FIT note

[wonderwoman23]

Hi all,

I'm on my final month of my notice period at work and due to family stress I've been signed off by my GP for the remaining time. I keep getting HR insisting on a call this week as they have pressing matters to discuss with me? Can they harass me like that? Like it's the 4th email now.

Any advise?

Thanks

Tricky one as of course you shouldn't feel harassed when unwell and 4 emails in quick succession seems a bit OTT, but if you haven't spoken to them you don't know what this urgent matter is.

My guess is that as an HR person I would have some worries about an employee signed off with stress for a month during their notice period and I would want to understand whether there was anything work related going on particularly if the fit note didn't specify the stress was related to a family matter. I might also want to make sure an exit interview had been completed and noted - again to make sure your reasons for leaving weren't anything to do with discrimination or bullying or something like that - as someone being too stressed to work out their notice period is a red flag for victimisation.

Also it's very common for organisation's sickness absence policy to say that contact must be made and/or a meeting held with an employee who is signed off for 4 weeks or more to establish the reasons for their absence and ensure support is being provided by the employer to enable a return to work. In your case of course you won't be returning as you're in your notice period, so in your case I would probably exercise some discretion and not have a meeting (depending on the circumstances) - but many HR people do feel obliged for one reason or another to stick to the letter of the policy so it might be that...

Or it might be something to do with your final pay or P45 or a reference request or similar.

My advice would be to try and speak to them - or at least reply to their email and find out what the 'urgent matter' is. Otherwise if they hear nothing from you they will probably start to worry something is seriously wrong and step up trying to contact you in other ways which is only going to stress you out more. Realistically if you are leaving in less than a month and are signed off for all that time there is very little 'bad' that they can to do to you now so on both sides I would guess you leaving with minimal hassle is the aim! But if you are in any way dependant on them for things like a good reference in future or they owe you a significant amount of money, it would be worth cooperating with any reasonable requests from them to the best of your ability - and on the face of it a quick call with HR wouldn't be unreasonable. You can ask if it's OK to have a friend, family member or partner sit with you while you make the call if that helps?

I think you should have the call with HR.

4th email in what time period? 4 emails in the space of a few days (assuming you responded to the first one saying you don’t want a call and asking if the issues can be dealt with via email instead) would be unreasonable.

4 emails over a longer time period or in circumstances where you are ignoring them completely, not so unreasonable.

Why don’t you want to speak to them?

If you didn't respond to the first one it's not unreasonable for them to keep trying. Call them and find out what they want

It's not work related, I was signed off for personal reasons but work just got too stressful on top of home situation. I have actually said to them I'm going to put a handover on email to them but will not be until next week. It's not HR that wants the call it's the business or my manager. If it's work related surely they can work it out themselves and not need me. I am more than happy to help but I'm just not up to a call with all these questions right now. I have suggested to them to email me questions and I'll be able to respond that way, not unreasonable.

Yes 4 emails this week is a little OTT, plus I have tried to be reasonable and compromising.

Thanks for your replies....

I've responded to all their emails but they just keep pestering. It's been like this since I resigned.

I don’t think one phone call during your notice period is too much to ask of you to be honest.

Just phone them!
What’s so difficult?!

I think you are being very unreasonable and unprofessional. It is never a good idea to leave an employer on bad terms which you are surely heading for. Your stress coinciding with your notice period is going to look highly “convenient”, no matter how genuine it is.