To go off sick in order to complete some qualifications

[FionaSays]

As per title…long standing employee, never had a sick day but completely fed up and in the process of looking at re-training ahead of a career switch. Huge company and plenty of
cover for my absence which means colleagues wouldn’t suffer as a result (bloated resource).

AIBU to take advantage of the generous sick
pay and have a few months off?

A few days off is CF, a few months is outrageous. And it could come up in references for new jobs once you retrain.

A few months is outrageous, cheeky, and getting a salary under false pretences. So what you have never had a day of sick, that makes you fortunate.
I hope this is not true because you sound dishonest and I would not want to work with you.

Beyond cheeky. Career switch means leaving the company I assume? You want the company to pay while you retrain to leave. The fact that you are even considering this reflects badly on you. Request unpaid leave by all means but to get signed off sick makes you scum. Thankfully most companies who have generous sick leave also have good oc health departments whose through people like you but makes things so much harder for the genuine cases.

So how will you be able to justify having a few months off sick. I'm pretty sure they won't just take your word that you're not feeling well.

A few months off is a major health issue.

What are you going to pretend is wrong with you?

Do it. You only live once.

What reason were you planning on giving your GP to get a fit note? And are you happy to then declare that 'illness' every time you take out travel insurance etc for the rest of your life?

What are you planning to go off sick with and how are you planning to get a medical professionals to collude with your fraud?

There's always one.

I'd be interested too in what you're going to pretend is wrong with you.

This is fraud. Defrauding the company to obtain sick pay. That’s gross misconduct.

People like you will be responsible for that sick pay policy to be reviewed and reduced.

How will you get a sick note to cover it?

I feel guilty having days off when I’m genuinely ill. I could never time iff to study!

It would be cheeky fucker behaviour

The clue's in the name, sick leave is for when you're sick. You would be hugely unreasonable to lie in order to take sick leave to retrain. As others have said if you do, you deserve to be fired for gross misconduct, plus it could come back to bite you massively for any future job and things like travel or life insurance.

Good luck when you're sacked for lying to your employer about the reason for your absence.

You want Mumsnet to validate fraud?

Apart from it being awful behaviour, I’m not sure how you’d get away with it anyway.

Most references I complete have a section about sickness, and ask for total sick days in the last year/two years.

How would you explain that information to a new employer? If you told them you were off to retrain - no job for you. If you told them you had some huge illness but it’s recovered now and all good - still hugely suspicious.

You can’t be discriminated against for having an “illness” but employers can and do not employ people they’d have sickness concerns about.

In practice it would hold you back in the long run, rather than do you any favours.

Why don’t you just do training around your current role?

Wow, what an insight into inequality too. Huge companies with apparently so much money sloshing around that cover for months isn’t even an issue, ( got to wonder, is there a need for the post at all?) compared with people who either get no sick pay at all, or have to struggle on because they provide an ( often front-line) service which nobody else will do, or, if they don’t, people really suffer.
Yes, I know this is how the world works, but when people so casually spell it out ( ‘bloated resource) it is a bit sickening. The intention to defraud even more so.

And what would be your 'illness'?

It’s theft, worth thousands!

I hope this is a wind up.

Dishonest
Fraud
Makes life harder for people with chronic illness by being another example of how enjoying being a dishonest fraudster is the reason people take sick leave.
If the company found out have fun explaining how you are a good worker despite masses of sick leave and your old company refusing to say you are reliable.

Of course you would be unreasonable.

You'd also be committing fraud wouldn't you, claiming sick pay when not sick?

If you want to retrain either do it in your own time after work/weekends or quit your job and do it by funding yourself