To think I will be dismissed for sickness record?

[nojob]

I started a new job last October with 3 month probation. I was told in January that my probation was to be extended for 2 months 'due to absence' as I'm not fully trained up yet and haven't been able to demonstrate I can meet the required standard. They said they are confident that I should meet the required standard by the end of February.

I have been off sick for 10 days in total (2 days in November, 2 days in December, 1 day in January all due to very bad periods and 5 days last week due to a heavy cold.). Can they decide not to pass my probation even if my performance is ok? They haven't said anything yet but I get the vibe that they are not very supportive of sickness. I missed some important training when I was off last week. Should I be worried?

I’d stop trying to find a way in which your employer is at fault/unfair and start looking to your own laurels.

I’m the first to advocate going off sick if you need to and not bringing your lurgy into the office but seriously? You think a couple of days off every month is somehow the norm?

Having been at the receiving end of someone regularly being off sick (as in having to pick up the slack), if you were working for me I wouldn’t be looking to keep you on. You sound too unreliable.

So I've now read the policies and it turns out that they do have an absence policy which applies to all including those on probation. It looks like they haven't followed this as I should have had a formal absence meeting after 3 absences and/or 10 days. They say this is to discuss and try to find ways to improve the absences. Also they can offer me an independent medical assessment...not of this has happened yet. Is that a good sign. Should I ask for the review meeting in case it's an oversight?

No. It's completely irrelevant.

You're in your probation and aren't protected at all. If someone was off sick that much in their probation in any of my previous jobs, they'd be gone. No extensions, no second chances - out.

Employers can't afford to employ people who take the piss.

OP,

with less than 2 years service, then can just dismiss you without going through the motions

They say this is to discuss and try to find ways to improve the absences. Also they can offer me an independent medical assessment...not of this has happened yet. Is that a good sign. Should I ask for the review meeting in case it's an oversight?

I cannot work out if you act stupid or are just incredibly naive. These things are first and foremost there to protect the employer, not to support a serial sickie thrower.

but go ahead and ask for it and let us know how it goes

You only seem to be concerned about your rights. has it crossed your mind that you also have obligations?

And you are completely missing the point regarding dismissal - you can be let go in your probation period for any reason, regardless of what their policies might say.

Stop trying to find a way for your employer to HAVE to keep you (because, believe me, if you fight over something like this you’ll end up edged out for another reason in the end) and start making them WANT to keep you.

In my work place its not so much the amount of days, its the amount of abcences if you see what i mean.
In 19 months i have had 2 lots of sickness at 5 days each (1st for diziness and unable to drive or work) 2nd was a monstrous gum abcess that swelled the whole right side of my face including my eye.

You are clutching at straws. Legally they can dismiss you. They can use the policy and you can request it, but you would still be in a precarious position. If they don't you have no legal redress. You do not seem very committed to the organisation, was the move to get better maternity pay perhaps. Goodness knows what your colleagues make of this. Presumably if training has been disrupted, others had set time aside to facilitate it only for you to not be there. Your absence and being unable to fulfil the role will have a wider impact.

So I've now read the policies and it turns out that they do have an absence policy which applies to all including those on probation. It looks like they haven't followed this as I should have had a formal absence meeting after 3 absences and/or 10 days. They say this is to discuss and try to find ways to improve the absences. Also they can offer me an independent medical assessment...not of this has happened yet. Is that a good sign. Should I ask for the review meeting in case it's an oversight?

They also have a disciplinary procedure which applies to all staff and has 4 stages (other than for gross misconduct which can be instant) that you have to go through before dismissal (and I can appeal at each stage)...so hopefully I'm not there yet.

You do know that an employee who works somewhere for less than two years has no comeback in terms of unfair dismissal for the sickness reasons you have given?

OP you need to stop trying to find ways to wriggle out of this and take ownership of changing your own behaviour. You’ve been taking the piss for far too long, you need to stop taking the piss immediately and demonstrate that you actually want to work. Ultimately that’s the only thing which will stop you being fired.

I have had colleagues like you (not just with the sickness but with your attitude that it’s all fine and nothing is your fault) and they’re a fucking nightmare who are generally too busy focusing on entirely the wrong thing to actually do their job. Based on your current attitude your employer is better off without you.

See I wouldnt want the OP working for me at all.

Terrible sickness
The fact that she doesnt think this is a big problem and surprised that anyone thinks it's high, will not have escaped her manager. Op might think she is clever playing dumb. But I bet you her seniors know exactly the game she is playing
She is now going to tey and exploit a loophole and accuse them of wrong doing. But the loophole doesnt exist.

As a manager, thos would scream to me 'shirker who will try and manipulate ant situation to justify her bad attitude and throw me under the bus and cant even be arsed looking into employment law to do so'

I wouldnt keep you. I would just be thinking this person is going to take up far too much of my time, not do their job and point fingers of blame everywhere else without trying to inprove'

Just not going to happen.

Sounds like you're a good example of what happens when the GCSE kids in the school where I work who are off every other week with a 'sore throat' leave school and go out to work!
you've just got to get in even if you are feeling a bit crap.

