“Young people are off sick too much”

[Polarbearflavour]

This was basically the gist of an email I saw to my manager, about me being off sick.

”We need to discuss PBFs sickness, she’s off sick again such are young people of her generation, always off with trivial ailments!”

Background. I have two chronic diseases requiring regular GP appointments and occasionally hospital appointments. I always arrange the GP ones around work.

Today, I woke up feeling unwell. I knew I needed to see the GP. I got an emergency appointment. I had logged onto my work laptop and emailed both the guys I work for telling them - this is how my organisation works. You don’t have to phone.

I saw an email saying the above. I don’t know if the fact I’m feeling poorly made me more upset but it made very cross. I had my appointment and got antibiotics. I then headed into work where I started crying which lead to a long chat with the nicer boss about how I really wasn’t happy in general at work for various reasons. Long story.

In a year ish, I’ve had two day long hospital appointments that per work policy were recorded and paid. I’ve been off sick twice for two days at a time for illnesses related to my diseases. I’ve worked from home twice when feeling unwell - I communicated all of the above btw and nothing was ever said. We do have laptops and are able to work from home sometimes. They are very into flexible working.

My attendance has NEVER been raised as an issue. I’ve never had a back to work chat. My recent appraisal was very positive with nothing negative.

I don’t know if I overreacted? I’m not as young as I look - they all think I’m about 24. They are trying to fix it and I’m hopefully moving roles internally to another location soon - long story.

Just feel really deflated and unwell today

Ignore if you are ill then there isn’t a lot you can do it’s better to rest up than to be expected to work half arsed when not feeling your full self

I hate that bloody term younger generation well sorry but I’m of the opinion it’s better to stay off if ill than pass bugs and germs about to Everyone else be moaning of how ill you feel etc

I get it if you were say hung over after a night out and phoned in sick but if your Ill then not a lot you can do

You have records of doctors visits so they can’t do anything if it’s a genuine illness

A friend who works where I work (huge organisation, loads of policies on bullying, inclusion and diversity etc) thinks I should raise it with HR. I took a screenshot of said email. I wonder if he would have said it’s typical of women / people from a particular religion / pregnant women etc to be off sick with “minor ailments?”

I’m aware that long term, employee can dismiss for sickness if you can’t do your job. Like most big companies, it has policies and procedures and phases and disaplinary processes to go through before they can dismiss you. I haven’t even met the triggers for being off sick so technically my absences haven’t even triggered an informal chat!

In a previous job I was signed off sick after surgery and hospitalisation - I met their stage one trigger as I had had previous time off sick. However, it wasn’t a problem and everything was documented and HR and my manager were aware I couldn’t do anything about it.

In another role, I fractured a bone and was signed off for 6 weeks. Again, it triggered the absence management process. They were understanding and no disciplinary action was taken.

The previous roles were in banking in the City. They were MUCH nicer than my current public sector organisation! There are loads of policies and “statements” on how they are an inclusive and caring employee and a big “focus” on mental health and stress at work - but some managers in particular do not seem to follow those policies...

Banking in the city is different though - hours are often v long and so flexibility is needed else you’ll go insane. But even then last minute wfh requests are always viewed suspiciously. If you have a long term health condition can you not just say in advance you’ll wfh on days x and y (and get them to refer to occupational health if needed) rather than do it when you get the need?

The nice manager today said he didn’t see the problem in me WFH last minute. The other guy has never complained when I WFH. He had his chance to raise it at my appraisal but nothing was said. Apparently I follow the expected “behaviours” for the organisation.