AIBU to think too many people being off work is causing the country to fall apart?

Usually six months full pay then six months half pay. Then they accrue loads of annual leave during the time off so are barely in when they return.

I had months off one of my jobs, and I went back on a phased return. There is no way I could have immediately gone back full time. I would have ended up going off sick again.

I agree with you, sadly the depts you mention (NHS / anything government), is woefully understaffed, to the point of less than a skeleton crew running the show.

I know some people who work for the NHS and they can’t get the staff as the pay is rubbish, those who do join are not always the best and the good ones get so stressed they are either sick or leave. I’m not talking about Dr’s and Nurses (although these are too), this is the Support Staff network who may do the bloods, lab tests, admin etc. Many feel awful for wanting to leave as of the sheer volume of people relying on them often for life saving treatment, patients get stressed and start shouting and the staff are doing their best. Something needs to change from the top. Minimum wage with near part time hours it’s not enough to sustain a family or pay for wrap around care / holiday clubs. So that’s a good % of the population.

GPs earn good money, but their workload is shocking due to lack of GPs. So they want p/t and patients shout at them through frustration. In fact anything public facing inc retail is honestly blooming hard work.
anything gov related the support staff need more money and more of them. Taxes go up to pay for it all? Yes it needs it, but there is often little public appetite for this.
teachers were given a good payrise last year, then schools had a 20% cut in funds.. from Labour.

Surely the NHS doesn't pay full pay for sick forever?

I work for the nhs and at any minor inconvenience the majority of people stick a sick line in. The sickness culture within the nhs is unbelievable, it’s far too easy to stay off sick with full pay.
I think Covid and furlough made a lot of people care less about working.

I think it's more likely that a lot of companies aren't replacing staff that leave and are expecting the rest of the work force to take that work on. Resulting in it being more noticeable when staff are off.

With regards to the phone line issue, during covid companies were using the bare minimum staff, and customers were okay with it - so they haven't returned to a full work force!

Also staff absence could be for anything, ill health, holidays bereavement.

Maybe it comes down to job satisfaction.

I have decided not to extend my fit note and return to work end of next week.
Really hope talking to callers will take my mind off things and hope very much to keep up I can remain impartial even though I’ll want to be anything but.

Not bad for someone who really thought they hated their job at one point and this went on for 6 months whilst I got up every day for it, but since fought twice for it. (just don’t ask)

I have a good employer. Some don’t.

I do hope I get to walk to my local co-op on bank holiday Monday before I start back 💙💚

Thanks, it’s just so unfair.
15 years ago I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I had treatment/ surgery; back to work.

2023/2024 Metastic BC AND a different cancer discovered. Hysterectomy/ treatment; back to work.

2024: The sarcoma cancer reappears in a different part of the body. Been off 3 months already. It won’t shrink. Looks like ill health retirement is coming my way. Former teacher, then TA.

I wish your son’s partner well, going forward.

People going off sick is often caused by the higher management imposing unrealistic targets on their staff, which causes staff to go off sick
The remaining staff are then under more pressure and then they go off sick.
This is the general rule though, there will always be people that absolutely take the piss but in my experience they are in the minority

Schools are short-staffed, NHS is beyond crisis, trains are delayed, post is late. It’s not just inconvenience — this feels like serious breakdown of basic services.

Agreed, but a lot of these jobs are not attractive due to poor pay. TA pay is awful & I'd put anyone I know off teaching because it's a miserable job with little reward.

The NHS & care service lost a shit tonne of staff after Brexit and will lose more thanks to Starmer's new immigration rules.

The post is late because the government use private contracts to run sorting offices, who regularly use cheap, poorly trained agency staff (hence all of those birthday cards that arrive opened and robbed of cash).

Both schools and the NHS need trained staff - not the unemployed foisted upon them. Farage's 'genius' idea of making the unemployed work in care to get their benefit money works well for him because his Granny won't have some untrained scally coming into her house, will she?!

As for those who are scamming the system for benefits, what we're really asking is for GPs to refuse to sign people off on MH grounds, but that's asking them to take quite the risk. How would you fancy refusing a patient help then them topping themselves, or worse, hurting others? The NHS would advise all to seek help before reaching the point of mental crisis but that means GPs taking people at their word when they say they are struggling. It's a conversation that needs to happen between the government and medical profession but I doubt there is an easy solution or it would have been taken already by one of the governments of the last 20 years.

The country is on it's knees primarily due to Brexit, Covid, both of which will take YEARS to recover from. Add to that an ever aging population and, well, big changes are needed.

