Will work contact my next of kin/named contact when I’m off sick?

[Ui1084]

when is that contact ever contacted? I’m off sick and worried contact will be made

Generally speaking, next of kin wouldn't be contacted at all, unless perhaps all attempts to contact you directly were unsuccessful over a period of time and there was concern for your welfare.

How long have you been off for and are you in touch with work?

They'd only contact in an emergency for instance if you were taken to hospital during work hours or if you needed to be taken home for whatever reason
It's not like you're at school and need permission to be off iyswim.

I assume you have let your work know you are sick?

We would only ever use an emergency contact if someone just didn’t turn up without notifying us and we couldn’t contact them.

I'd expect it to just be if you were incapacitated at work and they sent you off in an ambulance - not if you called in sick.

If a member of my team called in sick I wouldn’t be contacting their next of kin.

Personally I’d only contact them if you’d had an accident in the workplace and were unable to contact them yourself or as PP said if you were uncontactable for a period of time, I.e over a working day with no contact

If you off sick, and not in contact with work, and not contacting them when you've agreed to, then any decent employer would worry and try and get in contact.

If they can't get in contact with you then they may well contact your emergency contact details you've provided to them. For all the employer knows you could be lying in bed dying unable to get support.

For example. You have a fitnote signing you off until tomorrow. You've agreed to talk to them today to see how you are and confirm that you are returning to work tomorrow. They try multiple times today to get in contact with you. They know you are ill, and not responding to your phone. A sensible thing to do is to contact your emergency contact.

Only if you were incapacitated while at work and could not inform family yourself or suddenly disappeared without contacting work and they were trying to make sure you were ok.

they don’t tattle on you for taking sick days.

They know you’re sick so of course not! Why would they contact them to tell them
youre sick?

why don’t you just change your emergency contact if you don’t want them ever contacted, if you have an online HR system you can accsss from home you can do it right now- worry over

don’t leave someone on your contact list you don’t ever want contacted

Why do you think they might? Have you not informed them you’re sick? They’d only have to contact your next of kin if they didn’t know where you were and were concerned.

@CountryMumof4 @Motomum23 @Tel12 @TheFlis @WhatWasPromised

thanks, hopefully I’ve tagged everyone correctly!

so I had surgery on Friday. And I’ve had this week off. Due to speak to HR tomorrow for a catch up. However, I had a call with HR on Monday to see how I was and what the recovery was looking like and then they were probing about whether I had support around me at home etc. Just thought it was weird?! And then worried they would start contacting next of kin to check up on me.

Can you have someone else as your emergency contact? It doesn't sound like you perhaps have a close relationship so maybe someone else would be better as you are so worried?

But otherwise the contact is used as PP have mentioned, it is not school they aren't going to ring and chase up your attendance if you have informed them

I think they were just being a concerned employer tbh. Making sure you had support at home to recover

I feel like Hr will find it strange if I ask tomorrow for them not to contact them at all and to remove them though? I am not close to this person anymore but I don’t have anyone else I want to add in their place either!

Asking about your support isn't weird it's caring. If you didn't they may have organised a food / essentials parcel to be delivered depending on your works value on staff wellbeing if you can't get out and about. Particularly if the situation was unexpected.

Assuming you've told them you're off sick and someone has definitely received the message they'd have no reason to. The only time I know of it ever being used was when someone messaged their boss saying they were off sick without realising said boss was also off sick so didn't see the message, then promptly went back to bed and didn't hear the phone when work phoned to find out where he was. We now have a policy that you have to actually phone and talk to someone to avoid this situation.
Only other reason they'd use it is if you were taken ill or had an accident at work and were unable to tell them yourself.

That just sounds like a caring employer, checking that you are OK. And perhaps thinking if you don't have any support then recovery might take longer.

Separate point though if you don't want contact with your emergency contact then change it. It doesn't have to be official next of kin, just someone you would want contacted in an emergency.

I would only contact next of kin if you have been off, not contacted me snd I couldn't get hold of you for a few days or you have phone in sick but over a week later we couldn't get old of you and you have not been in contact. This is down to genuine worry not being missing from work. As long as you keep work informed of continuing absence including sending in sick notes as applicable and potentially an email occasionally if sick note is due an extended time eg month or more, I would not contact you nor your next of kin.

Do you have any pets? If so a neighbour would be a good choice s they could take care of ay pets if you were incapacitated.

HR asking about support at home isn't remotely weird, OP - nobody is checking up on you, they're just showing concern for your wellbeing. Any half-decent HR department would do the same.

It would be against GDPR unless some very significant concern for your welfare, like for instance if you weren’t contactable and they were worried.

The only time I've know nok being contacted at my work was when someone didn't turn up, or phone in. There was no reply to their phone but their car was in their driveway

NoK were contacted because there was a genuine concern.

Turned out they were away for the weekend and their a/l hadn't been logged

I agree with pp I think asking about support was a normal question. You're an adult they're not going to go chasing anyone up

They have a duty of care to you. If you are recovering from an operation they need to know that you are in a safe environment.

The emergency contact is only to be used in a genuine emergency. Like if you have an accident at work and are taken to hospital (or worse), they need to know who to inform. They might also use it if they have legitimate concerns for your welfare, for instance if you stormed out of work saying you were going to kill yourself, it could be deemed appropriate to try to get hold of your emergency contact in the hope they might be able to look out for you.

I think asking whether you have support is pretty normal, and nothing to do with who your next of kin is. They are concerned that you have any support you need - that's all. Your "next of kin" doesn't have to be a relative - you can name anyone you wish, although it's a good idea to tell them you've done it. I'm my best friends NoK because her family are all in another country so wouldn't be much use in an emergency.

And also thinking about the support question. If I knew one of my team lived by herself and had just had surgery I'd probably check in more regularly just to make sure she was OK.

Most people are decent, kind human beings who actually care

Ok it was because I said I was struggling mentally after the surgery, with anxiety, so they emailed with a page about anxiety and said we are glad you have support at home.