DH injured his back about 2 months ago (this in the context of previous back surgery 4 years ago). He was signed off sick as he was on a lot of morphine etc. He doesn't like being signed off sick, and he tried going back to work about a month ago but his work told him after a few days that he clearly wasn't ready yet (he was still on morphine) and pretty much told him to leave and to get signed off for another couple of weeks and see occupational health, and then come back once he was in less pain and not needing morphine. He wasn't very happy about this as he wanted to be back at work, but his workplace insisted. Things have slowly gotten better and he's been able to reduce his pain relief a bit, and he went back on phased return again last week, although he's still struggling at times.
This morning when he was at work a colleague told DH that some of his managers are pissed off that whilst DH was off sick (after they told him to get signed off for another 2 weeks) there are photos of him going out with me and the kids on Facebook. The thing is I have done pretty much everything the past few weeks, but occasionally DH came out with out us to get out of the house for a bit, and basically spent the whole time sitting (as it was all he could manage). I did all the driving on all the occasions we went out and all the running around after the kids, as he was still on morphine and not able to manage much, but he was going stir crazy in the house and getting really depressed stuck in the house, so I thought it might be nice to come out with us and have a change of scenery.
The 'offending' photos from what I can gather on my Facebook page are:
There's 1 photo of him sitting eating lunch with me on my birthday.
1 photo of him sitting on a bench.
1 photo of him sitting in a chair at the beach.
Now I can understand them being pissed off if there were photos of him doing anything physical whilst he was off sick for obvious reasons, but there are only photos of him sitting down out of the house, and was he really never supposed to go out or sit anywhere other than in the house when he was signed off for 2 months? And to add salt to the wound he told them he wanted to be back at work, but it was them that told him to get signed off for another couple of weeks, so it was their decision for him not to be at work anyway, not his!
I'm now worried that his work are going to accuse him of malingering or taking the piss, but I really don't think sitting in a chair out of the house on a few occasions in any way shows this.
I guess I'm pretty pissed off as the past couple of months have been horrendous at times (he's been in A&E on IV morphine and everything at one point, and I've had to help him get dressed etc on occasion), not to mention do everything for the kids whilst working full-time, so the suggestion that we've just been taking the piss and we've just been using his sick leave as an excuse to go out on jollies has really grated on both of us, but was he really just supposed to sit in the house for 2 months? I can't help but feel that if he had been signed off with a broken leg for 2 months or similar no-one would bat an eyelid at photos of him sitting out of the house on occasion, but somehow because it's a back issue it's automatically assumed that he's trying it on (even though they know he's had back surgery etc in the past).
And yes I've learnt my lesson and no more photos of DH on Facebook, but I genuinely didn't think either us or him were doing anything wrong.
AIBU to be pissed off at DH's managers?