New employee unable to return to office

[monotonousmum]

Someone on my team started working for us in December - a few days before we were told to work from home again. Employed through and agent, not direct - if that makes a difference.

Happily (it seemed) was in the office for those few days. We were only doing one day a week each in the office at that point.
I wasn't happy about the return home, as it makes training very difficult and she's not had an easy start because of that. I've kept her on easy tasks for this reason, until we return and can do proper training. She seems OK so far, just desperately in need of more training.

Next week we are due back in the office - this was discussed last week (2 weeks notice) and I've said I'd like her in the office 3-4 days a week to start, to attend training. All agreed, no issues.
This would then drop down to 2 days a week in line with the rest of the team, once fully trained and capable of doing any part of the job from home.

She's now gone to my collegue to say she can't return more than one day a week, if at all, and has got a doctors note to confirm this.

I'm not really interested in whether or not I should believe her, she has a doctors note and I'm not going to accuse anyone of lying. Not mentioning it to me when discussed has pissed me off, and in December there didn't seem to be an issue attending the office every day (ongoing medical issue - not new). But we are where we are.

We were clear in the interview that currently the team were doing one day a week in the office but this was due to increase, and they must be able to work from the office full time if that's what the business decides.

My AIBU:
Would it be unreasonable/unprofessional/illegal to say, 'if your medical issue prevents you from attending your place of work then you're off sick until it's resolved'?

I know there is some work she can do from home, but it's not sustainable to keep doing these easy tasks indefinitely - it's not what she's employed for.

There may be some doubt over what the agent told her regarding working from home - which shouldn't really be my problem if the agent is lying to get staff, but the interview with us was definitely clear.

[donquixotedelamancha]

P.S. Make sure she has the doctor amend the fit note so that it fits whatever compromise you come up with. Don't have her back in against a fit note's advice.

[drpet49]

** They're not fully trained, and are already being obstructive. And anyone producing sick notes this soon into a job? Massive red flag.

They're work shy and likely to be a massive PITA ongoing.

I wouldn't tolerate it in my business.**

^This

[Penguinno]

Doctors notes absolutely can advise on the note how working conditions may be handled - I have had a fit to work with the adjustment being from home in the past (pre Covid) so it's absolutely doable and still done.

OP - it's your responsibility to work out a way to train her in a way that works for her - if you knew that online training didn't work what have you done to rectify this?

You could end up on sticky ground if she knows others have been trained online previously.

[girafferaffle]

Are you sure this training can't be done remotely?

My department has had several new systems built in the last 2 years and every staff member has been trained on it remotely. A mix of formal training and one to one screen sharing. It's been very effective.

[Bagadverts]

You need to take employment law advice. As regards coming to the office check with HR whether you are covered by insurance if an employee comes into the office when they have a fit note specifically stating that they should not be there. If it is a disability and no reasonable adjustments can be made then yes dismissal.

This employee may be all of the negative things said by PP. she might also be someone who has a mental illness that means she cannot attend the office. Mental Illness isn’t always rational- I went to work because I felt I owed it to my employer, even when I was ill. I felt I should pull myself together. It didn’t work long term for me or the employer- I went off sick and got treatment and worked well till the end of my contract.

The employee may think that she can manage to push through the illness for one a week in the office when GP is saying she cannot.

[AnnaMagnani]

Actually given she is supplied by an agency I'd just check out her contract.

She's likely supplied for x weeks or months and it's up to you to decide whether you extend or not.

If she never gets into the workplace, you just sit it out and drop her at the end of the contract. It's in her interest to sort her issues out ASAP as she will be well aware she will be looking for a new job if she doesn't fix them.

[Hankunamatata]

You need to get expert advice. In my total layman opinion she needs to stay on sick leave until she can attend the office as she can't complete her training at home.

[Puzzledandpissedoff]

Remembering that self certification has been "temporarily" extended to 28 days, are you sure this has come from a GP?

