Job offer and sickness

[w0rried3]

I have been offered a job with NHS. Same hospital as what I work at now.
Waiting for pre-employment checks (DBS, references, identity check etc)

I'm now worried about a long term sickness I had not long ago. The cause being anxiety. It was a total of 78 days and about half of that is because I was waiting for counselling. The other half was getting through the counselling until I felt ready to attempt to go back to work.

I've been back a month and a half and got this job offer and worried that my offer is going to be withdrawn. The issue is now resolved and had occupational health clearance

My question is, is it likely they will withdraw the offer?

I have read on the resourcing info at work that they updated 4 days ago that internal applicants will not require references. So I think I'm going to contact HR on Monday and ask if this is true. If this is not then I plan on contacting my future employer to make her aware and explain the situation around this absence and ask if it would be an issue. Does that sound like what I should be doing?
They never asked about sickness absence and I didn't think to bring it up at the time of the interview (stupidly)!

Don't contact them to provide information they haven't requested. It's just feeding your internally generated anxiety and will create a problem that doesn't currently exist.

Kindly, do you not think this whole panicked thought process is the product of anxiety?

I have read on the resourcing info at work that they updated 4 days ago that internal applicants will not require references. So I think I'm going to contact HR on Monday and ask if this is true.

Why would it not be true? Do they normally publish false info?

If this is not then I plan on contacting my future employer to make her aware and explain the situation around this absence and ask if it would be an issue.

Why? Why would you do that? You say the issue was resolved, so it's not like you need to discuss reasonable adjustments. So why would you contact them to disclose private medical info?

They never asked about sickness absence and I didn't think to bring it up at the time of the interview (stupidly)!

Why would you bring up private medical info at interview? Why are you calling yourself stupid?

worried that my offer is going to be withdrawn

Why? Based on what evidence beyond your own internal anxiety?

@tickticksnooze I suppose my thinking is I would rather make them aware than it be a shock when (if) they open the reference.

Yes this current situation is making me feel a bit anxious but not enough that I would need to be off work or that it disrupts my daily life. I'm not losing sleep over it, just want to make sure that this once-in-a-lifetime job offer doesn't go down the drain because I have worked my butt off for this

Op. IF and it is a very big IF your sickness record impacts on your job offer, it will do so whether or not you tell them. As this is an internal offer, your sickness record is a matter already known to them and certainly to HR / OH. If OH have cleared you to work then I am 99.9999% sure that it won't make any difference. Please stop worrying about this. You are simply risking a set back over it, and that might not be good for you. If they want to know about it, then you will be asked. Otherwise there is no reason to mention it,.

I suppose my thinking is I would rather make them aware than it be a shock when (if) they open the reference

Why would it be less 'shocking' if you tell them now rather than if they see if when they open the reference?

No but the info was on the FAQs and not in the policy. The interviewer asked me which references I would like to be contacted so has me a little confused

Good points for all your other responses. Thanks!

I suppose the 'worry' was caused by a colleague telling me that an ex colleague of his was withdrawn an offer after references because she had multiple absences. It didn't even cross my mind until he said that

He also said they never bothered to ask about the circumstances surrounding it. Just withdrawn based on that

I'm not saying your anxiety now is at a level where you're not fit to work, I am simply observing that this scenario and your proposed course of action is very much a product of unhelpful thinking styles that are creating and feeding your current anxiety rather than an objective response to the circumstances.

It's something you need to keep managing otherwise you will just keep finding new things to worry and overreact/self-destruct about.

Might be an idea to use some of the strategies you were taught previously to bring yourself down from these worries, because your current reactions are going to transform a hypothetical worry into a real problem which is the last thing you need.

Don't listen to other people - they often only know part of the story. And multiple absences will definitely ring alarm bells for employers, compared to one longer term absence. If I know someone is going to be off for XX weeks and this is what is happening, and then when they come back they will need YY and then it's probably back to normal, that is easier to manage. Lots of days here there and everywhere are much harder, and unless there is a clear underlying cause there may be "other explanations" than sickness! If you catch my drift....