Going to work sick when on a warning.

[divadee]

Ok. I can assure you this is hypothetical as I am not on a warning! But me and my partner were talking tonight about when you have had too many sick days in a year due to genuine illness that when you get sick again you go into work and pass it on to everyone else. Can work tell you off for this? It seems a tad unfair that you can get a bollocking for having too many sick days and then a bollocking for going in sick. Say if you had chicken pox or a tummy bug and you went into work...... work go nuts and send you home, can they they give you a warning for being off too much?

My work policy is either 3 instances in 12 months OR 6 days over the same period - whichever you hit first triggers a warning, and another single absence of any length moves you to the next stage of the absence management policy. It's worryingly easy to hit that trigger and I say that as someone who's probably taken a total of less than 20 sick days in 20 years of full time employment.

tulips The council I worked for dismissed people for totally justifiable sickness. I went into work ill as I needed the job.

I used to work for the nhs and one ex colleague was told by her manager that she was to come into work even if vomiting (front line health care professional) or she would be sacked. She actually broke her leg soon afterwards and was sacked for that.

Everywhere that i have worked have had different policies.

One would send you home at the littlest sign of sickness with no comeback.
One would refuse to send you home when throwing up and that was a place where you handled food but wasnt a restaurant.
One would only allow you to take your weekly contract hours off per year. So for example if your contract was 6 hours per week you were only allowed 6 hours off per year. Most days i worked more than 6 hours so all it took was one day off sick and you had hit your limit for the year.

I think it really depends.

You could be off sick for chicken pox, appendicitis and then have flu - I suspect even after a warning management would have more of a ‘we have to follow policy but we’re aware this is just bad luck’ sort of position.

However if your three times off were all colds and then you get another one which hits a trigger I’d expect they’d be less understanding.

I work in a call centre for a large high street bank and generally they’re very generous with the sickness policy.

I’m really grateful to work somewhere they’re generous with sick leave (not amazingly so but more than average). We get 1 week a year at full pay in the first two years then an additional week up to 5 weeks fully paid.

You’d never be expected to work whilst too unwell. In the situation you describe you’d be sent home with no affect to your record.

Effect. Bah.

My work has a meeting with HR and your line manager if you’re off twice in six months, but I think most managers are sensible about it. I was off for a few days with a really heavy cold, went back when I was still really unwell, and it turned into a chest infection - the GP gave me antibiotics and told me I needed to completely rest my voice because speaking triggered coughing fits. I’m a lecturer, so that left me unable to do the bulk of my job. My manager opted to block the HR meeting and took it as part of the same illness.

After the HR meeting any “support” needed is put in place, potentially with input from OH. I have only once seen a person effectively managed out in terms of illness, and that person was frequently spotted out shopping/socialising when off sick. I can remember leaving work early one day because I had covered that person’s classes and had no lunch break, then running into them in John Lewis with tons of shopping bags!

DH works for the NHS, they get a warning on the third absence irrespective of whether you have a Drs note or note and apart from potentially getting your co-workers ill, they are also usually dealing with vulnerable members of the public. One of his colleagues got a warning despite being in a workplace accident, witnessed by his boss, he made the mistake of trying to return too soon and had to go back off again, triggering a warning.

I've had one for 3 episodes in a year. One tummy bug in August, sent home by work. One chest infection in Dec, sent home by work, another tummy bug in the following June, sent home from work. My manager was very apologetic when he gave me the letter. i told him I was going to file it beside all the lovely letters I'd been sent when I hadn't been off ill for the previous 12 years....i'e. I paid it no mind at all, didn't even open it, just dropped it in the bin like it never existed.

About a week later, I developed 12 (yes, I counted them) ulcers on my tongue, and sore roof of the mouth. It was actually most painful over the weekend (mostly when talking/eating).

Sounds like hand, foot and mouth. Not chicken pox.

We have a sickness policy at work. I think it's 3 periods of sick in a year and the 4th you get a warning. I have been off 5 times. Three times with miscarriage, once with shingles and once with appendicitis (busy year for me!). They were fine with all of them and took my circumstances in to consideration.

I suspect if I was off with a cold or sniffles 4 times then had appendicitis they would be less kind.

In my workplace, it would trigger an HR meeting but I don't think there would be a warning issued unless the circumstances were really suspicious or you were underperforming.

If the preceding times were short absences (e.g. all colds or sore back/head) you'd probably get an occ health referral.

They are quite generous with work from home though, so if you're infectious but can still work you probably don't need to take a sick day.

My work has recently brought in the 3 absences in a year policy. I think it's completely unreasonable, you can easily have a few viruses in that time especially if you work in health or education. I need to make sure I pick up no bugs before June 2019!

Where I work it’s 3 absences in 6 months to trigger a warning and currently I’m dragging myself into work when I really shouldn’t be to avoid one.

