Off sick and LM called me

[LazyArsedMagician]

Like...I know she has a duty of care to check in.

But I'm a) on AL until Monday anyway; b) only submitted my fit note on Tuesday; c) have been signed off with work-related stress and anxiety till Dec. Her calling has honestly made me want to throw up. It has sent me into a tailspin and I can't stop thinking about it.

She called from a private number and I was expecting a call from the dentist which is why I picked up. Surely she should have waited at least until Monday?!

Anyone got any good resources for how to deal with anxieties like this? I've just starter sertraline and propanolol, not sure if the latter has helped in this instance.

Surely if you have been signed off with work related stress it is a good thing that your line manager is checking in with you. How do you expect things to improve if they dont? What do you need from your employer for you to be helped with the stress and enable you to return to work. Have you discussed the stress with them previously or is the sick note the first that they knew of it?

They didn't. OP says the doctor offered to sign her off in June.

If I needed to get in touch with someone I line managed who was off sick, I would definitely phone rather than use email - if someone is unwell, particularly with stress, then they shouldn't be looking at their emails and should totally switch off from that. I don't think it's unreasonable for them to contact you, especially if they needed to talk to you about occupational health, but I also think going forward it's reasonable for you to say please ring me at a set time. I'd ask about this as a line manager anyway because it means I'm not going to be ringing you at a bad time (eg you're resting, you're at a medical appointment, you're out, you can't talk freely because you have a visitor etc). I hope things ease for you soon OP.

I disagree with PP - as a manager I'd never phone one of my reports while they are off sick. I have all their personal phone numbers and most of their email addresses so I'd send a WhatsApp or an email and they can get back to me in their own time. A phone call is too confrontational especially if it's work related stress.

So why are you still doing this job if it affects your health?

If you are in AL then they shouldnt be calling you.

As a Line Manager, I've had to check in on team members, because they've gone AWOL, essentially. A duty of care remains upon us, as if something had happened to the colleague, I'd have never forgiven myself.
However, as someone who has also been off sick with work stress, I found texting/emailing my manager, pre-emptively, helped. So, 'my sick line is up on Monday, and I;ll be seeing the GP on that date. I;ll get in touch with you, as soon as I've discussed things with them. However, I suspect I'm not quite ready to be discussing a return to work.' Yes, it's not needed, but, I found that I could control the situation a bit better that way.
Take care, and I hope you begin to feel a bit better soon; it's a shitty experience.

I’m also off sick through physical reasons! Having said that my LM will only call me if I give permission it can be considered harassment if they call without permission

Feel better for that comment do you?

I’ve been off work with mental health issues. I’m very surprised at so many people saying LM should be ringing you up. My understanding was that once you were signed off, they should not be contacting you because you’re sick. It’s obvious that pressure from work is not going to be conducive to recovery (whatever the illness).

I think it’s the unexpected
when I was in your position my manager would drop me a text, tbh I have no idea if that is correct process

i hope you start to feel better with some time to breathe and come down off the exhaustion of living on your nerves

mine wasn’t work related but completely empathise with how you are feeling

I think OP meant that her GP offered to sign her off last June, but OP declined at the time because she didn't want to let her team down. Now she regrets it because she's got worse since then. That's how I read it anyway

I’m surprised at some of the responses on here. If I’m off sick, I wouldn’t expect a call from my lm. If I’ve phoned in sick, I expect to be left alone to get better. Is it standard in some industries to have managers call?

I think she means back in June this year and she carried on working.

Yes it is.
Being off sick doesn't mean your job doesn't need doing. The OP is signed off for atleast 4 weeks if she's off until December.
Your employer is perfectly within their rights to call you for updates and any guidance on what they might be able to do to get you back to work ASAP.
In some cases there's nothing they can do but to be off with work related stress means they need to know the cause of the stress so they can remove it. How would you ever return to work otherwise.
After you've been off for a certain length of time they can dismiss you on capability grounds as long as they do it within the law.

In my work if you go off with stress you have to be referred to OH straight away. If it is work related stress then the manager needs to hold a stress risk assessment along with the OH referral.

At the risk of sounding goady, if your work makes you stressed, no amount of time off for work-related stress is going to help you anyway, because you're always looking at the date that you return with horror and it's going to make your anxiety worse. The cure for this, honestly, is to look for a new job.

Or, if you want me to be sarcastic; go on PIP. Plenty of people are on it.

It does sound like your LM might be a source of stress (I can fully relate, but that's not relevant here), they also have a duty of care to check in with you now and again to see how you're doing.

It was an unexpected call, it's shaken you a bit, try to calm down and think rationally. You'll be okay.

Blimey. Don't think I heard from my employer when I had a 3 month period off following weeks in hospital/an accident. I was entitled to 6 months of full pay had I needed it. I definitely spoke to my team at points but wasn't in a fit state to speak to anyone for the first couple of weeks.

I remember when we were told someone may pop round to check on you, as folks would go AWOL.
A phone call is fine and part of good management.

I expect it depends on the company.
I've always felt it should definitely be done for positive reasons with a view to helping the employee return to health not because there miffed that they may need a temp or to rejig the workload for while.
Hopefully occupational health will work witb OP to improve on the areas causing her stress and she'll be able to move forward

If it's a welfare check then it's perfectly reasonable. However it's a task related enquiry then it's unreasonable.

This is such a hard balancing act. I have been off with work related stress, I initiated communication via my personal email and arranged a specific time to talk (phone or virtual). My sickness was unexpected and at the time discussions with my manager would have been challenging, I therefore went via HR who I had a good relationship with.

i also now have a member of staff off in similar circumstances. I don’t use WhatsApp for work, but knowing the employee uses it, I felt that was a good way to contact them so that they could pick it up in their own time and let me k ow when was good to chat. But our policy suggests direct contact like phoning.

id strongly advise to use your EAP and self refer via the NHS for mental health support beyond medication.

I always used to think that it was best to just leave people on sick leave to recover without bothering them, but every single HR adviser that I have ever worked with hss consistently advised that the LM should call to do a welfare check. If the working relationship has broken down, and that's why the staff member is off sick, then obviously there might be times when it would be better to get another manager or HR officer to do the call instead, but that isn't always possible.

When I was off with WRS my union negotiated that HR did my welfare checks. Since my headteacher was the direct cause of my health breakdown that was deemed reasonable.

As a team manager, I am required by our HR team to check in with employees who are signed off sick, it's not about prying or keeping tabs, it's our duty of care. Each set of circumstances is specific to the individual, but when it relates to stress we can refer to EAP for counselling, OH to understand how long someone may be absent, what reasonable adjustments we can put in place, and so on.

We all know that long term absence is likely to be for significant reasons and from a work perspective need to understand how this impacts the team. I am very careful not to put this burden on to my employee - workload management is for me to sort out.

If you are off long term then my view is that contact should be made on an agreed schedule, avoiding/refusing it won't help individuals in the long term.