Colleague permanently off sick

[Littlejuice]

Colleague at work, forever coming to work for a fortnight then being signed off for a month or 6 weeks with anxiety - there is always something : currently it is her boyfriends uncle died, last time it was her cat died, time before she was upset about her boyfriend not proposing when they went on a holiday where she was convinced he would propose

Team I work in all sick of it. Have got to the stage where we just never expect her to be in and cover her work, but genuinely now getting so pissed off

Said colleague has been off for 3 weeks currently as she can't cope, but has plastered.many many pictures all over Facebook this weekend of various parties, BBQ, trips out. Rest of us working extra on call shifts to cover her because she's too stressed to work

I know I'm being judgemental, I know I am, but has made me rage - surely at some point she just has to accept life has its challenges, come to work like the rest of us?

@PlasticineMeg

Can I ask are these piss takers NHS workers?

I ask because I worked for the NHS. When I worked there if you were off for more than 3 occasions in one year you were hauled up in front of a committee for a bollocking and a stage 1 warning. My colleague was off one Monday, came back into he Wednesday but felt shit again so went home in the afternoon. That was 2 occasions!! He was told another in the next 12 months would be escalated to stage 1!

Meanwhile another colleague would take six months off on full pay, come back for a week and do the same again. Didn’t go to stage 1 that year as at the time it was about the number of occasions, not the length of sickness.

In the end, she was eventually sacked as she’d worked for NHS for 10 years and been off sick for 4 of those years. It my god, the unions waded in and it took them so long to sack her

The OP is senior management in the NHS

Annoying but not your business really. I'd just unfollow her.

Is it a tactic that employers use - to make other employees pick up the slack so they get pissed off with the other person. In the same way some teachers punish the whole class so that they gang up on the culprit themselves?
Surely if there isnt enough staff to cover the absence, then they need to hire someone to cover it or the boss comes in themself? You should not have to do your colleagues work on top of your own, especially if this isnt an occasional absence

The amount of people that take the piss is ridiculous Covid was a dream for skivers now they have anxiety about being at work

Is it the NHS you work for ?

If you are obliged to follow other team members on some form of social media, then you could claim her posting amounts to harassment of you.

Well, you don't know what underlying private and very sensitive medical problems she could be covering up with feeble excuses about the cat, her uncle etc.

Presumably, her employer does know, and just hasn't shared her private business with you.

If you don't want to cover her work to keep the job open for her, then don't.

Just hope you never have a longterm illness of a nature you'd rather keep private from work colleagues.

@SolasAnla

Flickflak Do good spellings make a grwat senior manager.

caecilius 32C8H10N4O2 so someone hired HR employee to write HR policy, someone signed of on HR policy which is either not fit for purpose or not applied in real life. HRM continues to use policy. What changes?

Any chance you could rewrite this into coherent English? I have no clue what you are saying or which part applies to my post.

I dont think the op is that bothered about what this woman is doing it's none of her business. The problem is the long term work load, get a temp!

We all know these workshy people OP, never mind that though the mumsnet mental health force will be out to defend her and call you unreasonable.

C8H10N4O2
No

"Management should nit have to cover someone who is iff more often than not."

The management, not the colleagues, are responsible for ensuring the department is properly staffed.

I had that when I mentioned someone who can't work yet gets loads in benefits to buy musical instruments and Dj gear for his gigs on the side

@SolasAnla

C8H10N4O2 No

You need to do the @, so you tag the person you want attention from!

@teaandtoastwithmarmite

I had that when I mentioned someone who can't work yet gets loads in benefits to buy musical instruments and Dj gear for his gigs on the side

And? Even being on benefits for disability/sickness does not mean you are not allowed to work at all. And anyone in receipt of benefits can choose to spend it on what they like. Or would you like to see a digital credit system where the government can control how you spend your money?

You need to do the @, so you tag the person you want attention from!

Oh don't worry. Since that poster cannot trouble themselves to write a comprehensible post when citing me I have no intention of wasting my time trying to answer!

I wouldn't worry too much about it. I understand it's frustrating but other people will have noticed too (HR etc) and will have their own processes to manage it. I had a colleague who was just the same and after about a year of taking the mick, she left before she could be sacked.

@RedSwing

And yes if you feel like a mental health day or week off would do you good then take it. You owe the employer nothing beyond the hours you put in when there. They don't own your MH or your enjoyment of life and would rather you stayed at work and had a breakdown.. you don't have to play along. Take control of your life OP. You owe your employer nothing not even the hours that you have promised to put in it seems.😏

I do hope that lots of posters' teachers take off all these mental health days or weeks off and inconvenience working parents, would they still be so keen to let this happen?

Now wouldn’t that be a thing @JudgeJ 😆

@SilverDoe

So who has told you those are the reasons she is off sick?

This.

I was NHS, and had time off for mental health reasons. Why did my colleagues get told this much?
They also got told that I tried to slit my own throat (totally untrue!).
When I came back to work, people avoided me.

That’s outrageous @XenoBitch! Do you still have to work there?

As a line manager these absences will be being managed under absence process, none of which your line manager or HR need to disclose to you. In fact, that would jeopardise the whole process.

If you're finding the workload too much that's something you need to bring up with your line manager as a separate issue.

Oh and I'm sure the thread has moved on but if someone's off for stress or MH, no matter how frustrating it is to see them out on the piss or on holiday, those things can facilitate a return to work, being nothing to do with the person's job and often "stress releases"

Yanbu to be pissed off. But following the absence management process is something that has to be done so that your colleague can't claim unfair or constructive dismissal on account of her mental illness.

I know exactly what you mean OP. Only outdone by those that are off sick for 6 months but make a miraculous recovery when half pay is about to kick in.

I honestly think there is someone like this in every team in every job! It is very frustrating, especially! I my experience management will know and will be looking at ways to manage it but it’s horrible for the morale of the team!

Sounds like a lily livered wet lettuce, the world is full of them