I have a disability so I’m sure any warning I did get would be a friendly chat about my issues as they are all disability related absences however I don’t really want to find out, we have very little option to wfh so it’s a case of dragging myself in in my chair and powering through as best I can.

My line manager is great and really gets my condition the next manager isn’t so good so having a few issues including with my requested occupational health referral

A colleague did this gave the entire company norovirus!! She had 3 episodes and was worried about a 4th (one migraine and 2 early miscarriages).

The entire business ground to halt (small company). She just kept her mouth shut and said nothing but she knew she was patient zero lol 😂

My NHS trust adopted a really fascistic sickness policy a few years back. More than two absences in a year and you move up a monitoring stage, after level 3 they sack you. Pregnancy related disorders are excluded, but work related injuries aren't (and being assaulted by patients is a very regular occurrence, so there are plenty of these). Managers are not able to use any discretion.

What I and most other people do is basically come to work unless I am so seriously ill that I can't. So I go in to spread coughs and colds and other minor illnesses around (including potentially to patients). It is absolutely not good, but what are staff meant to do? I wouldn't go in with chicken pox though.

I think the sickness policy is short sighted as it means the whole team is constantly suffering from a cold or tummy bug, which effects the quality of work, and patients spend longer in hospital if they become unwell.

I still.come in when sick, though, as I cannot afford to loose my job.

The HR Department at the council I worked at were quite clear that it was not about weeding out illnesses that were not genuine. The position was that if you are ill more than 10 days a year, you can not perform your job, so should be sacked. Was totally brutal.

I have a chronic medical condition and when I worked for the NHS I'd often go in half dead. Either that or another stern lecture and threats from HR. I left the NHS I thought their attitude was disgusting.

Me too purplefrog it was just awful. I was definitely forced out, the hilarious thing is they can't fill my specialised post and have asked me to come back. I told them to get stuffed.

Wow. I honestly had no real idea that people were treated like this at work. I've only ever worked for the private sector and never been aware of any kind of repercussions for absence. Most of my colleagues have been off for a few days here and there over the last 12 months - no-one bats an eyelid.

In general if someone doesn't feel especially well then they can always work from home. But if someone is genuinely ill (or at least calls in sick via the HR absence line) then I've never heard of anyone having any disciplinary steps taken.

This seems to be the case for senior partners to secretaries - it seems I'm very lucky to work somewhere like this!

I worked for a place where they called me into a very accusatory meeting for taking annual sick days of...4.

They said it was 'an awful lot of unpaid time' and sent me a rude letter. 4 sick days in a year is half the national average.

Turned out they were struggling to pay salaries after the MD overspent on a massive pet project.

The same company docked my salary for sitting up with my dad in intensive care for 2 days a year later - changing the policy on paid compassionate leave within 20 minutes of me using the hospital payphone.

They wouldn't admit it.But the MD couldn't understand that the internal doc system captured times, dates and authors of documents.

The internal doc system was identical to the systems we sold to clients for seven figures

Where i used to work it was 3 periods of absence in 6 months would trigger a zero tolerance sickness policy. I suffer migraines, i went through a particularly bad time with them getting maybe 2 or 3 a month. It triggered the policy i was told i needed to bring a sick note each time i was poorly. The next day i developed a migraine in work, they saw the state i was in, slurred speech, numb face and arm, vomitting, blurred vision they realised there was actually no way i could work like that and made allowances for migraines. I did however have to prove i was seeing a doctor to try and get them under control. Any other illness though would have still put me in breech of the zero tolerance policy and I'd need a sick note, its to stop the company losing money on people pulling 'sickies'. Genuine illness cant be helped though.

It's totally luck depending on the management and how they apply policies imo. I worked for morrisons at age 16, hadn't been off sick once then got an appendicitis. I know its policy to call in sick yourself but my mum called in as I literally couldn't what with being under anaesthetic but I called as soon as it wore off. A male manager 30 years my senior forced me to show him my appendix scar and even then gave me a bollocking for not coming in sooner. I was only off 2 weeks!

Ex DH worked for a bank in the 1990s. Policy was , one person off at a time, everyone else had to go in no matter what
Fantastic idea having someone with norovirus handing money to elderly and possibly immunosuppressed people.
.

My work used to work on a Bradford score basis, anything above 100 and you were placed on a wellbeing plan (which is a chat and a form to say try and not be sick for 3 months). This has recently changed so your attendance needs to be above 97%. Not sure what mine is now as haven't had a meeting since I returned to work on Monday but I've been off a fair bit over the past 12 months, with both dependents leave and sickness after picking up whatever DS had after being off with him. Don't really know what I'm meant to do about that to be honest. I sense that they are very wary of taking things any further than a wellbeing plan and I've only ever known 1 person to get the sack for sickness levels but that was because she kept ringing in sick on a Saturday or Sunday when she was obviously hungover and also when she had been refused annual leave. She was fairly new though so I think they just failed her probation and got rid.