To think she’s faking?

[Appleofmypie]

One of my team at work is 14 weeks pregnant. She’s been off sick for 5 weeks with severe hyperemesis and still has a week left on her sick note (she’s being signed off for 2 weeks at a time)

By complete coincidence she is Facebook friends with a friend of mine.

My friend has put some pictures on Facebook this morning of her Greek holiday she’s still on, and my work colleague is in most of them - sunbathing, eating, swimming in the sea, playing volleyball. She has obviously blocked me as she is tagged in the pictures but her name is unclickable.

I’m gonna sound like a complete cow but I think she’s faking her sickness.
She’s on full pay from work and we’re having to pay an agency temp to cover her work too. It’s a small company that is struggling and I doubt we’re going to make any profit this month due to this.

My questions are:

Should I tell/show our boss?
What evidence of hyperemesis does a GP need to see to sign you off or Could it just be on her say so?
Is she actually doing anything illegal?
I know that pregnancy sickness is covered separately to normal in terms of disciplinary but if it’s proven she’s faking could it still be gross misconduct?

Thanks

She has obviously lied to her GP too if they have signed a sick note for her

Well done that Boss ..... lying about all this to her Company was never going to be best policy in this modern social media whirlwind world we live in

It is a shocking combination of fraud and extremely unprofessional social media behaviour.

It is a shocking combination of fraud and extremely unprofessional social media behaviour.

Well, if anything, I hope the offending colleague has finally learned or figured out how to lock down their FB profile so nobody sees anything at all. It’s entirely possible. Also you can change your settings so people can’t ever tag you.

@JingsMahBucket the offending person got caught out on FB because op happened to see her in a mutual friend's pictures. Nothing she can do in her settings to avoid that unfortunately. Only thing she can do is make sure no pictures are taken if her when she's cheating her employer.

I hope the offending colleague has finally learned or figured out how to lock down their FB profile so nobody sees anything at all.

Eh? If nobody sees anything at all, what is the point of using it?

Do you think she will try and get maternity pay nevertheless? I'd have you employer look into what week she's in and whether she is entitled to it. She might have planned to resign and get sick notes until she qualifies for statutory maternity. For what you say, she is employed until the last sick day / notice period. If so, it might be worth to follow the disciplinary.

For those worried about her finances. She will get £520-£550 from the state as maternity allowance for 10 months. She's going to have some income, tax free. We don't know if she has a partner to support her, but given how careless she has been, I think she is not struggling financially anyway (paying for holidays, having the garden done, hosting barbeques...). She might have planned to stay until she qualifies for maternity, then quit afterwards... This has just brought it forward...

Do you think she will try and get maternity pay nevertheless? I'd have you employer look into what week she's in and whether she is entitled to it. She might have planned to resign and get sick notes until she qualifies for statutory maternity. For what you say, she is employed until the last sick day / notice period. If so, it might be worth to follow the disciplinary.

She won’t be eligible as she won’t be employed there in her 25th week.

For those worried about her finances. She will get £520-£550 from the state as maternity allowance for 10 months. She's going to have some income, tax free

Mat allowance is about £600 per calendar month and it’s paid for 39 weeks (not 10 months). May not be tax free if her tax code is not the standard allowance.

Please don’t advise when you clearly aren’t qualified to.

She's a nasty cheeky fucker who gives not a jot about anyone else! Well done for reporting her, op x

it does feel a bit like she has got away with her lies, which is always annoying

Oh my, Titti, I have never claimed to be qualified to give financial advice. It was £550 when I claimed 3 years ago, and £520 when I claimed 2 years early. If it's more now, better. I can't see the harm in giving an approximate number when in any case she will get more. 39 weeks is almost 10 months, can't see why it was so wrong to give approximates when anyone wanting to apply can see exactly numbers for this year right on the application website. I wanted to clarify that she is not going to have no income, as other PP suggested. Really no need to call me out on not being qualified because I never claimed to be and this is the AIBU board. I thought an approximation was better than nothing, but sorry to have offended you.

My question on whether she's entitled to maternity is because it's quite close, so maybe the OP was a bit off with the week count. At the start of the thread OP said 14 weeks, CF had about 2 weeks then, plus 4 more weeks now. That is 20 weeks, if OP was wrong about exact number of week at the start, or if her notice period is including the time off sick plus some holiday entitlement, CF might add the 25 weeks by the skin of the teeth. All I was suggesting is that they check.

Only if we had a year of Februaries would 39 weeks come close to 10 month.

39/52 is 3/4s. 3/4s of 12 is 9. 39 weeks is 9 months.

Or 52/12 is 4.3333 weeks in a month. 39 weeks/4.333 = 9.0000 months.

@Larrythecat

The average (non correcting) MN poster gets what you were saying and your best intentions

Just posting because I like the idea of being post #666

As you were!

Thanks @Tistheseason17

Right back at ya, Larry 😍

Another one hoping she gets called out for fraud.

Well done, OP. I'm impressed. Read the whole thread and am placemarking in case there are further developments.

Read the full thread as I had HG and cannot believe the cheek of your colleague!

With HG, the vomitting is constant and relentless. All your muscles end up aching and exhausted from repeated straining every day. You lose loads of strength from being stuck in bed or on the sofa/bathroom floor for weeks and weeks. The energy required to pack a suitcase would be non existent. She then would have had to travel to an airport, go through hours of check in, board an plane, sit up for hours on the plane, then get to the accommodation at the other end. There is NO way with HG.

Plus the smells. Everything smells horrible and the strength of them is overwhelming - you can smell bus poles and shoe bottoms, washing powder on people's clothes, carpet, sand, EVERYBODY'S BREATH! Taking a bus to work is hellish, let alone several hours on an air-tight plane with dozens of other people in close proximity having to smell every single disgusting thing. She'd have spent the entire flight on the floor of the grotty plane loo, which would have made her vomit more.

This is longer than I intended. TL;DR: simply no way, not with genuine HG, could she has gone on holiday to Greece. The limit of your ability idis sofa to bathroom and back again, and even that is too much sometimes.