[Westerman]

'If she didn’t declare any disability at that point she doesn’t have those rights.' Rubbish!
Disabilities can decline or improve, sometimes very rapidly. And do any of you know just how hard it is for people with disabilities to get jobs? I'm not surprised many disabled applicants don't mention their conditions until they get and start a job; I'd wager money that recruiters/employers will discard applications from disabled people at the very first sift.
Maybe this woman's condition has worsened rapidly over the last couple of months. Maybe, like me, driving to work causes extreme fatigue and pain, so working at home might be her only way to hang on to a job.
I don't know the circumstances of this employee. She may or may not meet the criteria to be considered disabled. But a lot of people on here seem ready to write off a disabled person without so much as a second thought and that's bloody shameful.

[TeachesOfPeaches]

Call ACAS

[moomee12]

@drpet49

** They're not fully trained, and are already being obstructive. And anyone producing sick notes this soon into a job? Massive red flag.

They're work shy and likely to be a massive PITA ongoing.

I wouldn't tolerate it in my business.**

^This

This. If she's agency I'd let her go while she's still on probation.

[girafferaffle]

@Westerman

'If she didn’t declare any disability at that point she doesn’t have those rights.' Rubbish!
Disabilities can decline or improve, sometimes very rapidly. And do any of you know just how hard it is for people with disabilities to get jobs? I'm not surprised many disabled applicants don't mention their conditions until they get and start a job; I'd wager money that recruiters/employers will discard applications from disabled people at the very first sift.
Maybe this woman's condition has worsened rapidly over the last couple of months. Maybe, like me, driving to work causes extreme fatigue and pain, so working at home might be her only way to hang on to a job.
I don't know the circumstances of this employee. She may or may not meet the criteria to be considered disabled. But a lot of people on here seem ready to write off a disabled person without so much as a second thought and that's bloody shameful.

Yup. I bet there's loads of disabled people who've been working well from home and are now quite worried about returning to the office. I'm one of them.

[2022success]

Whenever I have had problems with agency staff I just call the agency and say I don't want them any more - can they send me a replacement please.

[Brainwave89]

I have seen some really poor behaviour when people are asked to return to work. These include I cannot return as my child care arrangements have changed and I cannot work in the office now as I need to care for my dog! Consult your HR team if you have one, advice from ours is that any WFH arrangement must be mutually agreed. For most roles a couple of days at home is reasonable, perhaps three, but we will require people to be in the office for collaborative work, and this is not optional. Allowing one to do so would be unfair to everyone else.

[Freecuthbert]

As it's office type work, surely training can be done remotely. You say it wasn't effective in the past, but it probably wasn't carried out effectively. The systems for this need reviewing, proper online training needs to be put in place, especially given all the lockdowns and wfh orders we've had, it's just good business sense to do so in order to be prepared for anything. I have done lots of training from my own home, and my job is a lot more hands on than office work! People do degrees online ffs. There has to be a way as you say the work itself can be done from home and as a team you've all been wfh so it's obviously not along the lines of physical labour type training.

Disabilities can improve or decline over time. As you say it's mental health, she could be experiencing a particularly bad flare up right now, but felt a lot more stable when she started.

[HTH1]

@Loopytiles

She’s an agency worker? So has no employment rights other than discrimination. If she has a disability you’ll need to consider reasonable adjustments, but doubt those would include 4 days of 5 working from home.

But she’s employed by the agency, not OP’s company surely (so any claim she has would be against the agency). It sounds like a cleaning company sending a cleaner who is not up to the job so, if this is the case, ask them to send a substitute.

[monotonousmum]

I'm going to look at ways we can adapt the training to be more effective when done remotely, but I'm not convinced tbh. Actually, training is the ONLY reason we need to be in the office at all - whether that's me training my team, or my team 'training' other members of the organisation in smaller parts of our system. Online training has not been effective so far, to the detriment of the business.

WFH has shown us that our job can be done almost completely remotely, but the business are still pushing for us to be visible and providing support in the office - even though that support is usually still done via teams while sitting in the office. It's ridiculous.

