To think that if you are ill (self certified) & main decision maker for a department you should respond to emails wherever possible?

[strivingtosucceed]

Genuinely have no idea where the opinion of this will sway but i'll give a bit of context.

We have a project about to go live in 3 weeks, I own this project. A particular sub-department is in charge of one part of the project and is headed by a woman who also happens to be the only person in that sub-department. Unfortunately, she fell ill and seems to have not told anyone that she had remained ill past the original day she called in sick. It's now been a week since the original day of illness and neither me nor my boss (who she reports to) has an idea of whether it's something long term(eg broken bone/mental health) or something more short term like the flu.

Unfortunately the part of the project her sub-department is on the critical path, this means there are strict timelines that need to be adhered to and quality sign offs that need to happen before we can move to the next step. I want to email her to ask 1) when she'll be back & 2) who I can delegate her work to in the meantime so we stay on track. However, I've been told by some other colleagues that i'd be badgering them if I did so.

So AIBU to expect an answer from my colleague if she feels better for 5/10 minutes during the day or should I expect radio silence until they're fully back and well.

Escalate it to her boss

Escalate and find out if / when she will be back or they need to find a solution to deliver

I wouldn’t expect anyone off sick to be logging on to their work emails. Self certified just means the first 5 days. I self certified for the first 5 days I was in hospital.

Her boss is my boss who has asked me to email because "she should be keeping an eye on her emails even while sick". I'm wondering if it's normal or reasonable to expect this.

If you own the project what does your risk register say the mitigation is if a critical resource is unavailable?

She is off ill and not working. Raise it with her line manager for support.

Completely unreasonable.

Surely there should be things put in place already for if someone is off? Don't email her, there's nothing worse than feeling you have to respond when you're not well, and as you don't know what it is that's wrong I definitely wouldn't. Is there someone higher up who can sort it out?

Completely unreasonable to contact her and even worse your boss is asking you to.

As important and critical as projects are ( I'm a PM) nothing is as important as health or family issues. Work will always take a backseat to those things.

It's unfortunate but it's the way it swings sometimes. You'll need to work with your boss and others involved in the project to pick up the slack

Well, if she’s been away for a week she will need a doctor’s note if she’s to be away any longer, so you’ll get the answer one way or another soon enough. She should be calling in daily, though, if she hadn’t given you a timeframe for her absence on that first day.

There shouldn’t be an expectation in general that people engage with work emails or calls while they’re sick, though. As long as they have followed your usual protocol and you know they’re off, you shouldn’t be contacting them.

In terms of where you go for a plan for her absence, it should be either her line manager or the project manager who knows where the project work is at, and where resource can be drawn from to cover. If they don’t, that’s poor project management. We are a v small team, but we always work on the premise that any of us could go under the proverbial bus, and we plan and report accordingly.

No it is not normal or reasonable, if someone is sick they are sick

No it is not normal or reasonable to expect someone to work while they're sick. The fact that you ask would make me think you have poor work boundaries yourself and allow work to encroach on your personal time.
Also, if your boss wants information on his employee's sick leave - s/he needs to contact them - not you.

Not reasonable.

It’s up to the line manager to manage this and it’s a bit weird that they don’t know what is going on with her. That would be unauthorised absence if gone beyond self certification. And would also have some sort of duty of care to her really to find out what has happened and check she is ok. Whether someone is able to answer e mails is entirely depending on what Is wrong with them.

If her boss says "she has said she will keep and eye on her emails" then email.

"she should be keeping an eye on her emails" is very different and I would ask them to contact her to find out if she is doing this as you do not want to disturb or put pressure on anyone who is off sick without prior agreement.

I would go back to your boss and suggest that it is better for such an enquiry email to come from them directly and not you.

Awful work culture to think its normal to expect sick people to be in contact with work.

Absolutely unreasonable. Boss should be contacting HR so they can check on employee. They might be dead for all anyone knows.

She's off sick ergo she is too sick to work, for whatever reason. There should be processes in place to deal with this situation that don't involve pestering someone who is too sick for work.

Your line manager is also incredibly unreasonable for asking you to contact her about it. You are not her manager and your actual manager needs to oull their finger out and do their job.

Your Boss (and you) are very much in the wrong here, Boss either needs to step up themselves or move someone to take over. Or accept neither of those are possible, learn to mitigate risk going forward and accept the delay for now

It is a complete waste of time if the project is already at risk. How many days do you sit after sending the email to see if she replies when you could actually be doing something about it instead!

If she hasn't kept them informed then HR should contact by phone.
If someone is ill there should be no expectation of them reading emails.

I wouldn’t expect someone in my team to keep an eye on emails when off sick. That said, most are v senior and do and if had a deadline would have told me what the plan was.

What’s your absence management policy? Ours (public sector) first day of sickness employee advises line manager of reason and thereafter reports in every 3 days. If this goes past the week mark then fit note is submitted and line manager is meant to have contact weekly but most managers use discretion on this.

Her line manager, your boss should be managing her absence. So should know why she was off and when likely to be back and should have already had a discussion about managing her workload while she is sick. That’s not your job. His expectation that she is logged into work email every day is wrong.

So so unreasonable. If colleague is poorly, she may not be in her best mind to make decisions. Would she be held liable if something cocks up on a decision they have made?

Sick means sick. I would not expect it.

Where I work, if you are sick, you expected to call in daily when you self certify to confirm that you are still unwell, unless your line manager tells you not to. You are not expected to be looking at your emails.

I think everyone answering this should state if they are public or private sector. Would be quite illuminating I think.