to be angry with friend when it doesn't really affect me

[landsahoy]

My friend is a nurse who works for the NHS, and in the past five years she has been off work over 3 years of that (this includes a year of maternity leave). She has massive chunks off work up to a year but as soon as sick pay runs out she gets miraculously better. Her problems range from intense migraines, rectal and vaginal bleeding to severe back pain and even laryngitis for four weeks. I do think she does suffer from some of these problems but not to the point where she needs to be off work for this length of time anyway. The problems seem to spontaneously clear up after a few months without any real answers to the cause. When we meet up a few times a week when she is off sick I rarely see any signs of problems apart from the odd limp. The time she had the severe migraines which allegedly rendered her debilitated, yet she could still manage to drive a 300 mile round trip every weekend to see relatives.

It is made worse by the fact the GP are willing to give her sick notes. She was given a three month sick note in November so she did not have to stress about work over xmas. Her workplace are being so accommodating it is nauseating and have meetings with her where they bend over backwards to support her.

She often brags about how well off she is and I have calculated she must have cost the NHS over £150,000 when you consider her sick pay and the need to cover her position when she is off. I think I would be well off if I sat at home and collected full pay.

I am almost at the point where I am not bothered if I never see her again.
AIBU

[Wishfulmakeupping]

That's probably true to an extent, I will say that at my work there have been a couple of doctors off but far more nurses and other emergency staff especially with stress.

[knackeredmother]

Wishful, I don't think that's true, generally doctors take very little sick leave and will drag themselves in when feeling worse than the patients. They are on the se sick pay terms as the rest of the NHS but the culture is different. Nurses and admin staff know that if they are off cover is generally found. Not the case for doctors and the expectation is that you do not go off sick.

[landsahoy]

Sounds familiar ;( She has not worked a xmas or new year in five years and much of her time off seems to coincide with every school holiday, so she does not have to pay for childminder. She was complaining last week that other staff on ward bitch about her

[lunar1]

We had a similar case on my ward, she was on the old contract which meant you didnt need to build up time for sick leave again. the first day you returned her clock would reset to 6m full pay 6m half.

She was off sick every thurs/fri before annual leave and every mon/tues when she was due back. she was sick every time she was on the rota at christmas.

she would have at least 3 blocks a year off sick ranging from 3 weeks to 8 weeks, a few times in the 6 years i worked with her she had a full 6 month block off sick.

I feel very sorry for her if it was all genuine but at the same time she was so lucky that her ailments meant she was always better before her wages changed to half pay.

[Wishfulmakeupping]

Think that you have to take into account the work that a nhs worker would be undertaking compared to someone in the private sector. For example a nurse or doctor going to work when poorly could have more serious consequences than someone in the private sector- I'm not saying that there wouldn't be consequences in the private sector obviously but that the difference needs to considered.
I work in an emergency reactive service if im in work and not 100% I would be putting people at risk therefore when I am poorly it's for the best that I'm honest about it- I have been off with stress leave before and accused of 'playing the Game' but in my opinion I wasn't well enough for work end of- I'm sure people judged me as I was about to go out and about BUT I was not able to do my job because of how it was affecting me.

[Oinkypig]

You can actually be fired even if you have perfectlly legitimate reasons for being off. The nhs is starting to crack down. They have to do it very carefully to avoid discrimination.

[Dawndonna]

Ulcerative Colitis can be stress induced. It can cause really quite severe rectal bleeding.
Oh, and maybe she's actually off with stress or depression but didn't want her nosy mare of a 'friend' to know.

[VictorAndBarry]

I read somewhere a consultant saying he was amazed by the recuperative powers of his self emlpoyed patients, compared to his salaried with sick pay ones. Amazing difference, he said.

[knackeredmother]

Honestly if sick pay was stopped in te NHS the absences would more than half overnight. It's not acceptable on here to say people take the piss but having worked in hospitals for many years and now as the GP asked to sign the sick notes, I can tell you first hand it DOES happen. The NHS generous sick pay And the culture of absenteeism partly fuelled by this is to blame. I've distanced myself from a very close friend (nurse) who thinks nothing of ringing in sick for a week to go on holiday, but is careful not to do it more than 3 times in a year though ...

[Vev]

Apparently, work or play sick leave is going to be stopped for public service employees. Unions are negotiating this at the moment.

[fuckadoodlepoopoo]

wow somedayma! That's a strong reaction. Why i wonder? (suspects your one who takes unnecessary sickies and so this thread has hit a nerve)

And actually it is her business if her friend is lying about her illnesses and so is stealing money from the nhs, its all of our business.

