Colleague off sick, don't want her to come back. AIBU?

[Penny80]

Colleague currently off sick, has been for two months and will be for another month at least. The reason given on her sick note is not true, but would've been very hard for a doctor to doubt her. She planned to go off sick and told more than one colleague that this was her intent. Manager is aware of this but has to deal with her by the book so unable to confront etc.

Colleague has a history of poor behaviour in the office, she is snippy and outright nasty to other staff, including one in particular who has been very upset by it. In my mind this clearly amounts to bullying. Wouldn't be the first time, colleague was investigated by previous manager (same company different department) for similar behaviour, accusation was completely true but colleague never accepted it - witch hunt, conspiracy blah blah blah. Measures were put in place but she soon after moved teams.

She is a horrible person and although I only work part time I find she makes the office so tense and uncomfortable that even though we've been short staffed that it's much better without her there. Everyone is noticeably happier.

Writing this now I feel like there's no way I'm being unreasonable (maybe people will disagree with that) but DH and a couple of friends who don't know colleague have suggested I should be more understanding and maybe she's really ill (she isn't). It's hard to explain the impact one person has in the office but it's a small team and she's so horrible there's just not enough people to dilute her influence iyswim.

It's not clear at this stage if she will be returning. AIBU to not care about her and hope that she doesn't come back? Feel a bit heartless but secretly happy I don't have to deal with her at the moment. Obviously NC btw.

She told everyone she intended to go off sick ….

Yeah sure she did.....

I agree with previous posters.... you sound quite unpleasant.

@maggycool manager was not made aware of everything until recently. She isn't always in the office due to the job so off sick colleague has got away with stuff. A lot of what she does is low level bullying but has a cumulative effect, manager knows what colleague is capable of, she has had run ins with her as well, but it would've been difficult for her to witness enough to see exactly what has been going on. If colleague returns manager will be addressing everything now she is aware of it all.

Can't say exactly what industry it is, it's set up like local government, national organisation.

@pennylulu not really fussed if you don't believe me, but it is true.

My colleague was going on about how she was too 'sensitive' for the job. And unless you've worked in the public sector, you have no idea how difficult it is to fire someone.

OP your colleague sounds exactly like the person who made me leave my last job.

They’re still there (have been off sick for a long time) and they have history of using sexual favours to get what she wanted, physical assault, manipulation, out and out lying. Yet she’s still there.

I feel for you.

One of my colleagues did this to avoid being sacked. Pissed round for a full year with different excuses.

To the poster saying the doctor has lied, when I had a very serious accident, I was signed off for 2 weeks by a doctor in the hospital who had seen the injury. I then had to go to my GP for another sick note. I offered to undo the dressings so the GP could see the extent of the damage. He declined, saying it might make him feel sick! He signed me off for 2 and a half months, by which time I could hobble so went back to work. So I think that you can get signed off for quite a while with GPS ready to do so without even seeing/really knowing what’s wrong or how serious it is.

A PHQ9 is not a 'clinical test' it's simply a brief questionnaire.

This sounds like a very similar situation to my work place. There is a Department of 8 staff but part of a much larger public sector organisation. 1 of the staff has been in trouble for bullying before and was moved to this department. When she joined she was initially pleasant but then her bullying side emerged and another colleague is now receiving counselling as a result of her behaviour towards her. This person is now under investigation as she turned on another member of the team when her original victim was off with stress caused by her bullying. The second victim reported them straight away, unfortunately it looks like the action will be to move them yet again to another department in the same organisation, so that's just passing the problem on and not dealing with it.

You’re not the lady who’s colleague went off sick and went abroad, posting photos on fb?

In my experience if someone is off sick on a long term basis, fabricated or not, something has happened to want to make them stay away from work. She may feel under pressure and unable to cope especially if she feels people in the office don’t like her.

I agree with previous posters.... you sound quite unpleasant.

And you look like someone turning themselves inside out to find a way to have a swipe at the OP. Did you even bother to read her posts?

Try and get her fired, complain to HR she's not really sick

@WhaleofaThyme

Are you the OPs colleague in question?

@AmazinglyGrace no that's not me.

Drs do write suck notes when they know they are not true - I used to work for one who did that.

But it's more likely that the colleague lied to the Dr to get signed off.

Not BU to wish a toxic colleague to never come back. Hopefully the manager sorts a disciplinary.

By the way OP I fully agree with you. Your colleagues behaviour is despicable. It is very easy to get signed off by doctors nowadays

That's not unlikley, bevelino

I have worked with a few unpleasant individuals who used long term sickness as part of their coping mechanisms. It would never have crossed their minds that their own behaviour caused ill feelings in the workplace. They would perceive themselves as the victim of bullying.

Not quite sure how that ever gets solved, long term. But OP isn't BU to be relieved/happy whenever that colleague is out of the office, nor to think that work would be far happier if she found another job, became an SEP (the usual temporary solution).

Whale apologises to everyone, I got it wrong.

Thank you for pulling me up and pointing it out.

Sick notes!

Don't worry about it Whale Chances are the truth of the issue lies somewhere between your perspective and OPs. Apologies aren't necessary, for me at least.

I keep hoping my horrible line manager will stay on in one her houses/chateaux/squats in France. Or Brexit negotiations will prevent her re-entry into my life.

@bevelino she has been unhappy with changes in the department since February. The changes have been relatively small but have impacted us because it's a small team. Manager has been doing her best to steer the team through it all and imo has done a really good job so far but colleague dislikes the manager and thinks she hasn't tried hard enough to facilitate the changes. She wants the changes reversed, or some significant variation made. It's just not going to happen for good business reasons but colleague thought she would be able to force managers hand by going sick as she felt she was indispensable

Sorry this is sounding vague, difficult to be specific without being more outing.

Your employers have an extremely generous sickness policy. There can't be many businesses that could afford to pay someone in full when they're off for 6 months.

@Bibesia it's a large national organisation. It mimics local government set up, is effectively run like public sector but isn't. We are very lucky in respect of things like this, we get no 'perks' or bonuses but have very generous sick pay and maternity leave etc. It is likely why they have high staff retention.