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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Original poster

Sick leave in the public sector? (title amended by MNHQ)

285 replies

Cutecat78 · 23/02/2016 20:38

Not really an AIBU but wonder what happens in other workplaces as I feel like I'm in the twilight zone.

I work for the LA. Loads of redundancies and loads of people going on "long term sick".

Call me cynical but the people who do this (there are two repeat offenders - oh and our manager who was moved to our team and didn't want to be then went on 6 months sick leave on full pay) do not seem stressed they just go off with it or a bad back when they don't like their job (they couldn't possibly leave and work somewhere else as then they might miss out on redundancy in the next wave of cuts - which have been every year for the last 5/6).

Offender one has been suspended for 4 months on a disciplinary - but is now "on long term sick leave" as his GP doesn't seem impartial to handing him out sick notes like smarties. Last year he had 3 months off with a bad back and the year before had about 4 months off with said back but has also had time off being suspended too - he's utterly incompetent and anywhere other than the LA he would have been sacked years ago.

Offender 2 has been off for 7/8 months (1st 6 months full pay, next 6 1/2 pay). Also utterly incompetent (moans constantly about being over worked whilst swanning out of office for 2 hour nail appt etc).

She had been told to come back or she will be dismissed. Although when we questioned where she was our manager informed us "well she has so much leave to take".

Our LA's are going bankrupt yet this is allowed to carry on because of some overly PC policies on acid.

It's so frustrating.

OP posts:
Original poster
Cutecat78 · 24/02/2016 16:44

Thing is as a team we take pride in our work too and it's well known by outside agencies too that these two are monumental piss takers and as a team it's embarrassing and makes is look awful (not responding to emails/phone calls, not turning up to meetings) because they are never at work

OP posts:
Buckinbronco · 24/02/2016 16:46

Cute cat, your managers are to blame though. It's disgraceful that they are paid to manage and can't.

Itisbetternow · 24/02/2016 16:48

I'm public sector and we monitor sick leave using the Bradford scale. Everyone who has a day off sick has to complete a return to work form and their Bradford scale is calculated. This is reported at senior levels. As soon as the scale hits a certain level which picks up patterns too then we are immediately talking to the staff etc. How sick level is low. Obviously we have long term sickness with cancer, etc but staff do not take the piss.

DeoGratias · 24/02/2016 17:18

Buck, come on - it is not the managers who are at fault - typical public sector cop out. It's the lazy work shy sick leave abuser who is at fault (and the system which pays people when off sick when the state doesn't have to other than SSP and we cannot afford it to).

Tabsicle · 24/02/2016 17:20

ConkersDontScareSpiders - to be fair, when I was sectioned my partner emailed my work to say I was in hospital and not to expect me the next day (which staggered them as they had apparently not noticed incidents like me hiding in the stationary cupboard because I was scared or going for hour long runs in skirt and heels at lunchtime to burn off energy. God knows how).

He then emailed again on the Monday to say I'd been signed off for two months and scanned and sent in my sick note. After that, my CPN took over as liaison.

But I didn't phone and really really wasn't capable. I was just challenging the idea that sickness should be visible (mine apparently wasn't) and that the unwell should keep in touch. I didn't really.

Tabsicle · 24/02/2016 17:25

I'm also a bit staggered by the slagging off of decent sick pay. Years ago, when I was a student, my OH worked in a bank. He got sick - double pneumonia, with complications - and was signed off for a couple of months. His bank only gave him SSP. It was hell. He'd have been better off being sacked as he could have claimed housing benefit then. Instead he couldn't pay the rent and, at a time when he was seriously ill, was getting threatening calls from his landlord who was trying to evict him and was scared to put the heating on.

I think any company that only offers SSP should be ashamed of themselves.

lazyarse123 · 24/02/2016 17:33

I also worked in a small LA school and over a period of 10 years i knew of 3 people who took 6 months off with full sick pay because they felt they were unfairly treated and then resigned. These people were quite open with the rest of the staff as we were friends and no manager worked with us. I now work in the private sector and over the past 10 years i know of only 1 person who did this for 6 months, the manager also knew about it but as she had a doctors note there was nothing she could do about it apparently until 9 months had passed and by then the person involved was back at work. There will always be piss takers when full sick pay is available.

achillesratty · 24/02/2016 17:34

I worked in the Public Sector and my last job was in an Occupational Health Unit that monitored absence. You have no idea of what is wrong with these people, you presume nothing because you know nothing, only what they choose to reveal in public.

