To go off sick in December?

[Sarahbd3]

I've just found out that I'll only been granted one day off over the Xmas and year new period (I mean besides the official public holidays). Names drawn out of a hat about who on the team can have which days off over the Xmas season.
I'm a single mum to two young children under 6 and, for once, I want to be able to spend a proper stretch of time over Xmas being off with them and doing all the Xmas stuff that other families get to do. Their grandparents are going to be away on a cruise so I'd have no child care anyway, unless I was off work.
I have a chronic health condition which is well known at work (although I've never previously taken any time off sick with it). In facet, I have not been off sick since a car accident 4 years ago.
On my team, it's always the same person who goes off sick for Xmas, for several weeks and nobody seems to have an issue.
Wyibu to go off sick with my chronic illness to be guaranteed the festive season with my children? To not make it look too plan I, I'd probably go off in the second week of December, rather than on Xmas eve. Maybe return second week of Jan.

DS used to work in a brewery as tech staff. The business had to be open over Christmas and New Year (busy period) so there was a rota for time off. DS never threw a sicky to get more time, even though he would work Christmas Day or New Year's Day on the rota and had 2 small children. He now works for a large retail business - tech again - and that also requires staff over Christmas and New Year, so there is a rota (people who shop online over Christmas might like to remember that this means people in retail have to work, filling their orders, and tech staff have to work to keep the websites working) which he keeps to, and volunteers for if he does not have his DC on Christmas Day/Boxing Day etc (divorced) and is not coming to whatever family thing we are doing (usually goes to DS's) as he gets time-and-a-half.
Taking time off as if you are sick can blow up in your face, if you are not careful. It is also deceitful, and if you are really ill in January you will be in difficulties. You have the standard holidays, which most people get (but not all), to spend with your children and presumably some week-ends beforehand? If you are unhappy at having a job which requires work over Christmas then look for another job.

I always take a week off sick every year, a lady in HR made the mistake of telling me at lunch years ago that our employer works out the offered salary on the basis of an employee having 1 week sick, so if I don't need it for actual illness I make sure and call in sick for the allotted week.

YABU.
What if everyone with children decided to go off sick over Christmas?

Get another job if you don't like the hours and holidays of the one you have.

It’s a good job everyone doesn’t have the same attitude as you. If this job doesn’t suit you, Christmas included, you should look for another one.

What holiday is she taking? She's signed off by GP, most employers have better things to do than try and rip apart one employees sickness absence to uncover if it's fake, and even if they did, how would they prove it?

Absolutely so wrong, it might mean that someone else has to work to cover. You are in the wrong job.

Absolutely not. You're intending to defraud your employer. And having children is not a get out clause!

Tbh as well OP, it's glaringly obvious when colleagues do this and even if your management can't prove it enough to take legal action your entire team will know that you're taking the piss. If you were my colleague I wouldn't do anything to intentionally make things uncomfortable because that would be bullying. However I sure as hell wouldn't be doing anything to help you out either. As far as I was concerned you wouldn't be a team player at all and I wouldn't treat you as one.

Thank you for putting that so well. I've had a chronic health condition since childhood and not gonna lie I did use it to get out of a few assemblies at school (😂) but I've never used it to pull sickies, ever.

Very true

OP im presuming your workplace requires a certain amount of people in over that season - I’ve worked in places like this - they should be doing a rota so that it’s fair. Did they literally pick names out of a hat? In which case, there’s no fairness then at other popular holiday times - school holidays for example.

Personally I would speak to the HR department or my line manager about the inequality of their annual leave granting and ask them to review it. But equally - I’m sure there’s loads of MNs who would be horrified at you taking time off ‘sick’ for this - but actually sickness can be for other reasons too - stress at not having childcare for example. You can’t be in 2 places at the same time - and from my experience most childcare providers are closed at Christmas and new year. Just an idea.

She's had all year to anticipate the possibility of working at Christmas, and to sort childcare accordingly.

Unpaid parental leave, not paid sick leave, would be the solution in that case anyway.

Yes unpaid parental leave could be an option here! Christmas childcare can be a tricky one for any parent. It looks like OP had hoped to have the time off through her holiday allowance though to cover this, perhaps she has explored the option and doesn’t have any. It’s not completely clear from her post though.

