To think this doctors note is ridiculous

[Bluesjies]

Okay this employer has always been a bit lazy but we’ve just had to put up with it.
She does around half the work of other colleagues but we’ve never been able to do anything about it as she does just enough to avoid her being sacked.

Anyway we allocated her a few tasks to do which include several in person meetings (can’t be virtual on this occasion for various reasons).
We knew she didn’t like attending meetings as she prefers just working from home so wondered if she’d say she was sick on the day or say she was not well enough to not work from home.
We can’t avoid attending meetings forever. She’s more than competent when she is in them. I think it’s just she lives an hour from the meeting place and she doesn’t like the commute, getting up early etc.
We do try to have teams meetings where we can but it’s not always possible.

Anyway the meeting on Monday has been arranged and she informed me she could not attend as she was having pain and struggling to walk 🙄”. I replied the meeting isn’t for four days. Will the pain be better then? She didn’t reply but then a couple days later submitted a doctors note saying she needs to work from home until her maternity leave (in 4 months) due to pelvic pain.
There’s not much we can do here really if there’s a doctors note. Or so I thought.

I happened to see her walking perfectly well down a road near her home today so I do have evidence she’s more than able to mobilise.

AIBU to think her note is just nonesense and challenge her on her perfect walking ability? I don’t know why these GP’s write these notes out when it’s not the truth.

Or am I best to silently seeth and get on with it.

I didn’t realise you were a doctor too?

It’s an issue though as employees shouldn’t be able to get sick notes if they’re not true. Some proper assessment should be needed.

You don't know that hasn't been done.

But also, it's pain. How can anyone prove that someone else isn't in pain.

A proper assessment would be management referring this poor woman to occupational health so that reasonable adjustments can be made.

I never understand managers/employers who post about their employees on MN. It's so incredibly unprofessional and makes them look rather incompetent.

Assuming the OP is female it makes women in management look absolutely ridiculous too.

I don't see many male managers turning to parenting websites for career help.

What if her hips are a nightmare and getting to the office / sitting in traffic / walking up stairs is painful?

Can you tell us if you know of her commute?

Was she skipping down the street? Or walking normally? If she was walking normally what if she has rested / had a hot bath and needed to walk to the shop that’s all flat and a 2min walk from her house?

For me I have too many questions before I can decide on a response.

How do you know a proper assessment wasn't done?

2 hours of commuting and a full day in an office is slightly different to a gentle walk up the road near her house

Plus maybe the chairs in the office make it worse? I had years of niggling back pain from office chairs until I moved to working from home 5-6 years ago and then I invested in a dedent comfortable office chair, now the pain is gone.

We all know her type.

Let it go whilst she pregnant, if she comes back then her manager/hr hone down on her performance management.

I rarely comment on any of these threads.
YABVU, I’m very very glad I don’t work for you.

It’s so wildly unprofessional of you to post this here that I can’t actually believe what I’m reading! It’s very outing.

It's actually pretty creepy that you're spying on her walking down the road like that, and then presumably reporting back on her physical capabilities to the rest of the "we" in your department.
I can see why she isn't in a rush to spend much time with you!

One of my friends was signed off for depression, he was spotted out doing an activity by a colleague- I think him and his wife and kids had gone to the cinema or something. He looked happy in that he was smiling and it was the first time he'd left his home that fortnight.

He wasn't okay and wasn't ready to be back at the type of job he has.

"Looking fine" means absolutely zero.

You can't do anything. I was signed off for pelvic pain during pregnancy and was advised by my GP to go out walking as much as I felt able to!

She's not bedridden. Some days you feel better than other days.

That's a lot of words for "I'm a terrible manager," OP. Get a grip, and then some training.

You are massively in the wrong. You have no idea how much pain she was in whilst waking. She may ‘look ok’ but have been far from it.
Start acting professionally.

Good luck with your impending employment tribunal LOL.

Have some compassion fgs op

I'm glad this employee has the note from the GP because your OP reads as though you and your "management" colleagues have deliberately set out to make work difficult for her, i.e. you are victimising her. Given your management skills seem dubious from what you've posted here I'm not the least bit surprised you've been unable improve the woman's performance, if it is indeed lacking.

'you' as a group of senior management, should know better than to share this information online and be unprofessional and discriminatory to boot. If she is signed off, she is signed off. You haven't got a leg to stand on. I hope you get identified and disciplined.

OP do you really think doctors just write whatever a patient wants them to write?

If shes doing enough not to get fired, it sounds like shes doing the job that she has signed a contract to do, shes just not giving you extra ( for nothing ), perfectly reasonable and quite right!

If shes not performing as she should then management are to blame for not managing her performance and providing "assistance" / guidance discipline as required.

She might well be swinging the lead and convinced the Doctor that she has something that she either doesnt or that its worse than it actualy is, but thats between the GP and herself - You have the fitnote and thats all you get.

However, this does sound personal and more like a management issue that could very easily turn into a tribunal if anything careless was said or done.

You should have managed her out if her performance is not up to spec before now - you will now have to deal with maternity, further flexi working and working from home demands now.

Fine to address performance issues, performance management plan or whatever you need to do. You should have a process for dealing with underperformance.

But it's incredibly unprofessional to question her medical issues. She may be able to walk short distances and look fine, but it isn't your place to tell her she's lying based on passing her on the street.

Have you ever had pelvic pain in pregnancy? Even if you haven't surely you have a small amount of compassion.

After my dh came out of hospital we went on holiday a month later, he was still using a stick and dosed up on painkillers. Someone may have thought he was fine but even his manager said go, relax and recover and 10 days round a pool relaxing helped lots before his return to work.

People are just twats.

Doctors don't follow their patients around with a gopro all day you know. They get 10 minutes with that patient so mostly have to go by what the patient reports. Tbh with the state of the NHS they have a lot better things to worry about than whether a grown adult is being entirely honest about their symptoms or whether issuing a sicknote is going to upset some Karen manager. The doctor's note is a temporary legal notice of sickness but it isn't by any means a comprehensive assessment of emplyment ability. A GP isn't a medical lawyer or an employment expert and this is beyond their responsibility. You're blaming them for what you essentially view as a lazy employee which is ridiculous. You will have to figure out yourself how you can ethically and legally challenge this if it upsets you but I would tread carefully