Feel guilty being off sick, support please

[Justanothernamele]

sorry about mistakes, just tired
In feeling guilty about being off sick because we have targets that have to be met at the office level as well as individual (I’m fine for that) office target not changed if anyone off sick. Rest anre expected to do a bit more.

Knew I was very tired and making myself go to work. Eventually I got appointment and blood test, borderline anemic but ferritin 8 to explain range is 11 to 200.

I feel worse now then before the test - I think my brain was acting as if I was just lazy, now has permission to feel the tiredness and it’s like a wall.

I know I shouldn’t feel guilty- I’ve never blamed anyone off sick and am over target when there

olease - can you just confirm what I know, I should be off sick because I am too illl to work
i might not reply for a while if I fall asleep

May help to know I have depression

You should not be working when you are not well

your employer should not allow you to work when you are signed ofc, their employer insurance will not be valid if you are working while signed off sick.

take the time you need to get better then start looking for a job with better conditions. Not adjusting targets when someone if off is imo sharp practice.

not everyone works like that. All the best

Your team's targets are your manager's problem, not yours, and them not being adjusted according to resources is their issue. Your responsibility is looking after your health and wellbeing now, before you make yourself ill long term, meaning you'd be unable to work for a much longer period.

Take this time to recover and look after yourself. Work can replace you, your family can't.

Stop feeling guilty. You are unwell, therefore unfit for work. Concentrate on helping yourself to feel better. Whatever it takes.
They pay you to work, outside of that you don't owe them anything. Hope you feel better soon, be nice to yourself. 🤗

If you’re sick, you’re sick. Send them your sick not from the GP and don’t feel guilty.

Hi, I am off sick too and I am feeling similar. Not the targets, just I know my team will have done the bare minimum to cover me so there’s going to be piles of work when I get back.

Sadly, unless we’ve been off over a month, there’s no possibility to go back for a couple of days part-time whilst we recover. Considering logging on tomorrow and doing the best I can. It’s easy for people say stay off but a year or so ago I was put on the stage one sickness protocol basically having a child and getting ill 3 times in a year. HR weren’t very nice about it. At that time I knew 3 other mothers who were all on stage one sickness protocol. Can’t win, can we?

Thank you all for telling me what I know I rested most of the day, went to the pharmacy and had a drink and home, not two hours and I’m exhausted.

@Catsandbooksaremybag I know the targets are not my issue and that I well exceed anyway. However just knowing about them and quirks how they operate is hard with the depression Our managers aren’t putting pressure on but in meetings they will say that we did well “despite a lot of sick leave”. My line manager has told me not to think that any of things about the office targets relates to me as she knows I worry. Others in the team do as well and I thinks it’s mostly those who meet the targets. I don’t think the people who agree these targets as part of national negotiation have done this type of work, or not recently.

Sorry to hear you are under the weather as well and the pressure. This is my second sickness after a day last week due to an infection. We use Bradford scale. if I work tomorrow successfully and too ill on Monday I will move to Stage 1.

I have very good managers but however nice they are my depression still makes me guilty about illness. In some ways this is easier for me to accept as it is a physical illness.
I think depression was for so long stigmatised that I feel that it is not a “real” illness. (It very much is all too real!)

I'm not in favour of malingerers. Bu you're ill so should be off sick.