Lots of appointments during working hours

[OhDon]

I'm a bit nervous about this situation as I've been informed my work are 'clamping down' on absences including lots of appointments for dr's, dentist etc... During working hours. They have now started asking us to fill in forms every time we have to leave for an appointment (fine).

My problem is that I have a lot of appointments. I had a big issue with a pregnancy which triggered all sorts of things (lost the baby) and I now have to see the recurrent miscarriage clinic, genetics department and haematology department. The hospital I have to go to for these is about an hour and a half away because I have to use the large city centre one rather than our smaller local hospital due to the complexity.

In the past few months I've had to have around 5/6 appointments with these various departments and I have another two coming up next week.

I don't know what to do really. If I want a child I need to keep going to these appointments and work with the hospital to (hopefully) make that happen. At the same time I feel incredibly guilty that work is under a lot of strain and I keep having to be off.

AIBU to continue as I am doing? No one has specifically said anything to me but I'm just aware that I have a hell of a lot more appointments than other colleagues (and it probably won't be stopping in the very near future either).

My brain is all over the place at the minute with everything so I may be worrying about nothing but I can't stop thinking about it.

I do use annual leave for them when I can but I've been having so many I can't use it for every single one

Am I right in thinking this means the time you've needed to be away exceeds your holiday allowance? If so, and given that most employers try to be reasonable about occasional absence, it may be that the real issue is the number of appointments and whatever effect this is having on the workplace

As PPs have said, it comes down to what's in your contract and negotiation with your employer, and there've been some great suggestions. But since except in a few circumstances there's no statutory entitlement to time off, it's worth remembering that the onus is on you to provide solutions

I genuinely hope you can find a resolution which works for all, but if a crackdown's coming, might it be worth looking for a more suitable work pattern elsewhere?

OP are you making up the hours missed? If you told me as your mansger you had a hospital appointment, you wouldn't just be allowed extra time off. You would need to work extra that week to make ip the missed hours, or AL or unpaid.

I've been doing a mixture of annual leave and working through lunches. The reason I havent been able to use annual leave for all of the appointments is simply because I didn't have enough left (this only started more than half way through our AL year) so I'd already taken some of my AL for holidays.

I can't work over time in my job. It's hard to explain the set up properly but there are two offices, ours is known for being extremely laid back, the head manager here does not want anyone staying past 5. He's one of these that wants you to go to all school plays, sports days etc even if it means leaving early or whatever, he's very family orientated and can't wait to leave at 5 himself. He regularly comes round at 10 to 5 telling us all to get out because he wants to leave haha. When I tell him I have an appointment it's just 'yes no problem' and nothing more is said.

It's the head office that are more strict. I have told the management at my office what has been going on and every time I have an appointment they are nothing but sympathetic. Whether they have passed the details onto the head managers at the other office I don't know as I don't speak to them.

So your manager chucks you out because he wants to go home? Helpful!

It sounds like the local manager and head office need to get on the same page with this or you have no idea whether it's an issue or now which really isn't fair on you.

Namechange, yes exactly. It's extremely casual in comparison to the other office which makes it difficult to tell what is acceptable and what isn't!

The problem is that it is head office that deal with all the absences so they are the ones who send me the forms to fill out etc..

It does sound like you have quite a lot of appointments. Could you suggest switching to part time hours (with the hours you work being fully flexible around your appointments). So you only need to be in the office for say 28 hours a week, and the rest of the time you can be off (for appointments if needed). I think this is what i'd propose to my employer as a potential solution.

The people saying 'just crack on' and 'don't worry about work' are both clueless and unhelpful.

And even more so the 'burden is on the employer...' crap.

When you're in paid employment there are expectations and responsibilities on both sides; it's not good enough to just decide that it's the employer's problem; they're likely to make it a bigger problem for the employee very quickly with that attitude.

There is no automatic right to take time off for appointments, no matter what some of the loudmouths on MN would like to think.

OP is rightly concerned that she needs a workable, sustainable plan for these appointments over the mid/long term.

Have you spoken to your manager about exactly what's going on, OP, and what solution they feel would be workable for them?

I know it's very personal and there's no requirement to give full details of your medical issues but if you need to ask to be asked to be treated as an exception to the usual rules it might help to discuss whatever you feel able to share. Even if that's to say it's ongoing investigative work for a long term medical problem, rather than exactly what.

Do you think it could be the company trying to even things out across the 2 offices, as opposed to this being about you?
It was your last update that made me think this: "He's one of these that wants you to go to all school plays, sports days etc even if it means leaving early or whatever, he's very family orientated and can't wait to leave at 5 himself. He regularly comes round at 10 to 5 telling us all to get out because he wants to leave"

Reading that makes it seem incredibly unfair that in 1 office people are getting preferential treatment and the head office get nothing of the sort. It breeds resentment and I think a lot of people would feel the same way if they worked in HO and the staff in the other office could swan off for things like school plays etc

Can you get a letter from your GP explaining the situation? Maybe email that to your manager and HR, requesting a meeting so you can decide together what they want you to do?

OhDon is it possible that your manager's doing a good cop/bad cop routine, portraying himself as "the good guy" while blaming the main office whose views he might in fact agree with?

It just seems a bit odd - and isn't very sensible - for them to be sending different messages. After all he's an employee too, and there may be more going on behind the scenes than you're aware of, hence the crackdown

Highly possible you have colleagues complaining

I’m in similar situation in that I have a lot of medical appointments. I take them as leave, unpaid leave or I use my disability leave. My organisation offers disability leave to those who are classed as disabled so we can use those days for appointments instead of using up all our leave.

Are your medical appointments related to a disability?