I have recently been successful at interview for my dream job, it’s a years fixed training post in the NHS.
Since getting the job I’ve been worrying about references. I was employed by my previous job employer from September 2021 until july 2022 and left due to my child’s ill health. My child began having serious neuro symptoms in January 2022 and was initially misdiagnosed meaning she didn’t get the correct treatment for the disorder and her neurological symptoms increased and she became quite unwell. The diagnosis is a life long condition that is very rare, this took time to process, plus we spent a lot of time in hospital and travelling to specialists in London. As a result of this I had two periods of time off, two weeks in January and six weeks in may/June. This was taken as sick leave and I was signed off due to stress.
Typically, since I left my old job my daughter has stabilised and is now on a treatment pathway meaning she has been back at school full time with no issues, and everything feels almost back to normal. If I had known this would happen I wouldn’t have left, I handed my notice in as I felt I kept letting my amazing team down.
My worry is that my new employer will see these periods of absence without context and withdraw their conditional offer. My other reference is a university lecturer who will be able to confirm that I took no time off during my three year degree.
If anyone has experience of this, would you email HR with an explanation, or wait for them to come to me? Any other advice would be greatly appreciated too.