Holiday photos on Facebook whilst off sick

[TeaAndBrie]

Really interested to hear opinions on this one.
Staff member off long term sick (fully paid as local gov) due to mental health issues, signed off by GP for 4 months so far.
staff member is friends with manager on Facebook.
staff member has been uploading photos of holiday abroad on Facebook.
i would not expect someone who is on LTS for mental health reasons to never leave the house etc
Holiday photos seem a bit much though - especially when manager and other colleagues who can see these pics are having to pick up all of the work whilst he is away.
YABU - let them have their holiday, it’s good for them!
YANBU - let them have the holiday but would be better to have have pics on SM

But it's often not a binary. A bad patch at work combined with MH crisis is what I was referring to ..

(And yeah I left that job, but actually that job didn't make me ill)

I go out for coffee a lot on section 17 leave & go on trips like gardens etc. I do post about it on social media as I want to feel normal & want people to think I'm okay & not lying in a sick bed somewhere. Also a lot of people on my social media won't know I'm in hospital.

I don't give a toss if people find it offensive. They're welcome to my section 3 papers if they think I'm taking the piss!!

I was fired from my job in the end as they could not offer any reasonable adjustments. It was fucking awful, and I probably had a really good case to take them to an employment tribunal but I was not strong enough.

Well, if you speak several languages, of course you would find it easy! Bully for you.
I detect a show-off here!

And if work don’t offer the option of a different role? Mine didn’t. I actually asked to be demoted and was told no.
I was allowed to return on reduced hours but only for 1 week before going full time (13hr shifts with as little as 9/10hrs between shifts at times) in a stressful role. So yes I certainly had to be nearly back to full capacity before returning at all.
Also has anyone actually said this person is abroad (I might have missed it)? Someone previously has talked about a caravan holiday and someone else a trip to the Isle of Wight. Even if they did go abroad maybe they don’t find those things stressful (personally I do but I know other don’t). Everyone is different as are their experiences of mental health issues.

Well if for example you have clinical depression and your off work due to an episode you definitely arent going on holiday but if your struggling with a bit of low mood then you absolutely could but then I would struggle to understand why you would be off for 6 months for that. If its the actual job that's causing the issue then taking 6 months off isnt going to change that.

Sometimes (usually) it's the collision of a tough patch at work with another MH issue that is the problem.

It's bizarre to see this as either /or .

I planned our holiday after my husband's breakdown. I did everything. Planned, booked, packed etc. We all needed the break and a bit of 'normality' desperately.

My husband couldn't have done it. But it was absolutely worth it to me for our children to have a normal holiday, and see my husband relaxing and becoming more 'himself' because of it.

I think I'm going to have to leave this thread. I'm finding a lot of these ignorant posts really upsetting.

The whole point is there isn’t a thing the manager can do about it. Or HR for that matter.

So I was being bullied at work and I should leave my permanent, secure, good pension job because of that??

Back in my 20s I was working with a Woman in her 50s who's husband left her, initially she took some time off to get sorted and somewhere to live and get her head together. About a week i total, she was a long term, hard working and well respected member of the team. She returned and got back on with things for a few months. Then she suffered a breakdown with depression and was in a bad way. Our manager ended up going to see her at home and actually told her to book a holiday and go. Part of the reason she resisted was because she thought it was taking the piss. But our manager who was married to a GP and had discussed this with him, thought this would be a good opportunity to help her. She went had a good time, felt slightly more human by the end, came home and slowly over a few months managed to return to work. In this circumstance she needed it, it was around 2004 so pre social media, not that she would have been the sort to post all social media. So, I think it depends on the situation and discussion around going on holiday. X

I’ve worked for over 30 years until I had a massive breakdown a few years ago. Since then I’ve been signed off work and been paid under an income protection policy. My job is protected as I’m still an employee, so my role hasn’t been backfilled. I appreciate I’m extremely lucky in this regard.

I now have severe mental health issues - suicide attempts, severe major depressive disorder, complex PTSD, a diagnosed dissociative disorder and daily flashbacks of being raped from childhood SA. I’ve been involuntarily hospitalised several times.

I also take my children on holiday every summer, partly for their benefit, but mainly for mine - I reconnect with them and use it as an anchor for me to keep living.

I post pictures on social media, because I want to celebrate my time with them and the fact I’m still alive. I want to be reminded every year when the memories pop up that I have survived and can manage to have fun because sometimes life is just so shit I lose sight of that. My family and friends also like seeing them on holiday.

Many of my workmates and management are friends on my social media. They understand what my lows like, and celebrate my highs with me. Because that’s what friends do.

If its making you ill yes. Health comes first always. A job is not worth ending your life over

What an ignorant dismissive comment.

I was deeply suicidal but still managed to work. That was a blocker to getting care for a while but not a blocker to how unwell I was.

Others wouldn't have managed to work. That's not a reflection on the severity of their illness. Just different ways of coping. And different work environments.

And likewise, whether someone would benefit from a . holiday or find it made things worse is a reflection on different types of people, and different types of holiday and different types of mental illness. Not a reflection on the severity of their mental illness.

There is absolutely no reason to inform your work to let them know what you're doing with the time that a doctor has given you to get over a breakdown.

But sometimes taking the time off allows time to recover and time for work to investigate and get rid of the bully.

So it's a perfectly sensible approach.

There's some really black and white thinking on this thread.

I was in autistic burnout alongside CPTSD, OCD and depression because of it, I didn’t know I was autistic, I just thought I was a freak that couldn’t cope, I crumbled slowly over the years culminating in a suicide attempt and whilst recovering went on holiday, you are being quite hurtful and whilst I imagine that to be part of your condition I won’t be discussing this further as I feel stupid for trying to ‘prove my credentials’ to a stranger. I hope things improve for you.

Sorry for what you've endured but you've been signed off for years? Why don't you leave or retire? Seems a strange set up.

Wow!

What actually happened in my case was I was redeployed and am now happy still in my secure job away from the team that made me life a misery.

Some people with clinical depression still work. Everyone with every MH diagnosis is different.

Saying that you can't be truly ill if you go on holiday is false and offensive.

I was specifically talking about clinical depression on that post

I'd be very surprised if during an episode they could work.

It has a lot of toxicity and it is upsetting but there are some lovely wise people on here too, you being one of them.

The trouble is, you want to get over this period. My husband was so brave after his breakdown. He was desperate to get well, and was always hopeful of returning to work. He had no way of knowing that it would never happen. He WANTED to be well. He WANTED to recover, and he WANTED his normal life back. Including the job. He always had his eyes on going back

But he never recovered enough and had to take ill health retirement.

And what about if you have poorly managed bipolar or PTSD? Are they not ‘true mental illness’ because it’s quite possible you could be out and about at times but not able to do certain jobs until medication or therapy takes effect? Or maybe your PTSD is caused by work like a relative of mine and while hoping to recover you are signed off work, then you realise your not likely to be able to return to that role so start the process of looking for something else- at any point in that process a holiday could be managed depending on your triggers but the process could easily take 6 months