None of that matters while you're on probation. They can let you go for any reason they choose.

You don't have any legal rights until you've been employed for 2 years.

This is what happens when entitled children grown up. SMH

momtoboys, I have no idea how old you are but missing 5 days for "bad periods" is something girls do in high school to get attention. You need to either suck it up or get medical attention to see what the problem is.

What a fucking stupid comment.
You need to inform yourself about what some people's periods are actually like. And read carefully what the OP says about the medical attention she has sought/received.
'get attention. For fuck's sake. You ignoramus.

Instead of posting here op I would be coming up with a plan to show employer how I am going to resolve things and how I would be changing things and demonstrate how committed I am to working for them and show it - you frankly come across as lazy & entitled - pull yourself up - make sone effort and join the real world

Yes probation is probation. It's a trial period to see whether you work out. They don't need an excuse to say it's not working out.

Sorry.

I suffered with bad periods for years as well OP and like you, I was ttc for 3 of those years so contraception wasn't an option. My doctor prescribed naproxen and instructed me to closely track my periods and I was to take 2 naproxen the day before my period was due and the day of my period. It helped a lot. The bleeding was lighter and the cramps were non existent and the doctor said 4 naproxen a month wouldn't harm me, I just had to eat before I took them.

After I had my DS, I decided on the depo to stop my periods altogether. I'm now coming off of that as I feel it's making me gain a lot of weight and I'm going back on the pill.

I would ask your doctor about taking naproxen to lighten your periods and deal with the cramps

Yappity Personally I have found my periods much more manageable since having ds, perhaps you will find the same? I hope so 🤞 I can manage mine with heat packs and ibuprofen now, I’d never have believed it possible!

Honestly? I think you're probably screwed.

You've taken the piss with a good employer - I hit trigger point at 5 consecutive days in a rolling year with mine (public sector) with being sent home because I was so ill and there is no way on earth I'd be having a couple of days off every month even outside my Probationary Period - I'd be thinking a job is more important and going on the POP back to back to get through my probationary before ever considering TTC.

You have no rights. That's the point. They can end your employment perfectly legally for anything from making a shit cup of tea when it was your turn and having a bad haircut to taking the piss with your absences or timekeeping. Never mind costing them by not turning up to important training when you're already not good enough or they wouldn't have booked you on the course in the first place.

An awful lot of you giving her a hard time for having 5 days off for a cold. If you work in the Care sector you wouldn't be thanked for coming in with say a cold and giving it to 30 odd patients whilst you snotter around and cough and splutter. Infection control people please!

I can't believe that rather than taking ownership for your actions you're trying to find a way to pin this on your employer. People like you bring small businesses to their knees. And what happens if you conceive? Will you spend the best part of nine months absent with every pregnancy related ailment known to woman? Do you even begin to comprehend how that could impact on your colleagues and employer?

No policies are going to save you here op
within your probationary period and in fact within the first two years Really A company could dismiss you for any reason without following a policy and you’ve got no recourse unless you can make an association around discrimination on the basis of you having a protected characteristics such as your gender disability age etc

Your absence has been too high that might be unfortunate timing or it might be that you didn’t try hard enough to go to work it doesn’t matter to them impact is that it shows you could potentially be unreliable or a burden to them in the future and they need to make a decision as to whether they want to take the risk and retain you or get someone else who could be more reliable

You are clutching at straws if you think the fact that they haven’t followed an absence procedure or a disciplinary procedure is going to save you in the situation if they decide to fail your probation they can and will do it

I'm no martyr, I'll take time off sick if I'm sick, but that level of sickness is high. Not so much the number of days, but the number of absences.

I don't get bad colds often and will go in if it's mild (eg the sniffles) but will take up to a week if it's very bad. That sounds terrible by MN standards but on the rare occasion I get them, I often end up with bronchitis, and am fit for nothing.

If you had 10 days off in a year, on two separate absences (eg a week off in January for a chest infection, then a week off in October with a sprained ankle) that would be looked on as much better than the 10 days off you've had in 4 months on 4 separate occasions. That's how the Bradford score would see it anyhow.

You will be lucky to escape the sack after that amount of sick days.

5 days off for a cold is ludicrous. I worked from home when my head was chopped off but couldn't make up the overtime I usually do that way so had to take in ironing and find some change down the back of the couch to get by.

@shittingmysel That didn't stop me being given a formal warning about absence when I was sent home by a Special Care Paediatrician because I had a severe chest infection. Had I then gone on to take a couple of days off here and there every month for something I could do something about - like period pain - I would have been fired and, as I was advised by the Union at the time, there would have been nothing I could do about it.

OP look at what your contract says about dismissal at the end of the probationary period. Usually it just says it’s a week’s notice. The disciplinary policy is irrelevant to your situation.

As an alternative, if you like the job and want to stay would be it worth asking your employer if you can drop to a 90% load to adjust for the fact that you can’t work for 10% of the month when you’re laid up with periods? Would be a salary cut but you’d be on much safer ground then.