I got a sick note to go on holiday

[Marleymerm]

Last month I worked at least 40hrs of overtime when my boss kept asking me to "stay late" or "just come in a few hours at the weekend" as we had a deadline approaching. I worked it and wrote it all in my time sheet, I work in an office so we don't have clock ins or anything.

Anyway, I got paid last week and got nothing for my OT, I asked my boss who said he only asked me to stay to help, he never actually agreed to pay me for it and he was asking me to "help the company" like we all should be doing.

I thought about fighting it but people in my office are petty and those above me would probably make things difficult for me. So instead I got a sick note from my doctor for 6 weeks for stress and booked a holiday. I've been honest with my work that I've booked the holiday and said it's to help with my stress, now my boss is saying this is clearly out of spite and he'll be giving me a written warning. However if he does that he'd have to formally admit to not paying me OT. I do feel nervous after realising I actually get full pay when I thought I'd only get SSP and now I'm worried my boss is going to take it further.

Of you've been paid OT before, it's reasonable to assume that youth would get it again, especially if your boss is asking you to come in on your days off etc. You're entitled to 30mins free time for legal advice - check in with a solicitor. If HR are backing him, I would definitely be getting legal advice ASAP - just so you know what you could be up against and what you should be doing.

It's perfectly reasonable to go on holiday for stress reasons, you're taking care of your own wellbeing, especially after the 40hrs extra you were duped into doing.

Good for your Dr to support your wellbeing and write you a sick letter.

Please do get some legal advice - they might turn on you.

I hope you feel better soon.

I’m a big believer in ‘fuck you, pay me’

so whilst I think it’s probably best all round if you look for a new job, what you’re boss has done is awful and they only get away with it as people roll over.

we all work to be paid - to excuse 40 hours as free labour is terrible and morally corrupt for any manager frankly so good for you for bucking the shitty system. I’d get Indeed.com open pronto and get the hell outta there

Id look for another job and hand in your notice or tbh id look for another job and just leave with no notice. Enjoy your holiday

You have a sick note from a GP, ( and hopefully nothing in writing using company property to confirm his suspicions? ) so he has no official grounds to give you a warning or take any official “action”. You’ve been honest and told them you’re going on holiday during that time (even though you didn’t need to legally) which is a reasonable course of action given the sick note (even if you posted pics on social media of you jet skiing and having the time of your life!)

On a separate note however, I’d consider looking for another job when you feel up to it. It sounds like you’ve been dealing with excess stress there so find a company that has a culture that’s more inclusive and values work life balance more. Your boss may not be able to legally do anything about their suspicions without evidence but they may hold a grudge etc from what you’ve said and life’s too short to deal with that crap at work :) Then during your exit interview with HR (if you have those) you can highlight the overtime pay issue from a work-life balance / company values perspective. (And then if they make your life hell after this then take notes of everything Inc times and dates and you can cite it to HR as a hostile work environment and claim constructive dismissal if you really want to kick up a stink!)

Work without pay was abolished a long time ago

do you have legal cover on your house or car insurance? You can ask them anything. If you don’t then when renewal comes up, tick the box for yes please.

I wouldn’t even speak to work while off on sick leave and they should not be contacting you. Don’t tell them anymore personal details about your intentions and certainly no more overtime.

Apples and carrots your comment is awful

Why so angry? No need to call people vile names, throwing your dummy out of the pram won’t get you far in life and neither will your attitude.

I suggest a camomile tea.

Er No. Do not do any of this OP.

my god😱

We’ll never know though, cause she didn’t get paid. Did she.

sometimes I cannot fathom why we ask for help on MN, when so many people have so little imagination and empathy they can’t think beyond your own situation.

Language aside she’s not wrong though. Imagine telling the OP to grovel, when she has not even been paid minimum wage which is in fact illegal. Who should really be grovelling here?

Look just because you don’t like my opinion, it’s a discussion, some will be with, some will be against. She’s made herself out to be untrustworthy and that she only went off ‘stressed’ to prove a point cause she wasn’t paid, instead of talking it through with the boss, finding out her options.

sorry but mental health being faked and used so much as an excuse to have time off! There are genuine people who are suffering so much, but just taking the mick and having 6 wks off cause you don’t like your boss isn’t good! Makes
her look bad.

you don’t have to like what I’ve said, she’s in the wrong end of.

