Social media use whilst off work sick

[DesertOrchid558]

At work we've seen colleagues who are on long term sickness or 'working from home' posting images of themselves raising a glass or happily socialising ..either posted themselves or tagged in by other people. Not to discredit their situation but it is hard to swallow for those of us stuck for hours in a hot office day in day out. Maybe it's part of their recovery process?

I have a colleague who requested a weeks annual leave to attend a certain event. Our manager declined it as there were a few others already off. She didn’t turn up the day the event was being held and we were told she had been signed off with stress. She was then seen in the official photos of the event.

Still not sure how I feel about that tbh.

BathshebaKnickerStickers
Your manager knows your situation and should have told the person concerned to butt out and backed you.

It depends entirely on what they are off sick with, obviously.

It depends on the context but your view is outdated.

There is this view that if you are off sick for any reason you should shut yourself in your house and not go out and that's isolating and counterproductive.

Ok, going out clubbing or jetting off on holiday is BS but going out for a meal with friends or a trip to the cinema should not be frowned upon.

I think most people in relatively high pressure environments ‘law, finance, teaching, medicine’ don’t deem stress as a valid reason to be signed off!

stress sign offs are seen as ‘cop outs’ and ‘CF’s’ ... because EVERYONE is stressed and your being signed off just increases everyone else’s stress!
Physical and mental health issues are give sympathy but ‘stress’ Isn’t viewed as either of these (rightly or wrongly).

Are you dim? Can you not understand there’s a difference between the level of stress you may deal with day to day in your job, and a level of stress that renders you basically unable to function? You seem unaware of the fact that stress doesn’t necessarily have to relate to work either. I’m very pleased you’ve never been through such a stressful life event that you’ve needed some time away from work to put yourself back together, but that’s really luck on your behalf tbh.

It’s also worrying you can’t see that there are many jobs where someone undergoing extreme stress really is better, for their employer and themselves, being away from work rather than at work.

I work in healthcare in a high stress, high pressure environment. The job comes with stress and we (my team and I) all embrace it. It’s unheard of for anyone to be signed off with work related stress as it’s such a supportive environment and we have management that listen to us when we’re struggling and put things in place to support us. But people do get signed off with stress for other reasons, it’s a generic term for when someone doesn’t feel capable of coming into work and doing their job adequately because of other demands or pressures or emotional difficulties that don’t necessarily indicate a mental disorder like depression or anxiety. The coworker whose son had to go through a round of hospital tests for suspected cancer was signed off with stress for a month so she could be with him at all of the appointments and because she couldn’t possibly do her job properly with all of this going on knowing her little boy needed his mum with him and dealing with the worry that his cancer had come back. Another coworker’s husband left her out of the blue, they were renting and she was in absolutely no state to be coming in and dealing with vulnerable patients who demand and expect a lot from us and for whom you have to be on top of your game, she was signed off with stress for a couple of weeks to get the basic practical issues sorted and get her head together a bit from the shock before returning. Etc.

Stress is a normal part of being a human and work isn’t everything and I’d much rather my doctor be signed off with stress because he can’t cope with the unreasonable workload or his best friend has just been killed than struggle in and do the job distracted and make mistakes because people like you have led such a charmed life you lack the imagination and cognitive ability to recognise that people have good reasons to be signed off with stress.

When I was pregnant the first time I was off sick for a few days towards the end- I had a job where I was on my feet all day and it was very hot where I worked, I really wasn't coping. But that didn't mean I could go and sit in the pub down the road for the quiz night in the evening

@gonewiththepotter

”I think most people in relatively high pressure environments ‘law, finance, teaching, medicine’ don’t deem stress as a valid reason to be signed off! stress sign offs are seen as ‘cop outs’ and ‘CF’s’ ... because EVERYONE is stressed and your being signed off just increases everyone else’s stress!”

My personal experience of working in stressful healthcare and caring professions is that people are MORE understanding because we know why mental health is important. People are rarely off because the job is too much. They go off because they can’t sleep or they have physical signs that show they are not coping with things. Some people are signed off with stress when perhaps depression or anxiety may be the correct diagnosis but they don’t want other people to know.

Personally I don't care what people are up to when they're signed off from work. They should be allowed to leave the house - I'm sure they recover quicker if they're not stuck in front of the telly for the duration of their illness. Personally I think posting photos of oneself socialising etc while signed off is a bit tactless and liable to annoy colleagues who might feel their noses are being rubbed in it! But that's just my opinion, each to their own

I work from home, self employed.
I do what I want, obviously if I don't do the work I don't get paid.
I'm sure if they aren't doing the work or not ill their employers will find out.

To clarify to those who say it's none of my business, it is when the rest of us have to pick up all the work and this means more stress for us and longer (unpaid) hours and having to re prioritise all our own work on a daily basis to cover him.

The working from home means they are socialising at at events when they categorically state they are WFH.

Hope this helps and thanks to everyone for your comments - very interesting :)

To clarify to those who say it's none of my business, it is when the rest of us have to pick up all the work and this means more stress for us and longer (unpaid) hours and having to re prioritise all our own work on a daily basis to cover him.

This is nothing to do with the person off sick and everything to do with the piss poor management you are experiencing. Tell them you won't work unpaid overtime. If people really are skiving off then it's up to management to address this, but they won't bother all the time you are picking up the slack for free.

The person WFH may be doing their work later, unless you are their direct manager it's none of your business, the same as it being none of your business why a colleague is off sick, what they do when they are off.

You sound like an awful colleague.

My mum was signed off work last year and managed to attend a 40th birthday party and a meal out. Both events were with colleagues.

No one minded however as she was on day release from a hospice and passed away a month later. Her colleagues were just happy to see her and have one more happy memory.

You won't know someone's circumstances, if anyone had seen pictures of my mum on social media they may have assumed she was taking the piss.

We had a lady working from home and still attending the odd thing whilst sick. Like the PP she had cancer. She died 3 months in. I never knew until I came into work one day to find she had died. But then neither did I question it as management would know a lot more about what was going on than I did!

My dh is having a breakdown mainly caused by stress at work, and few other factors. He’s been off for nearly 8 weeks.

It’s been that bad he had a panic attack in a shop on a Saturday (the first time I managed to get him out of the house for 12 days) because he saw his boss, who didn’t even see him, it was a full on major panic attack.

He’s been a bit better the past Week or so and his mood has evened out with the medication he’s been taking.

We even went away for a few days!

I’d be well pissed off if his work colleagues thought he was taking this piss, he’s been told by his own gp and the occupational health doctor he needs to get out and do things, go away, go for walks, meet with people for coffee.

However in some circumstances they obviously didn’t have a d&v virus, that was taking the piss!!

It really depends on the issue, last year I was signed off work for two weeks due to some personal struggles with anxiety during pregnancy. A colleague saw me in a coffee shop and promptly rang HR to report me... at which point HR rang me to say they were so glad that I was following my doctors advice of getting out the house and trying to relax in a new environment! But if they’re physically meant to be too ill to make it into work then that’s just taking the piss!

YouDoYou18 so if they’re mentally unable to come into work it’s fine to do things they’re capable of while off sick. But if they’re physically unable to come into work, it’s not? Eh?

But if they’re physically meant to be too ill to make it into work then that’s just taking the piss!

OH is in a physical job which has no options for "desk duties" he is currently recovering from major leg surgery, in an air boot and crutches, he can make it to the shop with a rucksack and into a bus, go for coffee, visit friends ..... but your suggesting he shouldn't go out for 6 months until he is fit for work? How do you think his mental health will be by then?