Off sick for years

[BoredandStuck]

Someone I work with has been off work sick for over two and a half years now. That seems a really long time without them being sacked or let go. Has anyone else come across anything similar or longer?

I was shocked to learn that in the UK people can be sacked due to illness.

In my home country people cant be sacked for being ill or being ill too often. Or while being off sick. After two weeks of sickness insurance sick pay kicks in. First two weeks are paid by employer at about 60%.

Which country ?

What's reasonable depends on the nature of the illness and the treatment being received.

I had time off work with anxiety a few years ago. After a rest and getting sabilised on medication I could go shopping and on a holiday to recuperate.

Could have called in at the office to say hi or even have a 'how goes it' review with my manager.

Several more weeks before I could face actually face sitting at my own desk and logging in.

I'm now retired but was a Welfare Rights Adviser including a stretch working with Cancer patients. Chemo leaves people wrung out like a dishcloth a few days after a session; bedbound. After a bit of recovery they're OK but still easily tired.

A few days, or even a week or three away may be just the tonic they need,

Do you have an HR function? Are you unionised?

I’ve only seen this sort of thing in the public sector,

Ordinarily employment would be brought to an end as ill health is preventing the individual fulfilling the obligations of the contract.

Had she worked there a long time? I've come across it, the employer didn't want to let them go because they would need to pay out a large redundancy package.

She’s had more time off than at work.If that was me I wouldn’t swan into work laughing as my colleagues working hard, she even said ‘don’t work too hard’ as she left!

weeeeell yes and no. It depends a bit on how the OP answers. If she says no, she is only working her contracted hours, not having to miss breaks and her manager isn't putting pressure on her, then fine. If she says that she feels she needs to do extra work/work extra hours then that is on her to stop doing. Third option is that a manager is doing something like putting her and perhaps others on something like performance improvement, then that needs addressing. In any case, its not the fault of the person who is on long term sickness absence.

The issue isn't the person being sick, but the business planning and support

Lettting the work pile up and prioritising your own stuff is the way to go. The person off in my workplace was responsible for statistical work every month. So when the other department that required the stats began whinging for them the boss tried to assign someone else. Some of us used weaponsied incompetence to make so many mistakes that they gave up asking us to do it and brought in smeone who had that partcular skills set.

This person must be quite poorly then. Your manager needs to recruit on a temporary basis to cover the work load created by one less team member. They probably don’t want to come back if its going to be a hostile environment, doesn’t sound like you are very supportive of them.

My family member has been off for 5 years and counting. They had a senior role and are covered by the companies income protection insurance. They get paid 50% of their wages up to retirement age.
The difference here is that the company have moved on and also had a restructure. They have also replaced him so he doesnt have the same role to go back to . They are not expecting others to cover the role. They can also afford to pay a new staff member because the sick persons wages are no longer being paid by the company

just interested whether this happens in other companies too

Sometimes, yes.

HTH.

Yes a couple of people in my work, employers usually has a sickness policy and they can’t just sack people for being off sick without following the process. The ones I know were let go when they reached the end of their sickness allowance and were assessed as they wouldn’t ever be able to or they didn’t want to return to their role.

Maybe have a bit of empathy- anyone can become sick any time. One of my colleagues was on long term sick because they had a stroke and never recovered well enough to come back to work. I think as a society we should be supporting people in those kinds of situations.

I worked previously with a company that had a team member off for 6 months on full pay and then back for a week or so and then off again. In the end the management just seemed to accept that this person wasnt there and one manager once said 'well you are clearly all coping to cover and we dont have the budget to cover her absences but thanks for everything you do' (and then downgraded a colleague on her annual appraisal because she didnt seem to be coping with her workload).

Before anyone says raise a grivance etc. I did many many years ago on a seperate issue and it was truly horrible. It took over a year to resolve and yes I did win.

In the end I took voluntary redudancy and have no regrets but in my experience management will do very little about getting cover in. We are all just expected to muddle through.

This lady was moved to a Transition Unit for displaced employees and she was the expected to find another role within the company. Typical of this FTSE company to just pass this person onto another dept.

I left not longer after but with some employers being under severe pressure with costs in my experience it is often just easier to hope that the existing team step up.

Yeah a lady i work with is off on long term paid sick leave with a brain tumour…on her good days she might go to the beach, and out for some lunch, I love that for her, she needs to spend time out and about because in reality she is dying! She is on really really strong debilitating medication in an effort to shrink it, an operation is the last resort. It could happen to anyone of us.
did our workload increase…yes…did we complain… not for a second, why?…because we’re all still reeling from the fact that our young, beautiful colleague and friend may not be in this earth much longer.

That shouldn't be happening - your employer should have put cover in place as soon as it became apparent the extra workload was falling on to other staff - but absent of context your annoyance should be directed at your employer imo, not your colleague. You don't know what might be going on with your colleague, although after so long an absence I'd hope your employer would be in talks with them about the long-term view.

That's so sad, and I'm glad she has supportive colleagues. Life can deal some horribly cruel blows.

It’s common in the NHS off for 6 months back for a while off again for 6 months - it’s a sick business

@ruethewhirl it is so so sad, life is cruel sometimes.

Have been off sick since May 2023. Do you want to swap places? Gladly would

She asked if anyone else had come across the situation. You have an agenda to paint OP as an unsympethetic horrible person. It is a perfectly reasonable question to ask when you are directly affected.

We had someone be off sick for long periods, they would come back for a week or so then go off again. This went on for about 4 years. When we restructured 4 people were made redundant (me included) and this person was also made redundant. Tbh I think it was no one following or understanding our absence management policy as to why it went on for so long. In the end their work was just absorbed by others in the team.

No mention of her being frustrated. She’s just asking.

Yes, people saying of course the empolyer should provide cover - it rarely happens.

After all the person could come back at any time!

An old line manager of mine couldnt deal with a teem, member who was always off sick, often not available during school run times and generally always had an excuse as to not do something. The urgent dentist appointment or child wasnt well so she couldnt do this or that. When urgent calls were needed she was no where to be seen. We all worked from home. It took him months to get clear evidence as to what she was doing and it took him a long time to present to her. Yes, its a management issue but you have a weak manager and its unlikely to be resolved properly. She was very clever around everything and in the end accused him of sexism so when there was another reorganisation she was on the list but the new dept didnt want her either.

You do not need to make someone redundent who is not cabable of doing their job through sickness. You do need to follow correct procedures and the reasons can not be due to a protected characteristic and yiu can terminate their contract. The State then picks up the cost through sickness benefit. But employers do not need to continually pay for someone off sick. They actually only need to pay statutory sick pay. If it is more it is because of the work contract. That is why benefits like this should be considered and not just pay, when accepting a job.