Colleague has had breast cancer. She has had one surgery, has a further surgery to go, all manner of admissions to hospital and a course of chemotherapy.
At work today, we were told that she is unlikely to be back until the start of next year. Most people very concerned about her, keep in touch, wish her well, lots of 'god she's going through it' chat. Except for two colleagues who are making passive aggressive 'gosh that's such a long time to be off sick, my auntie was back at work in a couple of months' etc etc., followed by 'oh but I'm sure she'd come back before then if she could'. All a bit too sarky for my liking with the odd eye roll thrown in for good measure. I'm pissed off and told them both they were out of order and now neither of them are talking to me (fine by me). Temp cover is in place for absent colleague so they're not having to pick up her work or anything.
If colleague comes back at the start of the year (which she may or may not depending on how she is), she will have been off sick for 9 months. She's been through a shit time and this has really riled me. I really don't think this is an excessive amount of time to be off given her circumstances. She's a good friend of mine so I accept that I may be a little more sensitive about her.