How to cope

[JustSayNoNoNo]

Probably just need to vent, but if anyone has good ideas, please share!

I manage a team of 5. One has been off sick for months, is just back to work and we are treating her with kid gloves while she gets used to the routine etc again. Other people suspect she may not have been as ill as she said she was, but as her line manager I have to go by what her GPs says. Unfortunately I will have to discipline her for poor performance as well (unconnected to her sickness absence) and she's unlikely to cope well in the circumstances; she might even go off sick again as a reaction. HR are involved and are providing support and advice.

Another staff member has had a poor sickness record in recent months. My line manager spends a lot of time away from the office but has told me that he is getting fed up of the sickness record on my team. The absences are frustrating me, it's impacting on the whole team, and I now feel like I'm letting my own manager down, because the absences mean I can't deliver what he wants. We've used temps but none have been worth keeping on - plus there's the cost (which comes out of my budget). I'm struggling with the workload and struggling to see what I can do. Anybody got a magic wand?

Are HR helping you to be robust in managing the absences? Have you got occ health support? Is it possible to sack the individuals if they're not up to the job and get people who can do it? (Easier if less than 2 years service)

Yes, but these things take time ... which is partly what's frustrating me, and frustrating my boss even more!

Well, it does take time, but it should always be moving forward. But if your boss is frustrated then s/he needs to take it up with HR in terms of the procedure, the occupational sick pay and how robust HR are being in their advice. Sickness management is a specialist area and managers need experienced help to get a resolution.

Yes, all that is happening, and I agree with you that it's a specialist area. HR dept is very cautious though, so they take the softly-softly approach. Boss disagrees with their approach, and I'm stuck in the middle. I have no solutions to offer my boss. I'm already working extra hours yet can't keep on top of things any more. The second person I mentioned goes off intermittently for a day or two here and there, which is disruptive. If I try to delegate I'll just overload the ones who are left. I feel like I can't rely on two of my staff, and it's grinding me down.

Is there anyone in HR you can escalate to?

By the way, if Hr are not helping you manage and the company's sick pay and procedures enable people to be off, it is completely unfair of your boss to land this at your door. How is your boss supporting you? If s/he disagrees with Hr's approach how are they helping you to resolve that?

Hermione, thank you for saying he's being unfair. I think I just needed someone else to say that! He told me what he'd said to HR about their support so far (he didn't miss and hit the wall, and it probably didn't go down well). I have a routine meeting on my own with our HR contact during the week. I will use the opportunity to make sure I convey to her the impact this is having on me, with stress coming from two directions: the stress of my team's absences, plus the stress of my boss making it clear that my team is failing to deliver. I hate the feeling that I'm letting him down - he doesn't suffer fools gladly and isn't interested in excuses.

I think I will try to have a session with my team to remind them what our objectives are, to see if they can get a bit more engaged. Maybe I should buy them all some vitamin pills out of my budget!!

I would really push your HR contact. Say it is not possible to have 2 out of a team of 5 who are not capable, and how are they going to help you resolve it? Would you be willing to pay them off to get them out and get in people who can do the job?

Hermione, paying one of them off is likely. But there are processes to follow, and the wheels grind exceedingly slowly because HR are so very cautious.

I'm just really disheartened that my boss, knowing all of this, had a go at me. He's just seeing a failure to deliver, and judging me accordingly. His 'pep' talk won't change anything ... I'm running out of people to delegate to and am already working an extra 1-2 hours a day every day, plus spending time during evenings, weekends and even holidays working on emails or drafting things. He knows this and has told me off, saying I need to relax etc. I think I'll explain this to HR. Writing it all down has made me realise just how bad it's got.

Thanks for your interest, it's really really helped!

I would suggest you push HR to support you in managing this more, and do say in a way your manager knows what is going on and can see you managing the situation.
If someone keeps taking odd days, surely this should be covered in absence policy?
I would email hr, copy in boss, and say somethig along the lines of, as you know x and x troublesome absence, it is now a situation that needs active monitoring and I suggest we review on a weekly basis what is happening. Set actions for each week, copy manager in on all emails. Are the other 3 in your team
Performing well?

Pumpkin thanks for all the ideas. Absence is already being monitored on a weekly basis by me and HR. Boss knows this. Thanks to Hermione I realised I haven't spelled out to HR how this affecting me, both in practical terms (all the extra hours) as well as emotionally - I'm just ground down, especially when my boss doesn't seem to think I've been managing it effectively. I'm going to bring that up with HR this week.

The others are performing well, thank goodness, but I can only ask so much of them.

Can you get one of the absentees assigned to another group and get someone else for yours? Share the pain? 2 out if 5 is a high number and hard to manage. Either you need to have your team targets reduced by at least 20% or you need to have another person added to your team.

It sounds like effectively you have a team of 4 trying to do the workload of 5. Either you need to be given another person or less work.

Would your boss consider one of those suggestions until HR can resolve the sickness issue?

kickass thanks for your suggestions. Unfortunately we're the only team who do the kind of work we do in our unit and we are remote from the rest of the organisation, so I can't transfer anyone out or do a swap (I wish!!). I don't want to out myself, but what we have to deliver isn't something that's negotiable. There's also no budget to employ an extra person, other than short-term temps.

I do appreciate all the responses. It's helped me think of a few things I can do to help me feel I have some control over the situation, even if I'm not posting the details here.