AIBU to be fed up with colleagues repeatedly off sick?

[IngridsLittleToe]

I'm going to get my arse handed to me and I don't care. Sick staff....I'm so over feeling sympathetic. I'm not talking really sick staff...I'm talking repeated back ache/gynae problems/migraine/back ache/sore throat/cold/depression/back ache/sinusitis/cold/sore big toe....

They have been on repeated sickness absence management and pull it back from the brink each time. Only to start all over again. Years and years of this. The rest of the team have to pick up the pieces, cancel their jobs to cover someone else's and the sickie doesn't have any loyalty at all.

The whole time they are sick they manage to socialise and do a voluntary role. Any attempt to manage the sickness is met with claims of bullying and then they go sick with anxiety.

All on full pay.

AIBU to think they are shamelessly playing the system and should be sacked

Its not bullying to expect a better hr policy that balances staff sickness/wellbeing with service delivery

The thing is. Nobody can know who has a migraine and who says they have a migraine.
You have migraines. Other people say they have migraines.
In both cases there should be a limit on how much sick leave can be taken before it is accepted someone can’t do their job.
it’s just silly to dismiss all the managers on here and their collective experience of shirkers and the HR system that allows shirking.
You know it’s the shirkers and not the managers who have created this situation where you feel you have to justify your absences? As always a few people ruin things for others.

I've had migraines, gynae issues, depression etc. I'm old enough to have had quite a lot. I've also seen people with all these things and much worse. Any sickness absence is a problem to deal with. Of course it is...you have a job because you're needed, not because you're supernumerary.

The people we are (many of us) referring to, have made being absent with sickness their job....not an exceptional event. I think there are many reasons for this behaviour. Some it's just plain cynical I can get away with it but I suspect with some it's psychological either performance anxiety or stuff at home. Believe me we explore all options to support that person. Those who want to work engage with this process.

I think some people are less resilient so take to their sick bed with any little symptom. They genuinely believe they can't work and are befuddled that anyone thinks they can. It's almost impossible to work with this as they become so focused on their reasons not to work, their experienced health gets worse. Take the pressure of needing to go to work and they get better. So the answer is not to work ...but they want to get paid for this. If they worked with a psychologist I reckon some people would find quality of life improved as they no longer experienced ill health in response to any challenge in life. That's a small sub group NOT EVERYONE off sick.

If you do have regular sickness and feel huge frustration at not being able to work and are always trying to get in, miss working, miss colleagues, upset/frustrated by missing work deadlines or tasks, self employed, are struggling to manage life at home because too poorly to shop, cook for the family etc. I guarantee this is not you.

@bluegreenbird Said You know it’s the shirkers and not the managers who have created this situation here you feel you have to justify your absences.... As always a few people ruin things for others This.

I have stage 4 endo and migraines.

I’m not offended by this post, I get it completely.

Some people are work-shy and some people have chronic illnesses. Some people have both.

Ah, sorry. It's because in places like the public sector you get full pay for 6 months before it drops to half. I, of course forgot if you're not in that environment it would make no sense.
Hence I'm pointing out the differentiation that the sick leave was all fully paid. They didn't run concurrently I should have also said.

Definitely not just a public sector issue! My husband works for a large corporate company, and this happens all too frequently!

I was a trade union officer for just over a decade. I knew it was public sector before I got far. I ended up leaving because of some of the people I represented. About 10% of the people I represented in cases absolutely deserved to be sacked. The last straw was someone who was doing something with a complete IT history of their total misdemeanours who lied to my face and then management brought it up. Shirkers are stealing from the public purse.

It was a while ago so no idea about legislation now but what you need to get rid of people is IT evidence, it sits there and is recoverable. This isn’t about sickness especially. They were not my members fortunately so didn’t need to represent but in that decade where I worked, the police were also involved there were two separate instances of men having images of child sex abuse on their desktops. They were sacked.

I think the whole point is that some people CAN very much help being off sick, that they are swinging the lead, exaggerating symptoms, prolonging what might be a couple of days into as long as they can get away with, rinse and repeat.

Migraines are appalling and dismissed frequently, gynae problems same. As someone who suffers from both and back and joint issues and always feels disbelieved I do tend to think maybe she's just... Sick.

Takes years to prove things, I was off for 6 months begging for help from nhs and private means before finally getting an ankle MRI showing I needed complex surgery, prior to that no one believe me as it was soft tissue.

A lifetime of gynae issues with complete denial it could be endometriosis only for them to struggle to get my first child out via c section because my internal organs were completely fused together with adhesions.

