Major problems with DH's manager

[jemjelly]

My husband has been diagnosed with OCD since his father died suddenly last year and he suffers from bouts of depression because of this. He is having therapy on the NHS and was slowly improving but his manager has threatend him with the sack because he has to attend an appointment with his therapist every other week and misses a few hours from work each time. Apart from this his job is not affected by the OCD and his company thinks the sessions are for depression after his father died, they do not know about the OCD as it only effects our homelife (he has contamination OCD and spends 4 or 5 hours in the shower at the end of each day).

My DH?s boss (Richard) dislikes him and I think would use any excuse to sack him. Richard told him during a telephone conversation a few weeks ago that my DH should either hand in his notice or he would be sacked. Richard is a bully, a few months ago there was an incident where he forced my DH up again a wall and literally shouted into his face that he can?t be suffering from depression ?just because his father died?. Although my DH tried to report the incident to his director the next day Richard denied it and there were no witnesses so nothing was done about it.

Not surprisingly my DH hates his job at the moment and is finding it really stressful which is not helping the OCD, however unemployment is really high where we live and he has been unable to get another job. We are already in financial difficulties and if he gives up his job before he finds another one it is likely that our mortgage company will foreclose on our mortgage.

I have a couple of questions which I hope someone in the know can help me with, if my DH asked his doctor to sign him off work with stress while he tackles the OCD can his company dismiss him? I think if he was away from work he would get better much quicker as the stress is making it worse. Also can they dismiss him because he needs to attend therapist appointments due to a medically diagnosied condition? What are his rights? Do they have to give him official warnings first? Do they have to try and move him to another department if there is personality clashes? Can he request this.

Sorry for all the questions I really am at a loss how to help him and I?m really worried.

So sorry you and your DH are going through this. I work for a large company and know they have very strict rules about such things, not sure what the legalities are though. If someone is on long term sick then they are usually managed out of the business, or efforts have to be made to find a suitable role. I hope someone with more knowledge on employment law comes along, but I am sure he cannot be sacked for being ill.

I'm sorry to hear about your DH's problems at the moment. I'm sure his employer could not sack him because he'd been signed off sick, but depending on his contract they may be under no obligation to pay him other than basic sick pay.

I think from what you've said about his manager it sounds as if he would be much better off being signed off for 4-6 weeks to try and get better in a stressless environment.

My DH was signed off work for a 6 week period about 12 months ago after a period of bullying and poor management at work. In his case it was a really difficult decision to make as he never has sick leave for anything, ever. But it was massively beneficial, it helped him get on top of his depression and anxiety and when he eventually returned to work he was able to do so with a renewed sense of strength.

I really hope your DH feels better soon

Thank you. I have been thinking about advising him to go back to the doctor but I know he is really worried about loosing this job as there is nothng else out there.

Until this new manager started 12 months ago my DH was doing fine at work but there is such a personallity clash its now a nightmare. Do you know if they can sack him because of missed time with the therapist appointments?

So sorry you're both going through this.

Whether he can take paid or unpaid time off during working hours will downed on his contractual terms and conditions. What is company policy on this?

At our place we allow paid time off for hospital appointments but dentist
/doctor has to be in a persons own time (we offer flexible time).

He needs to speak to someone higher than his manager about the situation, I think.

Basically they could sack him of he has simply left work without authorisation.

It could possibly be considered unfair dismissal IF he has fully informed his employers of his issues.

Is he able to have appointments outside of working hours?

If I were he I would be confidentially disclosing the full issue - backed up with info from the doctor - and formally requesting the time off at a higher level than his line manager.

Depend on, Not "downed on"

Thanks - he can't have the appointments outside of his working hours. These are on the nhs and that is all they can offer. We just. Can't afford to go private. I will have a chat with him about speaking to someone else higher up about these appointments. They are all first thing in the morning (8am) for an hour so I suppose he misses two hours of work each time he goes. I can see their point in a way but at the same time his manager is totally unreasonable with everything.