Will try to keep this brief.
I'm currently on annual leave following 6 months adoption leave. Have been on a loan to current employer for 2.5 years, due to end next April. They had planned to keep me on permanently but today let me know that will no longer be the case. They have done what they needed to do (i.e.. identified a permanent job for me back in my old department, however it is extremely unsuitable) or said they can keep me on til April but basically doing some special projects to keep me busy. I've agreed to this.
I'm due back in 2 and a half weeks. I have a week of leave booked at the end of October. I have suffered from anxiety throughout my leave and have seen a doctor about this. This afternoon I have had a panic attack. My anxiety about returning to work was extremely high anyway and is even more so knowing that my arrangement had been discussed with the wider team before discussing with me (and knowing that I saw two members of the team last week when I popped in and they obviously knew then when I didn't!!). I feel sick. I currently have had no periods of suckers at all during my employment there - I have gone in or worked from home when ill out of loyalty.
I feel fuck all sense of loyalty to them now. Given that my anxiety has been diagnosed and I know is going to be worse as my return to work approaches, I am very tempted to take some sick leave, possibly to bridge the gap between RTW and my leave at end of October (4 weeks sick in total). My line manager has confirmed in writing today that he absolutely will not end my loan before April, however my loan agreement states they can do so for any reason if they give me 4 weeks notice.
Would I have a leg to stand on if I took sick leave and they then ended my loan agreement early because of this? They could argue that they're ending it because there is no work for me to do, but I have it in writing that they will NOT do this. But I don't want to risk losing the security until April (although hopefully if I am off until end of October I will have found another job by then).