There is no magic wand, though.

Yeah, local councils are an exception with numbers falling. Overall they are at record highs.

Where I work they have cut costs so hard and so far, we all have to work like the clappers with barely a moment to breathe all shift. If you’re not 100%, you’re better to call in sick than have demands made of why your targets weren’t met. But we’re so short staffed all the time (turnover is high) that if you call in sick then stuff just…doesn’t get done.

i used to have your attitude. I do still go all the time I reasonably can. But work-caused RSI and mental load mean sometimes I have to prioritise myself. I’m no longer willing to suffer damage to myself to make a (poor) living.

They get paid to be off.

My husband's company won't even pay you if you have a day off with the runs - it's zero pay from day 1 and it's not some zero hours thing, this is an office workplace with "professionals" working there.

I work in the NHS and people are signed off constantly - it's almost a joke now about who's turn it is next to have a month or 2 off. IMO it's too easy to get signed off in the public sector and has no financial implications so people will not think twice about doing it

people are accommodated if they have been ill -come back on part time/ limited hours/ can’t do long shifts/ can’t do nights etcetc
Means the burden lands on remaining staff plus if they are public servants our tax is paying a full wage for less than full work.
Its the employment laws but no Gov would dare change them.

The consequence of 40 years of privatisation, neo-liberal policies and deregulation under Thacher, combined with 15 years (and counting) of austerity under sucessive governments.

Transference of wealth from the working class to the establishment and capitalist elites of millions of pounds a day results in broken structural services, misery and illness.

The royal family has been given its third increase in money from the public purse since Covid while ordinary people are made to struggle on in exploitative and humiliating circumstances. All while feeling they’re drowning as a response to their own choices. Bring on the revolution!

It’s disgusting how this is allowed to happen. Nurse here and we are told to just wear a mask. I think if the public actually knew how many vulnerable patients die due to infections from members of staff they would be an outcry.

@Enigma53 I’m so very sorry - my sons partner was off for10 months(NHS but not frontline medical) with stage 3 breast cancer in her late 30s - there is no way given the amount of intensive various differing treatments and appointments and debilitation could she have worked - has a toddler too - she is now back at work -

That graph is designed to look scary but the actual graph only shows an increase of like around 20% in the last few years?

It may be unskilled but it is a necessary job. Always put yourself first. I would always take my health over any job.

I worked in the NHS for 13 years on hospital wards as a HCA.

I was allowed 2 episodes of sickness per year before getting a disciplinary. Do you think I dragged myself in to look after vulnerable patients despite suffering from a cold/flu? Yep, I did. And management were okay with that. Because if I didn't turn up I'd end up having a stage 1 warning and I needed that job.

Not only that, but the staffing was the bare minimum. No one extra booked on incase someone was sick. So if I rang in, I know I'd be leaving the ward short staffed. And I know when it happened to me, that patient care was definitely compromised.

So no, we aren't lazy. We just wanted you all to stop voting for austerity for so long.

Underfunded NHS has knock-on effects across multiple workplaces. Can't get an appointment after 5pm? Well guess you'll have to take a day off so you can attend the GP. But can you afford that? Probably not if you're low income. So that troubling symptom gets ignored for years until you're in the back of an ambulance.

People should stay at home when they're ill. Obviously depending on what it is. A few sniffles shouldn't have you ringing in sick for the most part but wfh if you can.

Germs spread.

I would say a lot of these issues have nothing to do with people being off work but more that these services are run by people who cannot manage these services in general.

Been off 3 months with cancer. Chemo is kicking my ass, cancer is stubborn and growing. I just finished 4 days of V&D. My mouth is ulcerated, my hair gone, fatigue like no other, appointments that I can’t keep
up with and my hospital, an hour away on a busy motorway.

What do you want me to do OP? I want to return to my job, but can’t in this state. All my life, I’ve looked after my body, avoided alcohol and processed foods. This is how I’m repayed. It suck’s. People are falling ill.

I was talking to my DP about the amount of people in our street that aren't working just this lunchtime. Granted most of our neighbours are over 50 but very few work. It seems most have left full time jobs now and are semi retired. I do also worry about the number of NEETs aged 16 - 24 (not in education, employment or training) - I think there's about 900k nationally now. So it seems the workforce is shrinking - losing the oldest and youngest members. I can remember my organisation taking on a batch of school leavers every year, as can my DP who worked in the car industry. It seems very few organisations do this now, my DS ending up being taken on by a big employer after several agency jobs.