If OP claims universal credits then her reduction of income would be counter balanced there.

OP not sure what you do - is working from home an option for you perhaps? Have a short term agreement with work for the Christmas period? Covers both bases then.

The OP is off on the important days over Christmas. What more do you expect?

I read things like this regularly on MN.

Before we know it we will be raising a generation full of entitled and spoilt children who expect everyone to drop everything for them!

Try teaching them we all have commitments and have to go to work!

You're lucky to get the statutory days off, healthcare and retail workers (amongst many others) don't even get that. You'll be lucky to get 3 weeks signed off without a lot of hassle and you KNOW everyone at work will be aware you are faking it. But hey, you've convinced yourself that this is an okay way to proceed, so go ahead. Shoot yourself in the foot and have a happy Christmas.🌲🎉

Her kids will be at school

As someone who has a disability and works, absolutely this. People who use chronic conditions to fake sickness/avoid working when they don't want to make life harder for everyone else.

I agree. But ultimately they’re making it harder for everyone with a disability, not just those with chronic conditions, and not just those who are actually working.

I worked for many years as a disability outreach worker and when advocating for disabled people to be considered for various jobs, I dealt on a daily basis with ableist and prejudicial attitudes from employers - many of them surrounding the reliability of disabled employees. The assumption was that the sickness levels would be higher, and, as the OP has very much proven here, it would be easier for them to fake illness connected with their disability. There is also the question of protected characteristics under the Equality Act making it harder to dismiss someone disabled if they’re thought to be abusing sick leave.

OP says her employer is aware of her condition, so is accommodating it, and may well be providing reasonable adjustment, although she hasn’t specified. That being the case, and having seen first hand the way some genuinely sick and disabled people struggle to prove themselves, I think she’s incredibly lucky to be working for a sympathetic employer.

Also worth saying is that as part of reasonable adjustment, employers are encouraged to discount sick leave attributable to the declared condition or disability, and record it as disability leave instead. This means it doesn’t count towards the normal disciplinary procedures in place for sick leave for other employees. I don’t understand why people would actively encourage someone to potentiallly commit fraud in this way.

I think it’s really interesting. I’ve seen so many MN benefit bashing threads berating those claiming sickness benefits for swinging the lead and advocating for benefits to be withdrawn or reduced to ‘encourage’ people into work. Yet MN seems to have no problem encouraging someone like the OP with a chronic condition, to exploit it for time off at Christmas. The hypocrisy is palpable.

One of my colleagues did this last year, as she was rota’ed to work Christmas for the first time in 7 years (the 7 being covered by me, because my employer regards the childless as less important than the parent employees). I then got a call asking me to come in. I refused and when she got called in to a meeting about the situation, she tried to insist that I be called in as well.

She also tried to get me in trouble with HR for discriminating against her as a mother (I refused to swap with her).

She’s also now arguing that it’s her turn off this year as she was “on” last year.

Working with people whose mantra is “but but but I have a child!” is very tiring. Please don’t contribue to it.

GP’s can’t simply sign people off any more - they have to provide a detailed fit note, and part of that is a full assessment of not only the job the patient does, but consideration of whether there is any work they could do. This also involves suggesting possible ways the employer could avoid the employee going off sick, by making adjustments in the workplace or alternative methods of working. Healthcare professionals are being asked to take more and more responsibility before just signing people off sick, as part of the drive to reduce the numbers on sick leave/claiming benefits, so OP may find skiving a little more difficult than she imagined.

Well I see sick notes every day in my job and I can confirm this is not the case at all

Problem is that it’s incredibly difficult to fire someone with a disability for any reason connected with that disability. If downsizing they’ll need to show that letting her go is not disability related, so counting sick leave could be tricky. OP has clearly declared her condition to her employer and they are accommodating it, and if they’re providing reasonable adjustment this could include not counting sick leave attributable to disability towards any disciplinary action.

They’re not sick notes they’re fit notes. And if the GP considers the reason to be genuine, then they will be simply be signed off as not fit for work for whatever period the GP considers appropriate. But where there is doubt, as in ‘may be fit for work’ there are all kinds of considerations for the GP, or whoever is providing the fit note. And there is further legislation coming to involve healthcare professionals much more closely in finding alternatives to simply signing someone off as unfit for work.