Back pain dismissed as overplayed until an MRI showed a ruptured disc after 6 months of working through barely being able to walk and rehab not working

Dismissed as cyclical vomiting syndrome when I had a massive stomach ulcer and giant gallstones. Took months to prove.

Do you think she wouldn't rather be well and work than deal with all the upheaval of pain and sickness and also the stress of meetings etc surrounding it? It's incredibly demeaning.

Too unwell to sit at a desk, but well enough to sit at a cafe table scoffing a muffin reading hello magazine because we've been signed off work, not life.
Sounds like a theme tune for the sicknote culture.

OK, so not a in a café then, but sitting at home. The only difference is the environment.
From that logic, you can sit in a chair at home, so can sit at a desk at a work.

Both are totally different things. What desk job consists of eating a muffin and reading magazines for 8 hours each day? With no tasks to do, no manager, no colleagues etc. Totally different things.

No one is sitting in a café with cakes and magazines for 40 hours a week.

You are basically saying that anyone off sick should not be seen outside their house, because if they are outside then they can go to work.
How does that work with people who are too disabled to work at all? Should they be stuck in home?

If you're signed off work sick you should be at home until you've recovered and not out and about enjoying your leisure time at the expense of both your employer, and those covering your workload.

We aren't talking about people who are too disabled to work.

We're talking about those who are suddenly and unpredictably (ha) too unwell to work in the first weeks of spring, first heat of summer, various Mondays and Fridays, the shopping run lead up to Christmas, and during September when we get that one glorious week before autumn draws in and the beer gardens are full.

Sicknotes are of course too ill to work in these periods but remarkably not too ill that they can't get their christmas shopping done, or get to the beach for a lovely little lounge about, or go out lunching with friends.
And if spotted of course, its because they havent been signed off from life tho.

Why should someone be stuck at home? If you are off work with something like depression, staying at home and isolating yourself is the worst thing you can do.
Recovery is not often so black and white that you are ill one day and fit to work the next.
Getting out and about can be part of the recovery that someone does to build up to going back to work.

I had an ex who broke his hand in an accident and could no do his job for a while. What would be the sense in his staying at home? He could still go shopping, meet friends etc.

Yes, because obviously this thread is referencing people who are off sick with broken bones.

You seem to think anyone off sick for any reason should have to stay at home. I am countering that, as it is nonsense.

No, i just think that you're "you're signed off from work not life" trope is one designed by and for serial sicknotes to trot out as a reason why they're out having a lovely time when they're supposed to be too unwell to work.

If you've broken your hand and you have a manual job - of course you can't work, and of course you can have a coffee because your reason for absence is well evidenced and I would think nothing of it.

If your "anxiety" is such that you can't go to work for a week but can post your photos from a weekend at the bar during Ascot because youre "not signed off from life" however, I'd think you were an absolute sponge.

Yeah I had people bitching about that at work that I was out walking and in the gym and with a coffee
i had spinal surgery and was doing my physio and recommended walking!

I don’t think you can really ever know what is going on with someone else medically. It is always a possibility someone is playing the system but I think this is unlikely. It can’t be nice for the person having all these medical problems and repeated G.P visits. It is likely some of them are connected. It can’t be nice missing work and repeatedly having to pick themselves up and go through processes with H.R. I expect there is more to it for example they are suffering with anxiety and depression more than anyone knows and that in turn possibly means they aren’t looking after their general health. However sometimes people do have genuine multiple medical conditions at any one time. I see this often in my line of work. It’s just the way it goes sometimes. I think just show kindness, it might just be what this person needs. At another time in your life you could find yourself in exactly this situation.

A 40 hour week in work is totally different to going to an event.

People also can and do get signed off with work-related stress (DP Is signed off right now). They can still do other things.

These people are irritating, but just do your job, and tell your managers that they will have to sort out the rest.

I had my manager haul me into the office when I was off sick with mental health issues. I was seen out the house and "smiling". So I was obviously taking the piss.
I sometimes have appointments with my CPN in cafes.

Uh huh.

Stay humble.

Life is complex.

It came up at work that a colleague had been to the pub while off sick with stress, and another colleague (who spent half her time outside vaping) reported her to management, and I think that was both wrong, and indicative of the second colleague's attitude to work.

Going to the pub is nothing like my job, provided you do it properly. The fact that the second colleague claimed that being able to go to the pub meant someone was well enough to come to work just showed that she herself did fuck-all at work once she was through the door.