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?

These sickness absence policies really frustrate me: as someone with a long term illness they could really do me in. I get treated badly enough as it is, getting negative marks in performance reviews for having been off sick and told I need to manage my illness better. Luckily for me, I’m classified by work as disabled so they just have to shut up and put up ultimately. (For reference the time off they are complaining about is 2.5 days in 2.5 years.)

But people are human and I really do think that workplaces should be more flexible - but it is bad luck to come down with that many things. If he has an underlying condition which is making things worse, make sure he discloses that to his workplace.

There will be a sickness policy at his work, tell him to read it and see what policy's in place

Third time since September is quite a lot of sickness in my experience abs two dats off for a cold is not a good sign but fever and coxsackie (was that diagnosed!?) is fair enough

Etymology- 2.5 days off in two years .... can't believe that's a problem, perhaps 2.5 days a week but in two years ... ridiculous to even mention it to you!

So is it a cold as mentioned in your last post or diarrhoea aS mentioned further up?

These sickness absence policies really frustrate me: as someone with a long term illness they could really do me in.

But that's part of the point of having absence reviews. If you have a long term illness, it can be managed, but only if it's known about. Employers are expected to make reasonable adjustments for disabilities, but they can only do that if they've been told about the disability. They're not going to set a higher absence trigger or allow some sort of flexible working arrangement for someone who gets frequent migraines if they don't know about it.

Our absence reviews are triggered by 5 separate absences in a rolling year, which I did once hit - I just had a bad year with bad infections and so on. I suspect that my immune system was a bit battered so I was more prone to picking up bugs which were going round than I normally am. But it was discussed, my manager (who had never heard of the Bradford factor or the like,) was happy it was all genuine illness, and HR were satisfied there's nothing else going on. (Actually, I think the over-all patterns of minor sickness absence for our department as a whole is high and connected to the departmental culture, which is bullying in some aspects, so I would like to think HR have an eye on that sort of pattern, too, not just individuals, but I don't know.)

Absence management policies are a tool. Used well, they can help ensure people have the support they need, as well as pick up on patterns of skiving. But like any tool, it's down to how it's used and some employers will do no more than the bare minimum required by law and will use it to push out anyone not living up to superhuman standards.

EBear I agree the company can only help if they know about it, but as per the rest of my post, I'm classified as disabled by the company and they still get arsey about it, including giving me probably discriminatory review points that relate to my illness. The policy is only helpful if the person wielding the power is benign.

EBear - sorry clearly didn't finish reading your posts - my last one was unnecessarily grumpy!

I've never worked anywhere where staff haven't been terrified to call in sick tbh. Only worked in 2 places with sick pay so many can't afford to be off. I work in care now, felt fine the other morning then just threw up at work 10 hours into a 12 hour shift. The manager tried to force me to stay! I refused on the grounds that if it was a bug and it got passed onto vulnerable residents then an outbreak would be awful and some of them may even die as obviously their health is so fragile and it would only take something small to possibly be the end for them.
When I worked for BHS in the restaurant I felt really ill but was too anxious to call in sick. Halfway through I asked to go home as I felt awful and they said no. I ended up fainting!

Before sept how was his attendance op?