is this fair?

[buddhasbelly]

I was off last week due to personal circs, I was given a sick cert from my GP and had to do a return to work interview.

My line manager was off on holiday whilst I was off but stated "in future you must phone me so I can assess your mood via phone" (I contacted HR in her absence put my out of office on)

I was then told that as I work pt and had a week off previously (work pattern 2 full days, 1 day of 3 hrs) for tonsillitis this should be registered not as 6 days but as 2 full weeks to make my pro rata up to ft?!

This seems ridiculous to me to increase the number of days off I had so would welcome opinions. Thanks

When I was part time it worked exactly like this.

Sickness was from your first day of sickness until the day you returned to work regardless of the days you were expected to work. So if you worked Monday's and Tuesday's and happened to be ill two Monday's and Tuesday's in a row it would be treated as two weeks as two weeks were missed, not four days, likewise if only ill for Monday and Tuesday of a week that was considered to be a week because you aren't there for a week (I'm assuming you didn't work other days to make up for the ones you missed).

It might be different now of course, I'm sure someone will say if it is!

Same where I work I think - I think I'm supposed to say on a non working day if I would be well enough for work. It's never happened since I've been part time though - I have a knack of only being ill on weekends .

It seems reasonable that they count it as 2 weeks, but assessing your mood by phone sounds a bit weird. Why would she need to do that?

if you've had two weeks off you've had two weeks off. Your week comprises fewer hours than others, but you've had two of your weeks off.

I agree the assessing mood thing is strange. What has your mood got to do with the price of fish?

Our sickness absence policy asks employees to phone their manager so that they can hold a "meaningful conversation". Ie, discuss what might need attended to during the employee's absence, for example. Also, the manager is expected to try to assess how long the employee is likely to be off, if only to help them with planning how to cover the workload. Perhaps this is what he meant?

I had one employee who was off ill for a protracted period of time, who got into the habit of leaving me a voicemail at 6am, instead of phoning at our start time (conventional 9-5 job). She then put her phone onto voicemail, and weeks passed without us actually speaking. She is no longer with us ...

I had a good long talk with my line manager today and got a lot of issues clarified. On reflection I think this was a tipping point as there were actual failings that I didn't want to write about here due to data protection laws. Thankfully a lot of things are now sorted and have been told I am a very valued member of staff.

Thanks all for your feedback, it gave me an idea of expectations to be had.