To consider going off sick over Xmas and New year?

[Rachjxx]

NHS admin worker here. Have worked in same team for nearly 5 years and every year, just before Xmas, the same colleague goes off sick for an extended period. Not sure of the specific reason, only that it's around the same lengthy period each year. Last year she went of a bit earlier than usual, was early November I think. Then back towards start of Feb.
Meanwhile I struggled on at work with a chronic health condition, even making sure my GP appointments weren't during work time. I've always been very conscious of being reliable at work and have an excellent attendance record .
This is why it grates that the same lady has the same pattern of sickness every year around Christmas. I know she has young children at home and a disabled partner, as well as an elderly parent to care for.. but surely everyone has committments!
I have a well known health condition that entails lengthy flare-ups and I'm genuinely thinking of going off sick myself this year over the festive period. My sister is getting married at Christmas and we also have relatives coming over from Australia, so I'm minded to 'have a flare up' around that time. It's a real struggle to get any festive time off work through the normal holiday request process at Christmas and new year (especially when I don't have young children).
My health is very genuine and I have regular consultations with GP about it and pain management. I don't see he'd struggle to issue me a sick note for a few weeks to buy me some time off.
Wwyd?

I'm sorry that's your experience of HR. To be fair, every colleague I've had to manage out of my HR Team or who has covered a fixed term contract and I have heaved a sigh of relief at the end of the contract, has either ended up in or come from NHS HR.

I will not hire ex NHS HR nowadays.

Me too. Never going back.

The patients were fine, the politics was fine, the management were fine; but the bone idle colleagues I couldn't get over

Disgusting response. People who use sick leave, when they aren’t sick, are a major reason that the nhs is on its knees!

Do you honestly think nhs staff should just phone in sick even if they aren’t? If you think it’s okay for the OP to do this, what about the rest of her colleagues, shouldn’t they just do it too? Do you think the doctors and nursing staff should all phone in sick too? Maybe we should just close hospitals over the festive season, after all if you think it’s good enough for the OP to go off sick, surely it’s good enough for all nhs staff to go off sick! Remember also, that those who plan to phone in sick, are just making things harder for their colleagues and patients! I also bet you would change your mind, if you needed any medical care over the festive season and were told that there was no one to see you, or you had to wait 12+ hours to see someone and then had to wait again for x-rays or other procedures.

Perhaps it’s time for the nhs to re-evaluate their sickness/absence policy, so that staff actually lose out when going off sick (just a shame that this would also punish those who are genuinely unwell)!

By the way, I was a nhs staff nurse, until I was medically retired. I worked either Christmas or New Year every year (and sometimes both to cover piss takers who went off “sick”). I never once went off sick during the festive season (or any other time, unless I was virtually on my knees).

This absolutely does happen in the public sector. We knew in our dept who would go off every year. They tried to clamp down on it by putting a limit on the amount of sick leave you could have over a 4 year period. I often used to wonder what would happen if the 6 months sick on full pay was stopped.

No, I don't think you should go off sick in protest - you need to speak to your manager. If your colleague is off for months at a time, they should arrange cover. Your entitlement to annual leave, sick leave (genuine), and leave for appointments etc should not be compromised every year between November and February because of somebody else's absence.

Are you in the union?

I don't think that Op is a NHS admin person

NHS here- this has been going on for decades.

That would be a disgraceful thing to do

One story suspiciously close to election day with suspiciously little interaction from the OP that might or might not be true about one of millions of people who does something for the NHS and might or might not be taking time off disingenuously and suddenly everyone's out to slag off the NHS 🙄

As an NHS employee I don't even have the energy to defend it any more. I'll earn more, have better working conditions and better pay when I'm working for 'Virginhealth' in 5 years time anyway...

For lols and to wind people up. I know that it's pathetic, but people do it all the time. I agree that it's low effort, you should make up a story about unicorns instead. That would at least be entertaining.

nhs has been awful for years it’s not just down to sickness although if someone is suffering then yes they take their own health into account. Believe me I’ve had shit service for years due to the chronic health conditions I have. You might want to work yourself into an early grave but we don’t .

I wouldn't be so sure to write it off as a fake or troll post. The NHS is well-known for being generous with sick pay and reluctant to deal with people who take the piss and go off "sick" when they are not sick.

And here I am wondering if I'm well enough to work from home tomorrow with COVID. I'm not well enough by the way, I'm absolutely lethargic and have struggled to keep my eyes open after being awake for 2 hours.

Likelihood is I won't be working, but there is a reason.

I get 6 months full pay sick leave too.

Private sector here. There won't be admin staff in 5 years time if even sooner. Doesn't matter where you work people will always take the piss.

She says so in the first four words of her OP.

And you believe her? I don't

Why would it wind anyone up?! Why would anyone care if I take extra sick leave 😂 except my employer.

Embarrassing. You cannot plan to be sick ..

What on earth are you on about? The NHS being on its knees is the REASON for so many employees of the health service struggling to keep up with the demands of their role and consequently being signed off sick. Not the other way around!

There are also plenty of private sector companies who are unwilling to deal with the same kind of thing. This is not, despite what many would like you to believe, somehow exclusive to the NHS or the public sector.

These are two separate issues - your colleague's sickness record has no bearing on your sickness.

Book annual leave for the time off you need.

Why not? The NHS is swarming with admin staff.

Yes you’re probably right. But private sector companies are not being run with public money in the main. And if they are inefficient and don’t deal with issues, someone else will come along and do whatever they are doing cheaper and more efficiently, putting them out of business. Not going to happen with the NHS, is it?

I think people abuse sick leave everywhere. I work for the NHS and luckily never have any issues getting annual leave off over holidays as we are not an emergency service, but surely other essential services should rotate so no staff are disproportionately always having to work over holidays?

The NHS is huge and there will always be some people taking the piss, but I know so many people who work incredibly hard to deliver services.