Dismissed from work.

[user1464187087]

Good evening,
Please be gentle with me.
I was dismissed from work a few months ago. I worked as a staff member for the police for nearly 26 years.
For many years I worked as a police 999 Call Handler and ended up sufferring with anxiety as a result. I took calls from people who comitted suicide, died in fatal house fires, people that witnessed fatal road traffic collisions and a hell of a lot more.
I was dismissed because of my sickness due to anxiety and feel it was unfair.
I was in a union and felt that they didn't help me.
Am I being unreasonable to think this is unfair?
I didn't have months off sick and had been back working full time for four months at the time of my dismissal.
I started working there when I was 17 and was dismissed when I was 42.
I can't seem to get over it.
Sorry for the long post.

It’s going to be a lot, over many years, the police don’t do this lightly, and there will have been lawyers involved checking every angle.

the op has only focused on she was in the current role for four months, she’s not explained how many years this went on for, how far back the process started, how long she was off and over what periods in the current job.

there won’t be discrimination here, they’d have done everything possible and it will sadly look like the op came back when she realised they would terminate. And they wouldn’t stop the process when they were approaching that decision, as she could easily have worked for six months and did it again, thus restarting the clock. The fact her union couldn’t help would indicate this was a very very lengthy process and everything was done correctly, and the fact she did her role for 4 months before the final decision, had no real bearing. In addition they would have taken into account how well she did her job in thay four months. She would also likely have been being paid, as every time you come back you effectively restart the clock.

the op maybe busy, she said she’d answer all questions, so it remains to be seen if she will come back and update.

The reality is though OP that those horrific incidents actually happened to people, you were merely directing the right help to them in their hour of desperate need. Your resulting anxiety from this isn't your employers issue to deal with - they need someone there doing what is in their employment contract, not off sick and generating large amounts of admin. It sounds like you stayed for far too long in a job that you couldn't cope with. And there's no shame in that - I had to come out of a previous job due to the stress, it just wasn't worth the money I was earning from it.

I didn’t say they’d get it I asked if they considered it as an option. And CPTSD acquired in the workplace is certainly worthy of consideration as you’d know.

A beautifully measured response - OP, I hope you read this one with care.

Wow - way to kick the OP when she’s down and struggling to come to terms with this all

I’m so sorry that must have been very hard for you.

I don’t think we really think about people in your role, we tend to focus on the services attending the scene.

How much time did you have off in the year prior to the final 4 months of no sickness days?

Did you have a lot of sickness in the new front desk role?

What a kind and compassionate post!

OP - you have worked so hard at helping others at some expense to your own health (and livelihood). And now it’s time to focus on yourself and show the same help and compassion you showed to others to yourself

Me too x

I think you’ve missed the fact that, depending on the policy, that’s not how IHR/Income Protection schemes work

That said , it doesn’t sound like OP herself would have been ready for that route. She’s young and has much to offer - just that the time had come to draw a line under her chapter with the emergency services

💯

Would have been covered in the panel meeting that made the decision to terminate.

If I’m honest op, as this will have went on for years, if I was them I’d be considering if you came back just before the decision was made in an effort to save your job or if it really was just a huge and lucky coincidence that you recovered just before the final decision to terminate was made,when the process would have been going on for a very long time.

edit to add how many times have you returned for a short period?

and the cynic in me right now would wonder if you’re now missing the job, or missing the pay, as you will likely have been paid for years without doing the role, all you had to do was keep coming back for a short period, reset the clock, and you would be on full pay throughout. And of course a new employer will not have the kind of sick pay policy immediately, even the police don’t, it’s after 6 years you get full pay for six months and then half pay for six months, but coming back for a short period every six months would keep you at full pay till they eventually act.

Maybe - not always - see the responses here from people - it needs a pensions expert and a raft of medical support - which is why I asked

Also op, has this effectively been threatened before, was the moving to the new role in part avoiding that, but your illness continued and as before, as such you continued on full pay sick leave in the new role?

I am sure you were very unwell, as that’s what gave rise to the capability termination, but as this is the police and not civvy street, this will have been going on for years and years,

Or speaking sense.
If you can't do the job. Move on.

This is wrong. As I've already stated, other areas of the justice system have ongoing vicarious or secondary trauma support. It is their responsibility. Call handlers is one of the roles where high levels of vicarious trauma and PTSD are found. It sounds like it may have been implemented too late for the OP.

You’re making a lot of assumptions here that the op hasn’t spoken to, not applying critical thinking, just taking what she’s written as the whole story and then lept to conclusions.

It was the wrong job for you.

Hope you find something better.
😘

Re ill health retirement - as a police civilian the OP would have been in the Local Government Pension Scheme, and to qualify for ill health retirement a member has to meet two tests -firstly being permanently incapable of doing your job (permanently being defined as to state pension age), AND have a reduced likelihood of obtaining other gainful employment before state pension age. It sounds like OP would meet the first test but not the second (as it sounds like she is capable of doing other roles). Without meeting both tests ill health retirement would not be available.

edited for typo

I haven't made any assumptions or reached any conclusions. I asked her once if she had trauma support after she explicitly stated the traumatic aspects of the job had caused her anxiety, and then I posted once in response to someone who said secondary trauma in emergency call-handling wasn't the employer's responsibility.

Which part are you taking issue with exactly?

Do ur work offer post trauma sessions, any wellbeing session or councilling support in the later stages of your post? I know wellbeing etc is just a recent buzzword for support in the past few years with Covid etc but u should have been offered some kind of management support at times when the trauma calls were exceedingly bad to help with anxiety and to stop I being off sick with this.

How often and how long were you absent from work previously

You are not being unreasonable for feeling upset, but it does sound as if your employer had the right to dismiss you.

Quite a few people on here are suggesting you appeal the decision, but I'm not sure that's a good idea in your circumstances. Doing so is likely to be stressful and unsuccessful.

Think very carefully about taking any action that might lead a an employment tribunal. From what you have told us, the union will not support your claim and your employer will throw the kitchen sink at defending it.

The process is time-consuming, often drawn out over several years and absolutely brutal. Even if you represent yourself, it can be very expensive because you need to cover all your expenses, time off work, travel, preparing bundles, printing, etc.

Despite what we read and hear in the news about people winning large sums of money, ET cases they are extremely difficult for employees to win. If your case is deemed by the tribunal to have no merit, they can award costs against you which can go into six figures if your employer is using expensive lawyers (which they will).

I have been through the process and it dominated over two years of my life and nearly broke me. I took legal advice before proceeding and was advised that my case was good enough that I could still win even without representation in the tribunal hearing (I couldn't afford a barrister).

Although I won a small part of my claim I was only awarded three months pay. I substantially lost my case. I spent considerably more on making my claim than I was awarded by the tribunal, despite having no legal representation during the hearing.

It is very unfair if you have been treated badly by your employer, but it is only worth making a ET claim if you have a water-tight case, nerves of steel and very deep pockets.