@Mumsy2022 well said! I'm sure the likes of @Applesandcarrots and @Faultymain5 would soon be whinging if they suffered sone mental health issues and weren't believed because others have faked it.

It's there right in the first post, I'm going sick because I didn't get paid.

Not I'm so stressed, I've done all this work and not got paid, it's made me unwell.

shows to me how little people know about stress. I read what she said in her first post. I also read the whole post and circumstances around it.

You don’t consider all her actions are stressed related down to the wording of this post (posted after being accused of lying and threatened with a disciplinary, so already considered not trustworthy). You think this is some kind of “ooh look what I did post”. I dont see it the same way. I don’t see it the same way AND it doesn’t negate the fact her company has committed a crime based on the working below minimum wage.

so no, grovelling is not the way. A New job depending on skills and distance and childcare if relevant or a new outlook after this break. An individual can only be pushed so far before breaking. She broke, it’s time to fix it. You don’t like the way she’s fixing it that’s up to you.

but a ‘sorry for being sick after I pushed myself at your behest and you refused to pay me’. Yeah No

@Faultymain5 you mean where she calls her colleagues petty?

She sounds lovely...not!

Thank you! At last someone who’s speaking sense, the others all seems
to be falling for the ‘woe is me’ attitude of the OP.
it’s pathetic, using mental health for your own gain is disgusting! It’s being taken for granted.
as we all know anyone can walk into a doctors surgery and say ‘oh I’m stressed’ and they’ll issue
you a sick note! The OP did it out of spite end of.

@Mumsy2022 exactly and "stress" does not mean you can make call your colleague.

I love the way @Faultymain5 actually reads the OP, sees what it says and says that's not what OP meant! Yeah she meant it, she back tracked then left the post because it's what she meant.

So in order to be suffering from stress you have to a) be lovely at all times (perfect candidate)
b) use the correct MN approved wording to describe your situation. Got it!

Hezeus Kristo, let’s agree to disagree. Because this is absolute nonsense and the
judgment is unreal. Tbh I’m not surprised the OP didn’t come back.

100% I’m with you, it’s good to see someone else actually seeing what the OP meant also, there’s no backtracking now, she can’t change what she said.

@Faultymain5 she didn't come back because she messed up in the first post! And no, stress does not mean you've got the right to be nasty. You are clearly a abuser sympathiser, it wasn't their fault they did that, they were stressed.

Anyway for her 40 hours, she's got back 240 hours, hopefully that'll mean no performance related rose, no promotion, no bonus.

👏 well done OP!

*rise

i neither said nor implied say she had a right to be mean because of stress. Thank you very much. As a human being with experience of her colleagues, she has a right to assess her colleagues and come to a conclusion. Also if someone behaves in a petty manner a good description to describe them is as petty. she didn’t give examples so we can’t really decide whether they are petty or not.

In case you didn’t understand. You cannot diagnose someone’s stress based on whether they present with your idealised version of what stress is, just cause you wouldn’t or don’t react a certain way doesn’t mean everyone else is the same.

and just cause she has stress, doesn’t mean she can’t be judgmental or even wrong in her assessment it also doesn’t mean she’s not right. It’s almost as if human beings are multifaceted. So therefore stress and other mental illnesses manifests itself in different ways. But as you say the OP is not back and as I said I agree to disagree.

but for the record you sound like the employment assessors who said my mum wasn’t blind in one eye, and couldn’t be depressed because she presented well (and looked like a woman Half her chronological age). Experts in blindness and mental health, like so many on MN. At least the assessors had skin in the game in the way of quotas. Not sure what you get out of the back and forth. Especially as the OP hasn’t come back as you have said.

but for the record you sound like the employment assessors who said my mum wasn’t blind in one eye, and couldn’t be depressed because she presented well (and looked like a woman Half her chronological age). Experts in blindness and mental health, like so many on MN. At least the assessors had skin in the game in the way of quotas. Not sure what you get out of the back and forth. Especially as the OP hasn’t come back as you have said.

Probably get the same as you, but hopefully OP is still reading, so will gain some self awareness.