Being asked about work whilst signed off with depression

[chocolateworshipper]

I have been signed off work for 2 weeks with depression. I am at the end of the first week and have had several messages from my manager about work. Are there any specific guidelines on this? I didn't mind the first one - because it was a quick question that only I would know the answer to, but then there have been several others which aren't important in my opinion.

Definitely a no no! Do you an HR dept? I had the same with my boss when I was off and asked HR to give him guidance on what was and wasn't acceptable. Asking work questions is not on.

That’s bad practice.

Some people would be fine with that, others not. If you’d rather not be contacted, let your manager know that.

Yes we do have an HR department. I really needed to not be thinking about work whilst I was off

Does your organisation have policies/guidelines as to how absence management should be handled?

It is considered good practice to keep in touch with employees when they're off sick, but within reason. I can't recall if ours stipulates that contact is not to include discussing work matters, but it kind of goes without saying that it should.

Ours says that managers should stay in touch and agree with the employee what this looks like, and that meetings need to be held at specific intervals eg at 2 weeks, 4 weeks then monthly, with the emphasis on returning to work.

My manager kept contacting me about work when I was off, I just didn't reply and then addressed it at an absence management meeting.

Please don't reply to the messages, just ignore them especially as you don't think they are important. Look after yourself and don't rush back to work after two weeks if you don't feel up to it.

Although it's not good practice for your manager to contact you while on sick leave, in the interests of good working relations (on the basis that you've at some point got to go back to work!) it would be better to remind your manager that you're sick and won't be checking your phone, rather than ignoring altogether.

At least it puts a halt to successive texts coming through if you've made that point to them, and enables them to find a different solution.