again.
Tonsillitis is not just a sore throat,I use to get very high temperatures and have been very ill from it.

I do think your employers are being unfair, they should be looking at the whole picutre not just one incident of illness.

[bosch]

Thanks for replies, had given up last Friday!

Am pleased to see that some of you agree that my employer may not be entirely reasonable.

Interesting that it appears if I'd called it something else I might have got more of you on my side? Would it be reasonable to have a week off sick for a cold? If I call it flu does that sound more convincing?

I should have thought that a responsible employer would want to know that when their employees are sick, they will take the time to get better. And if someone is having a lot of time off sick, the employer would want to explore why that is. For example, I would say that I get a lot more bugs now that I have three young children. It will pass. Pretending I'm not ill, coming into work, passing any bugs around and being generally unproductive seems like a bad idea all round. But it will give me a good attendance record.

BTW, it wouldn't matter whether I'd had a sick note for the whole period, what my employer counts is my absence from work. The fact that a dr agrees that I'm poorly is not relevant to my employer.

Thanks for sympathy vis tonsillitus btw. I remember crying with pain just before I went to emergency dr and got antibiotics prescription!

[charmander]

I had 3 weeks off sick in September with tonsillitus (weeks 2 and 3 siged off by doctor)so you have my sympathy. Does not seem a fair system.