Colleague off long term sick but running businesses on the side

[bubblesandfizzwithcherryontop]

A colleague of mine, lets call her Jane has been off sick for the last 5 months.
She stormed out of the office one day after a row with our manager after being challenged about her bad attitude towards others and refusal to do certain aspects of her job role.

Despite being off sick and on full pay (NHS), Jane has been running a couple of home-based businesses on the side. One is arts and crafts based (making keepsake type gifts to sell), and the other is make up artistry (she does wedding and party make up). She advertises both of these side businesses all over Facebook and other SM. Very open about both of them.

People from work are on her SM, but this doesn't seem to deter her from advertising the businesses whilst off sick, allegedly too stressed to even get out of bed.

Its causing a lot of resentment at work, especially as she's on full pay.

I think it is appropriate to alert management and leave it to them to investigate. Public service is a privilege and people shouldn’t abuse their position. It’s right to be held accountable and if there’s no issue there is no harm done.

Been there. Worked for a Local Authority. My colleague played the system. Went off sick for 6 months on full pay, had a phased return to work, and then after that went off sick again. In the meantime, we had a series of temps, who I had to train until she returned to work. In the end, just before her six months sickness leave was up, I used to look to see if her car was in the car park and feel relieved if it wasn’t! I SO wished she had been let go and the LA could have appointed a permanent replacement. She went to the gym for her “mental health”. Not judging her for this, but in the end it was my “mental health” that suffered and I left my job (despite the LA offering me a promotion with more money). She knew how to play the system and I bet she’s still doing it.

I fully support people being off on paid leave if they are genuinely sick, but if someone is off with stress all the time, why in earth don't they change their job? Your colleague is taking the piss

Very familiar thanks...worked for the NHS for years....its no more generous than working for an LA or many other public services.