To disagree with my mannager about if diarrhea is reason to WfH

[HonestPenguin]

How bad would diarrhoea need to be for you to work from home?

I have had bowel surgery, and from time to time I get what I would consider to be severe diarrhoea. As an example, over the last 24 hours I have been to the toilet 14 times. It’s all very watery, and I feel some nausea and just vaguely unwell.

When talking to my manager, I explained that from time to time I may need to work from home more than expected, as a result of the bowel surgery and the severe diarrhoea I sometimes experience. Her response was to say that we all get stomach bugs and that I need to meet the expectation.

I tried that with now ex employer over my chronic condition and they were still happy to break laws and commit severe misconduct by inventing fake business hardships and telling lies that my occupational health report didn't mention afternoon fatigue when it mentioned it twice! Sadly companies are happy to break laws because whose gonna do them for it! The government aren't policing it but if they want the disability benefit situation to get better then they need to do something because I only wanted a small adjustment of slightly reduced hours and it was begrudged! The future looks bleak for all the special needs / ND kids today because they won't get any adaptions they need to work unless employers start being threatened with prosecution for ignoring their duties to help employees with needs.

@Francestein
I have been using liquid IV probolem is don’t know if this replaces everything as had things out of balance before.

If you had bothered to read the thread you would have seen this is all covered in her Occupational Health report, which the manager is trying to ignore and ride roughshod over.
But obviously you would much rather have a dig at someone who is struggling with both their health and their terrible manager.

@FlyingCatGirl
Sorry to hear of your experiences. Scoe was good for employment advice in the past

The problem with occupational health those days is that it's often not in house so you can't just go to them, I've a recent miserable experience where my cruel ex employers started letting me finish at 3pm because of crushing fibromyalgia fatigue in the afternoons, it was life changing for be but come the end of the 6 weeks holidays they suddenly wanted to take it off me -the managing directors niece joined our team and likes disappearing in the afternoons to get the kids so I guess they didn't like letting us both be not around for an hour of the afternoon - not that it caused any issues as we had enough staff to manage but suddenly they wanted me to start later but that's not helping me with my afternoon fatigue and if my only window of exercising is now in the morning before work I would find the afternoon fatigue even more torturous. I asked for this to go back through occupational health but it was refused, they said if I didn't agree they would cancel my flexible working and put me back on full time hours, the fibro and RSIs in my hands had settled thanks to the reduced hours so I again requested this be reviewed by occupational health - again I was blanked! Sometimes you can't access occupational health unless the company allows you because it's an external company.

But if you read my comments it's not easy to do anything about being ridden roughshod over even when you have occupational health reports and a private rheumatologists report like I had to back me up. Believe me, those reports can be illegally ignored because companies can break these laws without being policed.

id be asking why they are ignoring advise from occupational health? In writing in an email

get in contact with your union or if you’re not in a union join one

They can say no, I've just been through it because of my fibromyalgia and wanting to reduce my hours a bit, I had occupational health reports, I had a private rheumatologist report and risk assessments to back me up and they still broke the law and ignored all of it to refuse to support me! They can ignore it and break laws and get away with because who is policing these people!

People with diarrhoea should not be allowed to be in the office. Regardless of the cause. In circumstances like yours, eating something dodgy, a bug or emptying your bowels for a colonoscopy etc.

Not only you could be risking others to catch the bug. But if you need to go and the block of toilets is full, you may not have time to go to the next block. Plus do other colleagues want to visit the loos knowing that they stink of diarrhoea? They might not know your surgery and automatically assume it’s a bug.

I’m not sure how your workplace is set up. In other places I have worked at, some toilets were not accessible with the security pass was set up.

I was doing that with my now ex employers, they refused to answer anything I asked! I asked why things were being ignored, they said my occupational health report didn't mention afternoon fatigue, I sent it back to boss and HR with it highlighted twice where it mentions it. They can get away with ignoring everything and breaking the laws and it's a heartbreaking feeling.

@MissCharlotteLutterell
Thanks for your support. I apreciate I didn’t mention Occ Health in my orriginal post. There is obbiously a diferent dynamic to a mannager not taking account of OH advice. When I have managed people i wouldnt expect them in with D&V.

@FlyingCatGirlIts a lot of time and stress but ultimately its Employment Tribunals that mannage equality act provlems in a workplace.

Get legal advice about this now. You have three months to start a claim.

I've just applied on ACAS site to start a tribunal - I don't want them to get away with treating people the way they treated me. It's worrying because it's how do you deal with By future employers wanting references from a previous employer that's treated you like crap and you've had to get them done for it. None of us asked for our health issues - I have bowel disease with my fibromyalgia and stress just makes it worse doesn't it!

I've made an application just now on acas site to start a claim. I felt so alone and didn't know what to do in the situation I was put in. I was takwn.by surprise by how cruel they were and I'd always been a very enthusiastic and hard working employee, I actually sobbed for hours after the meeting telling me they were taking my reduced hours off me and the appalling lies they were giving for doing it.

I went into our london office for 2 consecutive days last month. I took ill over night and crawled into the office for the second day. It was a nightmare. I went to the loo 12 times. I made the 30mins journey to my train station but immediately rushed to the loo. The trains were up the swanny and I spend 4 hours at that station because I needed the loo rather than travel elsewhere and get within 20miles of home.

After the 4 hours I started to feel a little better so go on a train (the secobd 1 per hoyr train operating) that got me to a station 35miles from my home - there were no trains home for me at all. I called my son and he collected me and drove me home.

Never again. First sign of illness and Im going home!! Its IBS btw, so unpredictable like yours us @HonestPenguin

Do what you need to and manage your well being. Go in when you can but def dont go in ill.

I'm sorry to hear that- did you get help from your union?

Trouble is I wasn't in a union, if have had to have sourced one and I didnt know if it was a bit too late to do that once the problem had arisen.

This!

Considering you've had bowel surgery and this complaint can be ongoing id take it above her and make it formal so that in future you can wfh due to an illness that requires you to be comfortably at home she sounds horrible and out of order ..