One of the reason people with long term illness don't want to come back to work is because they get judged by people who have no idea what they have been through. What would you like them to do, send you a list of their illnesses so you and your friends can decide if they are genuine or not. One man I knew used to joke with colleagues about "taking a month off with stress because he needed to redecorate/do the garden/go on holiday" because he was ashamed to admit he was still recovering from a psychotic break following the torture and murder of a family member. If that wasn't enough he had to come back to work to comments like the ones you have made, he never told anyone what what wrong because the didn't want to discuss something that personal with strangers. If you want to say if someone is fit for work train as a Doctor or go and work for someone like the odious Maximus (ATOS), they find everyone fit for work, even the dead.

FlatOnTheHill · 24/02/2016 17:40

OP is NOT disablist at all. The OP is telling us what they see at work. And some people do take the piss. Using the 'stress card' to take weeks off is the oldest trick in the book.

I agree there are genuine cases of stress but there are also those that take the piss and get away with it. Stop giving the OP a,hard time. I work in the private sector. You never get all this shit.

FlatOnTheHill · 24/02/2016 17:43

William
You are spot on.

FlatOnTheHill · 24/02/2016 17:47

Ilovesooty
Re-read the bereavement comment for goodness sake. Always making something out of a,comment, adding and twisting. Hmm

Buckinbronco · 24/02/2016 17:47

Deo - part of a managers role is to manage absence. Obviously is unrealistic to expect them not to bother doing it and expect the employees to be honest upstanding citizens who won't try and get a free 6 months at home Hmm

FlatOnTheHill · 24/02/2016 17:52

Monty27
Some people are not genuinely ill, like yourself. Nasty to call the OP evil.
You dont work there.

DeoGratias · 24/02/2016 17:56

I just want the fault to lie where it should - the skivers in the main and a weak bloated state which pays public sectors workers more in many cases that those of us who pay their wages in the private sector. It would not be hard to ensure all new teachers, nurses etc were offered contracts saying SSP only.

tobysmum77 · 24/02/2016 17:56

I have only ever known one person take long term sick leave in almost 4 decades of working in London (spine tumour). I wonder why workers in the public sector are so much more susceptible to illness.

Having worked in both I would say that the working conditions in the private sector are better. And work related stress is seen as an issue to address rather than inherent weakness of the sick person. The carping of 'ooh she's off again doesn't happen and the reaction is 'I hope x is ok'

As a result people take less time off (and my private sector employer pays sick pay)

LilacSpunkMonkey · 24/02/2016 17:58

You don't work there either Flat...

tobysmum77 · 24/02/2016 18:00

It would not be hard to ensure all new teachers, nurses etc were offered contracts saying SSP only.

Yeah because those jobs are an overpaid walk in the park ...... Hmm

Perfectlypurple · 24/02/2016 18:04

itisbetternow we use the Bradford factor too. It is still open to abuse. I have one staff member who goes up to stage 1 informal so he cannot accrue 50 points in the next 6 months or 100 points in the next 12 months. He stays just under that so he then goes back to normal monitoring. The next year he does exactly the same. Every bloody year. I have just taken over the team and have to deal with his sickness there are strict guidelines I have to follow. So if he carries on for the next God knows how many years nothing can be done.

Tabsicle · 24/02/2016 18:10

DeoGratias - you do know how little SSP is? Do you really think that's all anyone should get? You really think being unable to pay your rent or afford food to eat encourages people to beat cancer or other serious conditions?

ilovesooty · 24/02/2016 18:13

So Flat I'm interested in how you'd care to substantiate your comment about me upthread.

FlatOnTheHill · 24/02/2016 18:20

Ilove
Its the same on all posts. Its a pattern. Never see anything nice, happy or jolly. Always snipes at OPs. Always picking the bones out of every comment.
Basically happy being miserable. Please be happy Thanks

Original poster
Cutecat78 · 24/02/2016 18:24

Well - I also pay my own wages as I pay tax, I contribute to the wages of the staff in my local Tesco too and my hairdresser and my Dr and my local pub...

We are paid fairly well and we get good holidays (6 weeks a year).

OP posts:
Sleepflower43 · 24/02/2016 18:27

Cute cat, I've worked in the MOD for almost 20 years. We have never been allowed to take 28 days self certified sick leave.
Your friends who claimed to have done this are talking utter bollocks, but obviously know which buttons to push to get you wound up!

ilovesooty · 24/02/2016 18:28

Obviously Flat the definition of substantiate has eluded you. I'd also consider it untrue but unlike you I intend to have the basic manners not to divert the thread by attacking a fellow poster.

Original poster
Cutecat78 · 24/02/2016 18:29

sleep this was over 20 yrs ago ....

OH is military and they have to get a Drs note on the first day they are ill (spreading their germs all round the waiting room) 😂.

OP posts: