can you ask at interview whether...

[MrsMillerbecameababy]

there are colleagues who are frequently off "sick" / what the sickness absence rate amongst colleagues is?

You can't can you?

I work for a large organisation but in a small geographically isolated self sufficient team. It's a 24/7 job (healthcare) so if someone is sick their shift has to be covered.

One colleague in my team no longer wants to do shift work and is looking for a new job, but in the meantime is off sick about 25% of the time. The rest of us have to cover. This has led to people (including me) doing really long double shifts over the holidays as nobody else can be reached when she phones in.

I'm thinking of moving to another team. I don't mind shifts but my shifts, not a high chance that going in to work 09:00-18:00 will see me doing a 24 hour shift (this happened last week) or 16:00-06:00 turn into 16:00-16:00.

Can a candidate ask about how much sick leave a prospective new team take (no names or identifying information obviously) and expect an honest answer or is this a totally forbidden question?

maryberryslayers nothing apart from emotional blackmail can happen if I refuse to cover extra shifts, and I'm doing that now. It drops another innocent colleague into a potential double shift, because the colleague asking for help is always the one already working.

What I can't do is just leave at the end of my shift if the next shift has called in sick and nobody has agreed to cover, as people might die and we'd be out of compliance and my employer would have to fire me for gross misconduct.

This is the crux of the matter.

Until recently it used to work as we'd all do our best to cover, but it's a trust system and the current ridiculous rate of sick leave is making it impossible to continue. Hence why I'm thinking of jumping but don't want to jump into a similar set up!

I would raise the issue with your HR if on balance you would like to maintain your current role or even if you want to test the waters elsewhere, raise it in parallel with HR whilst looking for another role, in case you’re not able to secure something else in the short term. Re asking about team absences at interview, if it’s a small team, suspect there would be some caution answering that in case it’s identifying for privacy reasons. At any interview I’d ask about the team generally and find out about the team culture and then ask how they deal with cover for unplanned absences explaining that in your current role you’ve had to step in for an absent colleague beyond the usual requirement and want to avoid being in a similar situation and want to be part of a mutually committed, motivated team where naturally you would support and cover for absent colleagues but on a normal not extended/frequent basis as that’s disruptive for your family set up. If they’ve got a similar issue and need someone to cover endlessly then they know you’re not for them or vice versa. If they don’t have that issue and have a reasonable approach, they’ll think your stance on this is understandable and won’t hold it against you for asking.

cheeseandpineapple I think I will address it with HR. As long as I don't walk out and leaving the service unstaffed/ without qualified staff there's such a staff shortage that asking is unlikely to do harm, and so many jobs available, but it's not good timing for me to change jobs at this exact point really... I'd rather wait until the summer ideally. However more than that I'd rather not dread going in for a night shift on the basis I might end up working until 4pm the following day! Its quite a nice job, and although the poorly organised shift planning without any slack to cover sick leave was always the weak point, I was happy in it til this colleague started calling in sick so randomly and often a four or five months ago.

All the best speaking with HR, hope they can sort out the issue asap. Your manager/the organisation has taken advantage of your goodwill but it’s not reasonable or healthy or a reliable/safe practice to always expect you to step in and do back to back shifts. Let us know how you get on!