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

Funny you say that... the people who reported me for being out my house and smiling also took the piss in regard to fag breaks.

Years go, my workplace was on TV (I can't remember if it was Panorama or Dispatches... it was about the how clean hospitals are.. I have had a look and can't find it anywhere online), and the person going undercover actually mentioned how many fag breaks one of the supervisors went on (when she was actually meant to be training the undercover employee), and I instantly knew who it was!

But yep, being in a pub or café is nothing like being in work. Unless your job is actually lounging about in pubs and coffee shops... then no. Just no.

I’m with you and have this issue in my team currently, but YABVU to imply those repeat gynae problems are not genuinely sick. I was fine and in great health until a few years ago. I’ve waited over a year to be seen urgently for new onset gyn issues, the waiting lists are horrendous and I was only taken seriously after an eventual admission where i was off a whole month (yes full pay), the longest i’ve ever been off. But the build up every month to that was awful and I dreaded my cycle.
I wasn’t taking days off every month but dragging myself in an horrendous state due to attitudes like yours.

Not enough time to be humble, too busy working.
Might call in sick later with stress and practice humility over a pint.

And you can bitch on here when you get seen outside of your house. Obviously taking the piss, right?

Hmm, most places I've worked the smokers go for a fag and a coffee and the non smokers just have a coffee and a chat. The worst offenders were always the school run mums on flexitime who left us working on a bid but never seemed to make up the time or ever come in earlier. They just worked 1.5 hours less a day.

Sorry, that sounded really passive aggressive. I'm not a smoker/vaper.

Yes, completely taking it. Overtly.

Not so easy to 'Let it go', when you are the one picking up the cf's work, and get called in to cover their shifts on your days off. Or if like me you are trying to rota staff on shifts but know fine well that the rota will be in shreds by the end of the week because the same cf has decided to stay at home with her sick iguana instead of going to work.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn4vmw27x13o

This is the sort of malingering I mean. Benefits but tbh it could easily apply to work. For everyone defending this individual ...your wages are paying for her. Imagine your take home pay if you weren't

I was waiting for this to turn up on here.

PIP fraud is super low... less than 1%. This lady is part of that 1%. All that article does it make people look at PIP claimants with suspicion. It is going to make people think that MH issues should not be a reason for claiming at all. Just more division, and clicks for the gutter rag press sites.

Your take home pay is not going to change at all due to her being caught, and it would have been no different if she had not been claiming (her initial claim was legitimate, she failed to report an improvement from what I have seen reported in other places).

How do they know how low fraud is? If they know who is committing fraud, why don't they stop their claims and prosecute them for fraud?

Erm, if someone is found to be committing fraud then they do prosecute them.... like the lady in the article.

I would like to know how many malicious reports are made. I would like to see a law that says if you report someone, and it turns out they were doing nothing wrong, then YOU get fined.

That’s not true though.

The stats demonstrate that less than 1% of PIP claimants have been found to be committing fraud.

We have absolutely no idea what the actual figure is.

It’s also noteworthy in this case the investigation was triggered by an anonymous tip off, in the context of many threads on MN where posters who suspect benefit fraud are told to mind their own business and what the hell do they know about a person’s circumstances.

That same sentiment also prevails on this thread.

The narrative that we should pretend that there are not a cohort of people that exploit sickness policy and/or the the benefit system isn’t in anyone’s interests - especially those people in genuine need.

There is not an infinite pot of public money. The answer to ensuring appropriate and effective distribution of funds cannot be to turn a blind eye to the problem.

Xeno you are really triggered.... if you think no one ever malingers you're in denial

I have been accused of malingering because I was seen outside of my house and was seen "smiling".
I was hauled into my manager's office during sick leave to address it.
It was fucking awful. He got into trouble because I was not actually doing anything wrong.

I have not said anywhere that no one malingers, but there seems to be an overwhelming theme on this thread that anyone off sick is taking the piss, and if they leave their house then they must have been lying about it.

I know not everyone who goes sick is malingering and benefit claimants ...ditto. It happens however. It doesn't mean it is you. No need to be triggered unless it really is you.

Fake sickness happens very commonly in the workplace....most managers have one employee experience at least... if not one currently on the go....

We know that people go sick because we are sick people ourselves sometimes. We also know there are some people for whom work is very very difficult and they take sick days because they just don't feel like work that day. That's OK once or twice....a mental health day. Not OK regularly because the mental health of their colleagues will suffer because of their behaviour.

Am I sympathetic to people who struggle with going to work. Yes because I don't want work some days. Am I sympathetic to them going sick then..no. I think some of them really believe they can't work...really really really believe it. But they also believe they should be allowed to live their life normally (coffee, friends, socialising etc) just not the work they claim pay for.

I've had ops. I know you have to shop, start seeing people, take gentle walks etc. But these are the exceptions. Not "I've got back pain"...if your back pain allows you to shop.... then you can work. So some people make choices. They don't choose work ....rather than they can't work.

Meeting a friend in a cafe is not the same as going to work.
It is totally different.

Putting up with back pain for the sake of one shopping trip is different to putting up with it for 40 hours a week.

oh yes, the behaviour, and probably even the person!

I disagree with you @xenobitch.

Many, many posters on this thread have been very clear that this is not about “anyone off sick is taking the piss”.

You are choosing (yes, choosing) to to read into this thread a narrative that meets your need for affirming your own situation and the injustice you describe as having experienced.

Your solution to that appears to be to take your experiences and use those as the basis for continuing policies that are ineffective where it’s is very clear that there are people who exploit them.

I worry about this quite a bit. DP is disabled and needs care; I am the care. I have time off for his appointments and time off to look after him when he is very unwell, as he's not safe without supervision unless in hospital then. I fit the rest around work, but I'm late sometimes. I average 10/12 days a year this way, as I picked a job with timings that mostly accommodate this, but still. It's a lot.

I was quite unwell a few months ago and signed off for 3 weeks as I couldn't get over a large infection at all.

My mum killed herself recently, which necessitated a few days off to deal with practicalities. I didn't take any more than the days to identify her and for the funeral, because I worry about having more time off and letting everyone down.

Which is difficult, because I am self harming and very stressed and having a lot of suicidal ideation. My IBS keeps flaring and I think I actually might still have the infection too, 4 months on now. I don't feel like I can have any more time off at all, because I worry I will be viewed like this and managed out, so I keep in going with a massive smile. I cried and hung up the phone when I was told I could only have a chest x ray in my working hours, rather than book it. I don't want to be a shirker - I try not to be, but fuck me, I give an excellent impression of one. I like my colleagues and my workplace, I don't want to be the let down that I am.

Sigh.

One news article on one woman’s benefit fraud.

Yet everyone who’s off sick must be “playing the system” it’s so exhausting.

Really? OP has repeatedly said that if someone can meet a friend for coffee, they are taking the piss and should be in work. Or if they are off with back pain and can go shopping etc.

Life does not stop when you are off sick. You are signed off work, not life.

That is literally why people post about it. It is to cause division.

I can’t fathom why the “signed off work, not life” is endlessly used as some sort of “gotcha”.

Work is a significant, important and economically necessary part OF life for a majority of adults.

It’s not some separate existential state where laws of equivalence cease to exist.

Asserting that being unwell enough not to go to work, yet being able to do other activities that require travel, socialisation, mental planning and physical exertion is somehow not comparable because it’s “life” is not a rational argument.

My ex broke his hand and could not do his job. But he could still go shopping and see people.
I had time off for MH, but getting out and seeing people was a huge part of my recovery that enabled me to go back to work in the end.