To be angry that husband has been called back to work

[Vitotitto]

Yesterday my DH felt unwell. He told that to his team leader. Today he had the fever and messaged him (team leader) that he decided to stay home.

At 5 pm DH received a call. Team leader asked to come to work as he is calling sick too often (to manage's point of view).

He had 3 days of absence in September 2017 (with enterovirus coxsackie, even visited his doctor that time) and 2 days in December 2017 (kind of cold).

He got today's virus last week from another guy who came ill (very obviously).

Team leader told him today that one of the bosses said that "diarrhoea is not enough to miss work". Err... Excuse me?

What to do? Visit HR?

That's not normal, isn't it?

Yes but jasey that’s because retailers are universally recognised as shit employers so I really don’t think we should be judging them as a yard stick

I am off sick today with a sort of cold. And would be tomorrow too if it wasn't my day off. I say sort of a cold because it's a sore throat, sore ears and coughing, and a fever. However, it is my first day off for two years (which have included several lesser colds!), so nobody is ordering me back in. Might the team leader be giving him a clumsy heads up that his sickness is under scrutiny which might be avoided if he came in, rather than actually telling him to come to work?

Does his sickness policy allow him just to just to message the team leader?

I've never had those terms and conditions before, mine has always said you must ring.
He could be in trouble for not following policy.

Your husband sickness is very high.

"I would query someone demanding someone comes in when ill"

Yes, how does that square with workplace health and safety. If the DH gets worse because he couldn't rest, wouldn't that make the manager responsible?

Not necessarily. It’s fine to tell a member of a staff in a sickness review that they should be coming in with minor cough and colds.

Not Whilst they’re at home though.

The reason you need to clear that up is Every single skiver I’ve disciplined for sickness (in 15 years also) will throw out the “I can’t come in and infect everyone, how could you be so awful and irresponsible what about health and safety” line

Well shit, I would have been fired multiple times. A month off for meningoencephalitis where I almost died, two weeks off for 2 severe kidney infections, week off for viral conjunctivitis....

We don't even have to call the Team Leader to report sickness. Each company has a different policy and I'm sure the OP's husband is aware of his.

they expect you to come in so they can judge if you're fit enough

And how exactly are they (or you) qualified to do that? When you sacked people for being ill were you using medical qualifications to judge them as malingerers? If you sacked people for less than the DH here that would be two illnesses?

Its no wonder morale and productivity are so low in the UK. When employers treat staff like disposable commodities to be dumped at the hint of any individual needs, why on earth should staff give a monkeys about employers?

Degustibusnonestdisputandem1

Well no, you probably wouldn't be fired as you quite clearly aren't taking the piss. Not sure if you've been to an OH meeting or not, but the likelihood is that you wouldn't need to if you've recovered and are fine now.

Workplaces have a duty of care to people who have disabilities or health conditions. Usually workplaces will be understanding and try to support an unwell employee - but the notifications are there for a reason and that's to address whether someone is capable of undertaking the role.

There would be many meetings and many support measures put in place.

If someone's sick level is so high, or generally avoidable, then it may not be sustainable in the long term. Hence getting a notification of concern.

It also varies from company to company - some will have a hard line 'you trigger, you get a warning (which you may be able to appeal) and others would leave manager's to issue notifications at their own discretion.

Exactly Radio, each company has different policies.
I don't have to call; I can email/text my line manager.
We don't have interviews after a couple of days off; if over a week then yeah (along with a Dr's notice).

And diarrhoea is definitely a reason to stay home in my opinion...

In my workplace, it would be the fact it's 3 separate occurrences, rather than 1 long dose of say the flu.

Well presumably Degustibusnonestdisputandem1 it wasn’t too hard for you to get a doctors note for that

So in five months he has had six sick days off. That's quite high actually for trivial illnesses. I don't know what the answer is though. Off sick with a cold does sound a bit feeble though.

We don't have interviews after a couple of days off; if over a week then yeah (along with a Dr's notice).

