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.

Morally, you are in the wrong.

40 hrs over a month is just over an hour extra each day. It's hardly a lot. Good grief!

Some people do much more overtime than that.

You seem to be complaining about next to nothing! If you found it onerous at the time, you ought to have discussed it then with your boss or HR.

I think your GP is wrong too, to give you 6 weeks off just because you turn up and say you are 'stressed'. From what you have described, your 'stress' was really just being pissed off by not being paid for those extra hours.

If you were stressed at the time and raised it, fair enough but you weren't. Not enough to raise it.

Your boss is right to give you a written warning and in their shoes I'd be wanting you gone and getting someone more committed - and honest.

The OP is stressed.

I understand your perspectives op. Not sure what to suggest.

A couple of things:

For the people saying 40 hours in a month isn’t a lot of OT…40 hours is equivalent to a working week, maybe slightly over the average. It is 25% of the normal working month extra. At national living wage that would be £436 approx, which op would have also paid tax on. And depending on pay, it could be substantially more.
For the majority of working people in the UK, time is all we have to sell in order to make money. So my time is very expensive.
A manager can ask you to work for free, but you’d be an absolute idiot to agree to this unless you had some sort of ownership in the business. How dare he.
Any Mumsnetter saying otherwise should give themselves a shake. I hope the managers amongst them are not treating their employees like this.

Secondly, a lot of people are accusing op of lying. If my workplace in essence, over-worked me by getting an extra week out of me in a month, then refused to pay me, I’d be stressed too. And the GP clearly agrees. Who are you to decide op isn’t stressed? She can be both pissed off and stressed; hell, she can even be vindictive and still stressed.
You may ‘think’ that op isn’t stressed, but thoughts aren’t facts. I actually thought the way op dealt with the situation was very fair. Op’s twat boss is lucky she hasn’t taken this much further. In fact, I’d take it much further as well.

You can take a holiday when on a sick note, it’s actually advised if the cause is stress related. I got a sick note for stress (was mid mental breakdown) for 8 weeks and booked a two week trip away. It did me wonders. Came home, gave notice and found a new job. I was honest throughout the process too but be warned you will not be welcome back at work.

How have you diagnosed that?

Agree and give us the name of your doctor please, ours when you can even see one, won’t give you time to finish a sentence never mind give you anything useful.

I didn’t. The doctor did.

I'm very glad I don't work for you.

40 hours per month is 10 hours per week which is 2 hours per day. It's a full working week in addition to the usual week unpaid. I've done months like that (unpaid, but I get a good salary) and it's exhausting and demoralising and unsustainable.

@CredibilityProblem You are confusing things.

The minimum wage applies to hourly paid work.

When someone is on an annual salary you don't divide it by the hours they work, and then make out they are not being paid the minimum wage if they do overtime.

OP ought to have raised it at the time.

She's in the wrong for not raising it and in the wrong again for being dishonest.

All the posters suggesting 40 hours over time in a month isn't much: that's more than a week's work for me and I'm damn sure I know my worth and wouldn't do it for nothing. The work culture in the UK is so wrong when it comes to this kind of thing. This thread is a salutary lesson in checking the terms of working extra hours before you do them.

The OP has states the additional hours for no pay take her below minimum wage. The employer has then said she volunteered - well I'm not sure you can opt out of being paid the NMW.

Find another job OP and enjoy your holiday.

She's not being dishonest - she went to the GP because she was stressed.

Sounds like a terrible place to work, it at least an awful manager.

I would get a new job. Repeat stress leave is a clear sign

I've done months like that (unpaid, but I get a good salary) and it's exhausting and demoralising and unsustainable.

Oh FGS!

My DH did that for 30 years! Plus international travel cutting into weekends and arriving home at midnight.

My DCs do it regularly in their companies.

It comes down to whether you enjoy work or not, and are a coper or not.

You are immoral.

I have a colleague who is now almost permanently off with 'stress'. So I am having to pick up her work, so currently averaging 50-60 hour weeks. Yeah, thanks for that, colleague. Can't even blame my manager, she's working even harder. What you are doing impacts negatively on everyone else, just because you want to spite your boss.

I hope your workplace get rid of you. Unfortunately I am civil service and we are stuck with our CFs.

How is she being dishonest?

She is stressed, her doctor has agreed and certified her as unfit to work.

She has booked a holiday to alleviate the stress and been upfront with her workplace.

The morally questionable person here is her manager.

No, morally her boss is in the wrong.

There are also only 31 day in October, but I’ve never met someone who works all 31 days unless they own the company. So say op works full time, she would have worked more like 21 days. Now her OT is two hours a day, or 25% extra time.
Many people do work this sort of OT…but not for free! What an utterly ridiculous suggestion.

How does someone 'prove' stress?

It's the easiest thing in the world to go in with a list of symptoms that are 'stress' and say you have them.

Completely impossible to prove.

I imagine the part where she wasn’t paid, and told to suck it up when she questioned it, is what tipped manageable stress over into unmanageable stress for her. Of course the two things are linked.

Six weeks isn’t necessarily a wild amount of time, as presumably OP’s doctor has considered her ongoing issues with stress rather than just giving her that as standard.

OP, I don’t know why you had to tell him you’re going on holiday. Of course it shouldn’t matter but based on what you’ve said this man is ca twat that has no problem acting illegally and treating you badly. Start keeping a record of his behaviour, and create a paper trail. Request your overtime in writing via email, and bring up the fact that it wasn’t agreed that it was to be unpaid, and lack of compensation for hours worked means you’ve been employed for less than minimum wage. CC in HR.

But then you might have seen a colleague at the airport or your travel companion might have bumped into someone from your work in the street and mentioned it. Sometimes it's better to be honest that get caught in a web of lying.

@NoNameNowAgain oh yeah, OP self diagnosed, went to the doctor and he gave her a six week sick note!

I guarantee I could do the same. If I wanted and I'm not stressed.

It's the new bad back!

She said in her OP she did it because she wasn't paid.

She then realised what she'd said and went "oh yeah, I'm actually stressed".

Her colleagues and employer won't be impressed by this.

I suspect not genuine and the whole title of the post is just inflammatory. If you are off sick why even mention the holiday, it's irrelevant and the title of the post was bound to get people's backs up. I've honestly had years of working with people who go off for weeks with stress for the tiniest of disagreements with management or being told off about something or being asked to change a process. And guess what they still have to face the music when they come back. I get that the manager is a dick but there are ways to sort things out.

Depends on the type of job as well doesn't it. A professional or a manager, maybe overtime is the price for career progression.
An ordinary job that's not a career? No way!
No way in hell would I work 5 weeks' worth in 4 weeks for free and no way would it be 'my fault for not communicating' either. It would be exploitation.

What a horrible boss! 40 hours for free? Ridiculous. I'd never do any over time again without written agreement it was paid (or maybe just not ever again because screw them)