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

You've never been subjected to sustained workplace bullying, have you? I did all of those things, actually.

Its absolutely fine for people with mental health issues to go on holiday whilst they are sick.
Its potentially part of recovery, and its encouraged by GP's and MH professionals.
That recovery would probably take longer if they knew you were slagging them off all over the internet

Because the op is being unprofessional by sharing personal information, people must be pretty thick not to understand that

Exactly and having to do their own work and additional work to cover for their colleague off having g fun on holiday.

@XenoBitch It’s usually impossible for someone’s absence to not have an impact on the rest of the workforce. Many jobs are quite skilled, so they can’t be done by just anyone.

For example, imagine an accountancy firm. If one of the accountants goes off sick, there aren’t lots of unemployed accountants just sitting around waiting for a short term job. So the existing accountants have to pick up the slack. Even if there were temp accountants hanging around, the company might not have the money to pay them as well as paying the absent accountant. Not all companies have that kind of safety net, and insurance policies often don’t cover the shortfall. How would you suggest management cope with this situation, without putting additional work on to the other staff?

@Paganpentacle no need to plaster photos on social media though is there? I mean, for most of my life social media hasn’t existed. I still managed to enjoy my holidays!

I don't know the answer to that. I was in an unskilled NMW job in the NHS. How cover for my absence was organised was not my problem, and when mentally unwell, was not something I should have been worrying about anyway.

@Pamcakey was the posting of photos on social media an essential part of your holiday? If your loved ones wanted to see you smiling on the beach, could you not have just sent the photos to them?

If that's what they normally do... then that's their usual style. Why would they even change that?
They have nothing to hide away... nothing to be ashamed about.

Why do some people think they have the right to tell others why to use their social media?

Just unfollow if you don't like what they are posting.

@XenoBitch but now you’re better, can you not reflect and see that simply saying it’s management’s problem to solve is rather shortsighted? Yes in an ideal world we’d all go off sick if we needed to, in the certain knowledge that our work would be covered by someone just as good as us, at no extra cost to the company or inconvenience to anyone else. But in the real world it rarely happens that way. That’s not bad management, it’s just life.

Why though?
Whats it to you or anyone else?

It IS managements problem to solve.
People working when they really should be off on sick just makes the problem go on for longer.

I went back to work and was made to approach all of my colleagues and apologise for being off. Do you think that is acceptable?

Managers are paid to manage. I was not a manager.

@Paganpentacle it’s called being considerate. When someone posts on Facebook, they should consider who will see it. For example, if I had a friend who had just gone bankrupt and was in danger of losing their home, I wouldn’t post a photo of me buying a pile of designer clothes and eating caviar on a private jet!

@Paganpentacle because if someone is doing your work, staying late and not seeing their kids, working extra shifts to cover you, cancelling their own days off - then it’s insulting to post photos of you smiling on a beach. Being off sick shouldn’t mean you have a surgical removal or all empathy and consideration!

@Paganpentacle so in my scenario with the accountancy firm, how would you resolve that, so that no one had to do extra work?

Oh wow… this escalated more than I anticipated!
clearly a very emotive subject and so many nuances within each person’s situations.
interestingly the split on the voting is fairly even.

@XenoBitch no, you shouldn’t have had to apologise. Thanking them would have been OK though. When I go on holiday I thank the people who’ve covered my work, even though I’m entitled to holiday, as are they. It’s common decency.

It sure did i think we should all just agree im right and move on with our lives 💅

I see nothing wrong with going away while of sick if it's going to help your recovery - I had holidays while off sick for a year for cancer treatment. I didn't go posting it all over social media though! If I did want to post, I'd set who could view it and exclude colleagues who might be pissed off.

that's bullying.

I have never had anyone thank me for covering when they were off. It was because I was off for MH reasons. I gave to countless collections for people off sick, and they were welcomed back when they recovered from their cancer treatment/surgery etc. When I returned, people avoided me, and I was treated terribly.

Pot meet kettle.

My manager was an asshole. Told me I had no reason to be depressed. His dad had just died and he was in work, so what was my excuse?
He also called me to go to his office, and HR was there. It was a disciplinary for sickness absence, and I was not informed of it all so I could not get a union rep to come with me.
He did get in trouble for that though.