But what if someone keeps taking a couple of days off every month or so? It would be incredibly unusually for a company to be fine with that as they'd lose a lot of money in the long run.

We use the Bradford Factor at work and have done for years. I've only had it triggered twice in over 10 years of managing staff. Both those cases were because of a minor illness several months after returning to work after a major illness.

3 minor incidents in 5 months would decinitely be a trigger, TBH his manager should have said after the cold that he would have to face an investigation if he was sick again in the next year.

Having said that it seems very bad practice to insist he goes in. And early intervention should try and identify the root cause and help him address that rather than going in heavy handed.

Hmm, I think a sort of cold is not enough to be off sick for 2 days, sore throat, cough, fever for me would be the time to dose up, it would have to be a lot worse IMO to stay at home. Diarrhoea is a definite reason to stay at home, although I can work from home so I don't need to call in sick so maybe my view is slightly skewed, I just stay away from the office.

Some people are off at every little thing and it does piss people off but just as annoying are those who are really ill and insist on coming in and spreading their germs round.

I do think they were out of order asking him to come in, if they have an issue then they should address it at a meeting on his return.

Thank you all for the replies. Not a single day of the absence was made up. Genuine fever, running nose, sore throat, etc. He has specific thing, lots of tears, it looks like he is crying when he is I'll, so it's really uncomfortable to work. You can never tell I'm I'll for example, but when it comes to my DH it is VERY obvious he is unwell.

He is incredibly responsible at anything and run off to work first thing after the call . But I'm angry. He works in fast paced production, one year at this company (9 years in previous company).

I worked in a supermarket bakery, had conjunctivitis and they wouldn't send me home

But there’s been so many illnesses going round this year, I’d say quite a few people have had 2-3 bouts of illnesses over the winter period inc the cough that cannot be got rid of virus! What are you supposed to do? Go in really sick infecting everyone on the commute and office, do a really shit job and potentially make mistakes that get the company sued cos you feel so ill.

Another voice for too much in a short time. Sadly the winter is germs season so it can catch people out.

Basically if it isn't D&V or debilitating then colds etc must be battled and worked through.

I agree that it does little to improve the overall health of employees (because you're encouraging a culture of germ spreading) but companies have to draw the line somewhere.

To be fair to my place, long term sickness absence is treated impeccably. I was off for 6 months 3 years ago with no consequence to my job, however I almost fell foul of the policies when I contracted D&V 9 months after my return because any sick absence would have triggered a review (fortunately I can work from home so managed to get my hours in across two extra weeks before payroll cut off).

Unbelievable Theweasleytwins!

We are all meant to be robots now and never be ill. Pisses me off no end that at work a really good member of staff who would give his last breath for the organisation has just been displined over absence and yet the prat who sits opposite me who gets his arse in everyday but does little else gets away with it.

Apparently meeting targets doesn't matter as long as you appear every day, this chump has missed a load of targets, left volunteers without supervision, plays on Facebook for most of the day, is rude to other staff and clients, sends things out with the wrong information on etc etc
The guy who has just been disciplined has met all his targets, clients ask for him a lot and every outside of work event that happens (we have a presence at lots of community events) he is there showing his support.

I know who I would rather have working for me.

3 periods of absence would usually trigger an absence meeting in my place of work. Then thry look at the bradford factor

They are reasonable and fair in the meeting. I had one and it was fine. As they said, thry need an attendance policy to track absence but they are only going to have concerns if there is a pattern or there's a lot of time off.

I'd say it sounds like he has quite a bit off. But work shouldnt have called him in

Three absences does seem a lot and he has had more days off sick than both of my children have had off school in the last three years!
I think it is standard policy to review after three absences so it’s only fair, and all staff will be treated the same. It’s a shame he had to take time off in December for his cold as it probably didn’t really necessitate it.

Its the short term absence that gets me. Somehow having four separate days off in a year is treated worse then having six months off. If you have a disability such as epilepsy or if you suffer from migraine where you might take short term absences rather then a long stretch you might as well not bother and just claim the dole or esa.