I got fired today!!

6 days is still very high for a role you started in September.

When you have been at a job less than 2 years you can pretty much be let go for any reason. We employed a great temp who had lots of days sick. At the end of initial period we had more work for her but next day called in sick again. So my boss didnt extend the contract temp got angry and said if she knew contract would be ended she would have come in. Totally bizarre. In a new job you really want to make a good impression and minimise absence

I understand employers don’t want people off sick but I think it’s sometimes just bad luck. I mean do you want people turning up who struggle to function because they’re so ill?

What sort of lights are they, op? The usual office fluorescent ones?
Have you never worked anywhere with similar before?
Odd that your gp could be so certain they were the cause.

Yes, I see this a lot on MN.

I think it’s a slightly passive-aggressive ‘you did query this at the first possible opportunity, didn’t you’ dig from that poster. So many rather unpleasant know-it-all posters on this thread.

Could you not have got your son’s other parent to look after him rather than take time off work? I’d do anything to avoid taking time off when I’d just started a new job as it doesn’t create a good impression about your reliability.

Where are people getting this “there is always a probationary period” from?!

You can choose to put a probationary period into an employee’s contract but it’s really about managing expectations more than anything. It doesn’t give the employer more rights to dismiss you. It doesn’t actually mean anything at all in law. They can dismiss you at any point within the first two years with no process and no reason (unless that dismissal is because of a protected characteristic - there is no two-year qualifying period for discrimination claims).

This all sounds odd.
if in an office role there’s always a 3-month probation even if not explicitly stated.
6 or 11 days off is a massive amount, so it’s no surprise.

I am sad for you that you have lost your job. As an employer, if, in under 3 months of starting work, my employee had 6 days off sick - they would have proven to me that they are unreliable. There is no history to say otherwise. My business cannot afford to sustain unreliability, and so I would be letting you go too.

If, after letting you go, you came back at me with details you did not previously disclose … for what reason are you disclosing them after the fact? I would be thinking to myself that I am so glad I let you go, because you would have become a nightmare.

I truly hope you find something that is more suited to your personal circumstances, where you can negotiate time off for childcare, and you declare your protected characteristics so that reasonable adjustments can be put in place.

Where did you read that she asked them about her contract in September?

The fact that youre already blaming it on the "office/lighting" a disability that you didn't declare blah blah is a big red flag. We would not have kept you on either. It doesn't bode well. Move on.

TBH if I hired someone who had a day off every fortnight, complained about the lighting, and had a disability they didn’t declare, I would probably want to offload them too.

Why did you continue to work there for 3 months without a contract. What was the plan /timeline for receiving your contract when you asked them back in September.

Have you taken days off sick before and after a weekend ie Friday , then the Monday after ? In this case your employer may be counting the weekend as sick days.

The OP didn’t declare the disability.

I would get some new advisors…

I think your HR Dept. need retraining if they think this is mandatory in the name of fairness and sensitivity.

Two were caused by migraines with aura which I've never had before and my GP reckons it was highly likely to have been caused by my office lighting as the migraines only started after I got the job. And since i stopped using the overhead office lights, (i sourced my own alternative) I've been migraine free.

Surely there should have been some discussion about OP getting migraines which appeared to be triggered by the office lighting? Doesn't the employer have some responsibility to follow up on that? And OP had provided alternative lights herself which shows motivation to avoid repeat issues.

Plus there should have been a brief chat about how to deal with time off due to a sick child - how that should be documented, ie not as sick days?

Or concept of what would have enabled you to “improve and keep your job”?
You claim they were happy with your work, when you were actually there.

It’s about them being treated fairly and sensitivity apparently. I’m not saying I agree with it!

Why didnt you declare your disability? It's a protected characteristic that could have stopped all this?