AIBU to go off sick over complaint about me at work

Go back yo work you are either very young or have led a charmed life to react so extremely. You have done nothing wrong.

Yes I do. She literally followed the established policy, there will be evidence, what has she done wrong unless her tone was inappropriate? She keeps saying those not in the public sector won’t understand, I am and I do, she’s over worrying, we get complaints all the freaking time, HR have to follow process.

Annoyingly I actually wrote toeing but then thought it must be like towing a vehicle, sue me.

Do you really think having done the right thing and following written instructions will prevent an employee taking the fall for those above who've fucked up?
You are patronising and in error about the @SadlyNotATroll needing to get a grip.

And it's toeing, not towing, the line.

Honestly OP you need to get a grip. I am civil service and your organisation has handled this badly. Firstly that it was a hiring manager having to handle the comms, this is usually done by HR in central CS (I know you’re not central) and secondly for the decisions they’ve made. The complaint is with them and their policy, not you personally. You really need to not take this personally, it’s going to be easy to prove you were towing the corporate line.

You are right. You can only envision this if you worked in the public sector! And the amount of lunatics who think they are owed at job and go scorched earth if they don’t get it!

Amen! Perhaps investigated just means they have to write to this lunatic. I have to “investigate” daft complaints all the time and have been at the other end of a many myself. Don’t go off sick but do formally raise how unsupported you have been because they bolloxed up vacancy numbers

You have proof you were following orders, sure you will already have taken photos. This all sounds like basic normal procedure, which looks daunting but it's just another complaint to follow up to tick off.

Back in the day it was a 'quick chat in my office' and we gave our answers, reply was thanks all fine. Just now it's all online and sent to different departments and seeing it written down seems more stressful.

Good luck, you will be fine, next week it will be something else. No need to go off sick for 'what if' or no one would work! Xx

You cannot go off sick - it would look awful (and you’re not sick).

Maybe it's my upbringing, being gen X, personal pride, but no matter what has happened in my workplace I have gone in the next day with head held up high.

If you behave like this then it quashes rumours, you're seen as resilient and nothing to hide. It's too easy to hide away these days and go on the sick, which I did indeed feel like doing a a few times, but it doesn't solve anything. Im fact, it can exacerbate negative feelings as you dwell, which happened to my colleague.

Going sick is not a solution. Perhaps you will feel better if you put your side of it across to someone else in a confidential chat.

Edit- sorry didn't read the opening post thoroughly. It's already an investigation. Apologies, brain hadn't fired up. All the best OP. You only did what you were told to do. Try and take each day as it comes.

I work in the public sector too and it's quite unreal what they will investigate formally when someone should just write back saying tough. I sympathise with you worrying about it but, in your case, it's really not a complaint against you personally but about a process you were told to follow. If you go off sick you will prolong the process and stress even more so I would personally try to resist doing this. I would recommend speaking to your manager and telling them how it is making you feel and that it is affecting your work. That way they can support you rather than pulling you up for underperforming. It would be worth asking to meet with your union rep ahead of the meeting to talk through the process. I cannot see that anybody would get sacked for this, even if they had done wrong, as it's just one of those things not some terrible misdeed. I do have some sympathy for the candidate as the job market is horrendous and people are being treated quite badly so they were probably under a lot of stress and it may have seemed as though something underhand was afoot.

You just need to provide all the evidence. If in a public sector role surely you can say that the interview and waiting for the interview are causing you great stress and provide your evidence email about the interview and feedback along with what you have written here?
this is not your fault, the person requesting feedback has also gone too far. I’ve applied for lots of jobs where they haven’t provided feedback, perhaps a learning opportunity for your department is to not advertise feedback offers in future recruitment campaigns

While this sounds upsetting, complaints do have to be investigated. However it seems you were only following instruction so the complaint against you shouldn't be upheld, and if there are grounds, those who instructed you are accountable. You need to just explain you acted on instruction.
As for going off sick, unless you are sick, its not a good idea. It won't help you, in fact it will prolong the process as they will be obliged to factor your 'illness' into when meetings can take place etc.

I work public sector and the abuse of sick leave was an eye opener. People don't go off for a few days like private sector. Its weeks, sometimes months at a time. For 'stress' usually. It's no more stressful than anywhere else.

I have worked in the public sector - civil service and local authority. I agree
that management take very little responsibility, however people do take full
advantage of the sick pay scheme’s. I have seen many people go off sick so they can take long holidays, use it for childcare and instances like this, where the person isn’t sick, but it in the middle of an investigation. It’s a shocking waste of tax payers money.

I worked with some lovely people, but compared to the private sector, there are so many lazy people who don’t think twice about going off on the sick for the slightest thing.

Oh for goodness sake you aren’t “sick” are you - it’s just a piss take of the company benefits - woman up - you haven’t done anything wrong - going odd “sick” over every little slight is just ridiculous

This. You’ve done nothing wrong. I hope there’s a paper trail from the more senior members of staff showing their refusal to give feedback though.

Speak to your line manager for advice x

Because unless you work in the public sector you have no idea of the bent management that take no responsibility and look after each other and the way that they treat staff under them is often appalling. Yes they do throw staff under the bus. Yes they do pass the buck and blame lower grade staff and give out warnings for things that could just be cleared up with a quick chat. They also break employment law and their own policies at will, and that's just HR! They often take months and months to put together hearings for grievances, bullying complaints and disciplinaries. Many taking 8-9 months or longer. And you wonder why people go off sick with stress?
I've worked in both, private and the NHS and believe me the NHS higher levels of management are shocking, and far too highly paid. Hundreds and hundreds of them in every NHS trust.

Union Rep here. Public sector have a duty to investigate all complaints. However, you were following instructions from management. Show your file to HR/Investigator and there will be no case to answer.
If I were in that meeting supporting a member I would make it clear that I am furious that you are being put under this pressure when they could just ask for copies of the paperwork and clear this up without the need for formally investigating and causing unnecessary stress. Most public sector managers are hell bent on not taking responsibility, responsibility that they are very well paid for. The NHS is riddled with crap managers like this and that's why I'm so busy!

OP, you are seriously overthinking this, try and be a bit more rational. You have written proof that you were told what to do and to keep repeating. If you are that worried, take photo's of all emails, don't forward them to a private email address, so long as it doesn't break GDPR rules, so if they are trying to throw you under the bus, which I highly doubt, you have proof that can be legally shared. By your post, you have done nothing wrong.

If the fact finding invitation letter states that you can bring union representation. Do. Not. Go. To. That. Meeting. Without. A. Union representation

IMO you should only go off sick if you are actually sick and unable to work. Including in the public sector.

Don’t go off sick. That’s for when you’re actually sick. God forbid you suddenly get struck down with something and then don’t have enough sick leave to cover your needs / work decides they can’t support you when you’re off sick so often.

It’s a non complaint because you did what you were told. It’s fine!

Going off on sick will only prolong the process. The complaint won’t go away and you will still need to be interviewed.

You know it’s a bullshit complaint and you have all the e-mails with instructions from the line manager as to what to say in response to the request for feedback.

Crack in with your job, get the interview done, show them your file and move on. Got to be better than stringing it out for weeks and weeks because you have chucked a sickie.

Why is it so common in the public sector to just go off sick at the drop of a hat? I’ll bet if you were not guaranteed sick pay, you wouldn’t even be contemplating this.