To go off sick in December?

Best to not take the risk though. The OP found an employer willing to give her a chance. Look how she repays them.

@Lbet Yes it is an awful thing to say. But given the support the OP has had here it's the wise thing to say.

OMG that is such an awful thing to say Shame on you.

After 15 years experience of helping disabled people into work I can tell you that’s not the case. Most people I’ve been involved with remain extremely motivated despite huge challenges, and if they find an employer sympathetic to that and prepared to give them a chance, they will recognise how fortunate they are and make the most of the opportunity. OP is in the minority. But your post illustrates my point nicely.

Having read the comments here I think it's pretty obvious that any employer would be out of their mind to employ a single mum with a chronic health condition.

Yes of course @Sarahbd3 I think EVERYONE should go off sick for 3 weeks over Christmas.

🙄

I would take unpaid parental leave

You said despite the public holidays , which there are 3 , Xmas day, Boxing Day & New Year's Day so you already have 3 days off within a week ? So add that to your 1 day, doesn't sound so hard done by now ?
Personally every time I've pulled a sickie , & only for 2 days , never a month or anything requiring a doctors note , something bad happened , I crashed my car last time , karma perhaps !
Personally I wouldn't , well not for a month anyway , be tempting fate in my eyes

They’re not sick notes they’re fit notes. And if the GP considers the reason to be genuine, then they will be simply be signed off as not fit for work for whatever period the GP considers appropriate. But where there is doubt, as in ‘may be fit for work’ there are all kinds of considerations for the GP, or whoever is providing the fit note. And there is further legislation coming to involve healthcare professionals much more closely in finding alternatives to simply signing someone off as unfit for work.

Problem is that it’s incredibly difficult to fire someone with a disability for any reason connected with that disability. If downsizing they’ll need to show that letting her go is not disability related, so counting sick leave could be tricky. OP has clearly declared her condition to her employer and they are accommodating it, and if they’re providing reasonable adjustment this could include not counting sick leave attributable to disability towards any disciplinary action.

Well I see sick notes every day in my job and I can confirm this is not the case at all

GP’s can’t simply sign people off any more - they have to provide a detailed fit note, and part of that is a full assessment of not only the job the patient does, but consideration of whether there is any work they could do. This also involves suggesting possible ways the employer could avoid the employee going off sick, by making adjustments in the workplace or alternative methods of working. Healthcare professionals are being asked to take more and more responsibility before just signing people off sick, as part of the drive to reduce the numbers on sick leave/claiming benefits, so OP may find skiving a little more difficult than she imagined.

One of my colleagues did this last year, as she was rota’ed to work Christmas for the first time in 7 years (the 7 being covered by me, because my employer regards the childless as less important than the parent employees). I then got a call asking me to come in. I refused and when she got called in to a meeting about the situation, she tried to insist that I be called in as well.

She also tried to get me in trouble with HR for discriminating against her as a mother (I refused to swap with her).

She’s also now arguing that it’s her turn off this year as she was “on” last year.

Working with people whose mantra is “but but but I have a child!” is very tiring. Please don’t contribue to it.

I think it’s really interesting. I’ve seen so many MN benefit bashing threads berating those claiming sickness benefits for swinging the lead and advocating for benefits to be withdrawn or reduced to ‘encourage’ people into work. Yet MN seems to have no problem encouraging someone like the OP with a chronic condition, to exploit it for time off at Christmas. The hypocrisy is palpable.

I agree. But ultimately they’re making it harder for everyone with a disability, not just those with chronic conditions, and not just those who are actually working.

I worked for many years as a disability outreach worker and when advocating for disabled people to be considered for various jobs, I dealt on a daily basis with ableist and prejudicial attitudes from employers - many of them surrounding the reliability of disabled employees. The assumption was that the sickness levels would be higher, and, as the OP has very much proven here, it would be easier for them to fake illness connected with their disability. There is also the question of protected characteristics under the Equality Act making it harder to dismiss someone disabled if they’re thought to be abusing sick leave.

OP says her employer is aware of her condition, so is accommodating it, and may well be providing reasonable adjustment, although she hasn’t specified. That being the case, and having seen first hand the way some genuinely sick and disabled people struggle to prove themselves, I think she’s incredibly lucky to be working for a sympathetic employer.

Also worth saying is that as part of reasonable adjustment, employers are encouraged to discount sick leave attributable to the declared condition or disability, and record it as disability leave instead. This means it doesn’t count towards the normal disciplinary procedures in place for sick leave for other employees. I don’t understand why people would actively encourage someone to potentiallly commit fraud in this way.

As someone who has a disability and works, absolutely this. People who use chronic conditions to fake sickness/avoid working when they don't want to make life harder for everyone else.

Her kids will be at school

You're lucky to get the statutory days off, healthcare and retail workers (amongst many others) don't even get that. You'll be lucky to get 3 weeks signed off without a lot of hassle and you KNOW everyone at work will be aware you are faking it. But hey, you've convinced yourself that this is an okay way to proceed, so go ahead. Shoot yourself in the foot and have a happy Christmas.🌲🎉

The OP is off on the important days over Christmas. What more do you expect?

I read things like this regularly on MN.

Before we know it we will be raising a generation full of entitled and spoilt children who expect everyone to drop everything for them!

Try teaching them we all have commitments and have to go to work!

OP not sure what you do - is working from home an option for you perhaps? Have a short term agreement with work for the Christmas period? Covers both bases then.

Yes unpaid parental leave could be an option here! Christmas childcare can be a tricky one for any parent. It looks like OP had hoped to have the time off through her holiday allowance though to cover this, perhaps she has explored the option and doesn’t have any. It’s not completely clear from her post though.

If OP claims universal credits then her reduction of income would be counter balanced there.

She's had all year to anticipate the possibility of working at Christmas, and to sort childcare accordingly.

Unpaid parental leave, not paid sick leave, would be the solution in that case anyway.

OP im presuming your workplace requires a certain amount of people in over that season - I’ve worked in places like this - they should be doing a rota so that it’s fair. Did they literally pick names out of a hat? In which case, there’s no fairness then at other popular holiday times - school holidays for example.

Personally I would speak to the HR department or my line manager about the inequality of their annual leave granting and ask them to review it. But equally - I’m sure there’s loads of MNs who would be horrified at you taking time off ‘sick’ for this - but actually sickness can be for other reasons too - stress at not having childcare for example. You can’t be in 2 places at the same time - and from my experience most childcare providers are closed at Christmas and new year. Just an idea.

Very true

Thank you for putting that so well. I've had a chronic health condition since childhood and not gonna lie I did use it to get out of a few assemblies at school (😂) but I've never used it to pull sickies, ever.

Tbh as well OP, it's glaringly obvious when colleagues do this and even if your management can't prove it enough to take legal action your entire team will know that you're taking the piss. If you were my colleague I wouldn't do anything to intentionally make things uncomfortable because that would be bullying. However I sure as hell wouldn't be doing anything to help you out either. As far as I was concerned you wouldn't be a team player at all and I wouldn't treat you as one.