I could train her one day a week, if she can get her note adjusted to that. It'll take at least 3 times as long to train her. The pace of work is increasing and I need her quickly - I'm not sure if taking 18-24 weeks to train someone instead of six is a reasonable adjustment.

[Aaaabbbcccc]

You need to get legal advice. You are not going to get the answer from the internet. This is extremely serious and need to be treated very carefully (and advised on with the benefit of seeing all the relents documents) to ensure you don’t precipitate a legal claim against your employer.

[LemonGelato]

OP, as she is not an employee/worker of your company (so you know to ignore all the advice about probation periods or whatever) you can and should take it up with the agency who are supplying her. I am assuming here she is paid by them via time sheets etc and not on your payroll. It is up to the Agency Supplier as her employer to deal with her absence not the client company. She shouldn't be supplying sick notes to your colleague or anyone else in the client company, nor being treated like a direct employee in other respects, as you risk the line being blurred. The agency should be notifying you of her availability, whether that is sickness, holiday or other reasons. You may however be entitled to know the details in order to confirm if the medical condition meets the criteria of a disability.

You can decide that you wish for her to be replaced with someone who is available to undertake the training in the office. Remember there is no "mutuality of obligation" between the client company and a contingent worker. However in this case there is a potential risk of liability if you do that, so your HR department needs to be told (despite being unhelpful) so they can advise. If you point out there is a risk of a disability discrimination claim if you get this wrong, it might get some quicker attention!

I am dealing with a case right now where the client company requested the contracted Agency Supplier not assign a particular (regular) contingent worker, who was unable to complete the physical duties of the job due to a newly diagnosed medical condition and the risks involved (lone working, night shifts etc) if they were to take ill at work. The Agency offered the worker a transfer to another client's site with alternative work as a reasonable adjustment. However he wasn't happy about that and has taken a tribunal claim against both agency and client company. We are all fairly confident it will not succeed but is still costing a fortune to defend.

[Saz12]

OP has said that this colleague appeared a great fit, good team member, capable, etc., and she doesn’t want to replace her. We all have lives outside work, we’re none of us robots, and the chances of anyone on here avoiding ill-health or caring responsibilities throughout their working life is very low indeed.

If there are things an employer can realistically do to hang on to a good employee who has some human issues, they’d be crazy not to go them.

[sanbeiji]

@Westerman

'If she didn’t declare any disability at that point she doesn’t have those rights.' Rubbish!
Disabilities can decline or improve, sometimes very rapidly. And do any of you know just how hard it is for people with disabilities to get jobs? I'm not surprised many disabled applicants don't mention their conditions until they get and start a job; I'd wager money that recruiters/employers will discard applications from disabled people at the very first sift.
Maybe this woman's condition has worsened rapidly over the last couple of months. Maybe, like me, driving to work causes extreme fatigue and pain, so working at home might be her only way to hang on to a job.
I don't know the circumstances of this employee. She may or may not meet the criteria to be considered disabled. But a lot of people on here seem ready to write off a disabled person without so much as a second thought and that's bloody shameful.

Quite a few ableist comments but the point isn’t her disclosing her disability at the point of hire.
It’s not saying a word about it AFTER that.
And her manipulativeness in going to the OP’s counterpart instead of the OP, to whom she happily said back to office no issue.

[ThePlumVan]

Why has she got a sick note when she’s not actually off sick ?
Why has she got a sick note when no sick notes are required even if you are off sick until the end of January ?
Why hasn’t she discussed her sick note with you as her manager (?) but has discussed it in detail with a colleague?

[BoodleBug51]

No one can judge if someone is a good employee in 2 months.

[olivehater]

Seems awfully convenient she can only work from homes. I have a job you can’t possibly do from home at all ever. What would the Dr say about her if she had that job? You can either work at the job you have been employed to do or you can’t.

[DSGR]

I wouldn’t agree to one day a week. I’d seek HR/legal advice and work out a way to get rid. Can’t believe she accepted the job without so cussing whether she could work FT at home.