[somedayma]

yes you are being very unreasonable. None of your fucking business. Tell her how you feel. Do her a favour. She'd never come near you again. Problem solved

[ShellyBoobs]

I think it is commonplace, but as long as GP's sign the sick notes there is not much you can do about it.

This is smply not true, in as much as it's not illegal to sack someone who has a doctor's note.

Nor does an employer doesn't have to accept a GP's note as proof that someone is too ill to work.

I would be very surprised is a public sector employer took the bull by the horns, though, so to speak.

[iluvsummer]

My mil does this, in the last 3 years she's taken 3 lots of sick and has returned to work just before full pay runs out...she still manages weekends away, shopping trips blah blah blah she's going back to work on Monday after being off since the summer...and I can put money on her being off sick again before the year is out!! Bloody sickening and there's sweet fa wrong with her!

[TastesLikePanda]

I think ywnbu to distance yourself from this colleague to be honest.

It could be that she has many unfortunate circumstances - or it could be that she has figured out how to play the system... I suspect the latter but then I'm cynical, having worked with one myself.

[Feelingood]

The friend I described earlier had tummy pains, ended up got herself a referral and the consultant told her it was pyschosamatic, I don't think she understood what that meant as she told me, or that n she thought I was thick.

High sickness is a symptom of a public sect that is inefficient in its use ot people and resources and understaffed over inititatived

My DH moved from public to private in same sector, bloody massive differences, sickness is really looked down upon but they are well paid resourced etc. stress exists but you can balance the demands in your head re rewards, not just monetary but being proud of work n general professionalism.

[hammyimo]

You can really easily come unstuck with this sort of view. It might seem like this now. But i know I've made assumptions in the past then felt a real cow after they were diagnosed with some terrible illness.

I last worked for the NHS around 10 years ago. At that time we were hauled in to personnel if we had 3 incidents of sick leave in 6 months I think.

I took one day off when a 30 stone patient fell on top of me in a toilet and I injured my back. I then took two days off when I was advised to, following amnioscentesis. Then one day when I turned up at 10 weeks pregnant (having lost my baby a few months before when left to do 12 bed baths on my own) and was told I had to work in the norovirus ward because there was nobody else to do it - I refused and went home. I was called in to explain myself to personnel at that point.

You might think why - bascially you go to see occupational health who say you must not push beds, work in isolation wards or with known infection, or do bed baths on your own - and then you're just left in the position because there is nobody else to do it, there are patients waiting, relatives complaining and the ward manager doesn't give a flying toss to protect you.

I think it's difficult to see the full position if you aren't in it.

[HollaAtMeBaby]

YANBU. I hope her boss does read this! Skiving cowbag.

[feellikearubbishmummy]

YANBU

[landsahoy]

I think it is commonplace, but as long as GP's sign the sick notes there is not much you can do about it. She did admit that she picked the locums who were more likely to dish out a note :(

[knackeredmother]

Yanbu, there is definately a culture of sick leave in the nhs, particularly amongst nurses. I see it with my own eyes every day .

[DreamingOfTheMaldives]

I should have said no YANBU Op

[DreamingOfTheMaldives]

A friend of mine is a police officer and she has recently distanced herseld from a friend, who is also a colleague, because she couldn't stand to see her friend abuse the system anymore knowing that there had been redundacies and officer numbers reducing due to budget cuts.

Her 'friend' is rarely at work, always off sick because of a knee problem yet is able to go on skiing holidays, horse riding and doing physical work at the stables. She has been offered the chance to go on to restricted duties but refuses; she takes months off sick, whilst partaking in the activities mentioned above but makes miraculous recovery just as full sick pay runs out, but then goes off sick again when she is again eligible for full sick pay.

[landsahoy]

I work in a highly stressful industry, not nursing and we have a lot from our dept on long term sick too, but it is with stress and such. I think she is highly stressed, as I believe nursing can be with short staff wards, but there is just so many things that lead me to believe she is not being 100% truthful. She is brilliant at putting on the mascara and bursting into tears as soon as she goes into a meeting or to see GP. And she is very naturally thin and a bit hyper so she can make it look as though she is stressed and up a height.

[landsahoy]

I mean the children's illnesses :(. For example, one son was alledgely diagnosed with a condition that could severely affect their development but it was treatable.

Fast forward a month or so - I asked whether DS had been to hospital about problem recently as she had not mentioned it in a while.
She replied... he had been discharged as treatment was not needed at this point