Work colleague off sick but on holiday

What's confusing you?

Good god no wonder the work place is falling apart with attitudes like this!

Consistent patterns of sickness whilst on holiday is not ok.

Leaving everyone else to pick up the slack. Not acceptable.

It would not be tolerated in my work place a d you'd be out the door. If you can holiday then you can work. And if you can't do the job you're in then find something else you can do!

Why are you ‘at your wits end’? Is this having an impact on your workload? If so, speak to your manager. If not, butt out.

OP it’s f*king annoying and I completely get it. The pattern, the bare faced cheek can be galling.
Irritatingly the protection methods for those who need them are often used for those who don’t.

Sadly there is little that you can do, hopefully management are aware.

Unless you know for certain she’s fraudulently claiming to be sick to extend her annual leave, then it’s nothing to do with you. If she’s covered by a fit note, then a holiday may well be recommended to help her wellbeing.

Not your problem to manage their sickness and holidays.
What you can do if necessary is highlight to your manager that covering sickness absence is causing problems for the team - if it is - and have evidence of this.

Other than that, concentrate on your own performance.

What? 😂

Wrong.

Thats the managers job to delegate the work when someone is on leave/sick or whatever.

The reason for the absence is fuck all to do with the OP, who is NOT their manager. 🙄🤦‍♂️

Yes. Because your problem is management not your colleague. Her absences are really nothing to do with you, they're between her and your employer. What is your business is if your workload is inpacted because managers have failed to manage the affect of the absence.
You need to speak to your line manager about your work and the pressure you're under without going off on a tangent about your colleagues holidays and sickness. If you make it about your colleague you will be told they can't discuss her with you (by rights) and you will be fobbed off. Be clear about your job and what you're struggling to cover and ask them to manage your situation.

My dd managed a woman who for years ( pre my dd taking over) took a very long weekend close to her birthday which always involved some excuse about illness. She was very miffed when my dd spotted the pattern and pointed it out. Some people just take the piss and get away with it.

We have someone who does this. Not MH but always some illness just before leave. It’s so obvious.

It is if OP is having to cover their work

Yabu to be at " your wits end" about it.
It's your managers problem.
Frankly I'd roll my eyes and move on.
Are you saying they seem to be extending their booked annual leave by going off sick either side to get extra days? or go off sick whilst on holiday to get annual leave credited back to them? or off long term sick but then go on holiday?
If they are signed off by GP then a holiday may be needed and even recommended.
Being sick before, after or during a holiday can happen but shouldn't happen every time.
If they self certify and phone in sick for a week then post on Fb holiday snaps showing them having a fabulous time and fit and well then they are on shaky ground.

It is if she's having to cover her work.

I think you have to be so careful making assumptions like this. I have had an extended period off work and with flexible working due to serious health issues. You would never know to look at me quite how serious it is. Luckily for me my colleagues are all lovely but from the outside it is confusing and questionable

I assume management know but it's very hard to get rid of someone.
I work with someone who is frequently off and gets signed off for the absence. However on social media posts plenty of things they are doing with their children including trips away. It does feel very unfair when everyone else has to pick up their workload, but really isn't much that can be done.

Oh my good I used to work with someone like this, she had so much time off work and would then pop on on social media in some wonderful corner of the world having a fine old time whilst the rest of us covered her job.
We got together as a team and raised a formal complaint about the situation( which had gone on for years)
We continued to put pressure on management and refused to do her work until in the end she was ‘moved on’ but management were quite happy to bury their head in the sand about it.
She tried to carry out the same trick in subsequent jobs and needless to say she been ‘ moved on ‘ a fair fee times now.
Don't put up with it OP

It’s a hard one. I had a colleague years ago. She absolutely hated her job and to be fair she was well suited to it. She would go on holiday and then have at least a weeks sick leave afterwards. I think she just struggled coming back to work. It made things harder on everyone else though. Especially in peak holiday time

3 rounds of 1 year maternity leaves quite clearly isn’t half of 10 years…

So the colleague has prebooked leave and goes off sick in the lead up time? (For how long?)
But whatever I agree with those who say that manager has likely already noticed, as how could they not, and I wouldn’t say or do anything.

This type of post happens every few weeks I swear.

I was told on here that while I was off sick I needed to be in bed the whole time or I’d be “taking the piss”

Disagree with you that the first isn’t ok.

I have staff who have been off on sick leave and have still gone on their pre-booked holiday - I have no problem with this at all, being on sick leave doesn’t mean you have to be house bound! If I’ve got a staff member off for their mental health, how does restricting their world to be as small and miserable as possible help them get better?!

Their manager may well have noticed. For all you know they could have had a warning. They aren't going to tell you.

I got rid of an employee partly because they kept doing this.

People in this thread saying management can't do anything if that person has a fit note - they absolutely can. You can be sacked for repeated sickness absence, even with fit notes and medical evidence, even with genuine health conditions considered a disability, and it's not considered disability discrimination.

Employers are legally allowed to sack employees who cannot be at their jobs often enough because of their health.

If the employee is not being sacked, it's not because they cannot be. It's because management don't want to, for whatever reason. Maybe that person is better at their job than the rest of the team and would be difficult to replace? Maybe each instance of sickness did have a very good reason, and management decided that on balance is worth keeping that employee on? Maybe OP is over blowing how often this happens in their head? Who knows.

There are instances where a holiday can be permitted for wellbeing on sick leave and people can have chronic illnesses.

However, people can abuse sickness leave to get extra annual leave / time off.

It is a HR matter to explore- it can be difficult to manage to establish which it is. HR can review patterns of behaviours- especially if leave is pre booked and sickness is before hand.

Just keep your observations to yourself as there is nothing you can do about it and you can be vulnerable yourself if you are seen to cause division in a team.

I have worked in teams with colleagues who have sick leave for a long term condition and staff have been very empathetic to them. Whereas the piss takers soon lost respect from their team members and which affected their job and some left.