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Retutn to work abscnce stage 1 meeting

8 replies

Anu75 · 01/12/2022 06:15

I have been off work last year with a miscarriage from August to November. They did various tests and this year in May I was allowed the funeral. When I asked my manager can I have a day off for the fot the baby's funeral she said I could only take the morning off. The week before the funeral I got Covid. Unfortunately I was ill again and I self cert from 9th to 16th Nov then got a GP note from 16th until 20th for tonsilitis. She 'by mistake' said on my return to work that I did not see the doctor yet I had told her the GP said I had the start of an ear infection and started me on antibiotics....and I even stated to her I went to the GP. She said at the meeting due to miscarriage , covid this has triggerred a stage one meeting. I was so upset most of the weekend and emailed HR who said yes they can take any abscene into account but for any action the miscarriage will be taken aside. They have pro roated the trigger number of days from 15 to 10 for me and said from day 8 they include both work and non work days lost. She knows I'm going away over christmas so said no more than two sbscences in next 6 months and she was refering to me going on a plane and possibly picking up a bug. I have been so upset with the whole miscarriage thing. HR said below 7 days abscense is recorded in days lost yet my manager still recorded it as calendar days i.e work and non work days. The abscence meeting has happened now but I have emailed HR again. I did try to raise it in the meeting with her but she dismissed it. This is in addition to her saying about me picking up and dropping off kids at school see other thread

OP posts:
Aprilx · 01/12/2022 06:53

What is your question?

RoachPussy · 01/12/2022 07:32

I think you need to take a colleague or union rep with you to any meetings because you don’t seem to get your point across very well on your two posts so I think you could do with someone helping you if you are the same with your boss.

Quveas · 01/12/2022 07:45

I have seen your other thread - starting two threads in different places and not linking them is not helpful, espcially since the two issues are effectively one.

I haven't entirely understood everything here as it's a bit hard to read / follow. But it seems that you have had a lot of absences and are also going off in the middle of the day to do a school run when you are supposed to be working. Whatever the rights and wrong of what is happening with the detail of the sickness absence, you are doing yourself no favours here. Work is not something that you fit around your personal life, and you most certainly do not tell your manager that they should not schedule meetings with you at certain times during the working day because you are going out to do the school pick up!

And you really are then skating on exceedingly thin ice to tell the employer that you need to do a school pick up during the working day to support your mental health because working from home is making you too isolated. Because I would have to say that my first response to that as a manager would be to return you to the office.

I am sorry about your miscarriage, but that is all a bit miseleading as it doesn't have anything to do with this current situation. As far as absence management goes, the employer will have a policy and that policy should be followed. I don't know what your policy actually says, but if you were off sick between the 9th and 20th November, that length of absence alone would trigger a first stage with my employer, so it is entirely possible that you are in your employers first stage since you also had at least one further sickness absence in the last year. To determine that, you need to check the policy.

It is normal practice that you would then be set targets which you are expected not to exceed in terms of the number of days off sick, and it sounds like that has been done. No more than two more absences would also be a reasonable and common target - there is usually a total number of days as well, but that depends on your policy.

So I am honestly not seeing anything much wrong here. I can't see your policy so obviously it depends on what it actually says.

Quite seperately from that, if you are supposed to be in work during certain hours, then you must be in work and not going off to do the school run. Your work is the priority during working hours, and you must not tell your employer that you won't be available because you have other stuff to do. You may ask for some flexibility, but in all honesty, now would probably not be the time to be asking for too much. From the employers point of view your attendance is unreliable on more than one front, and you may be heading for disciplinary action that could result in your dismissal. You should bear in mind also that questions may be raised about who is looking after the children when you get back from the school run. Because in many workplaces you are not allowed to be providing childcare during working hours, and if you are picking up your children from school, then who is then looking after them?

LIZS · 01/12/2022 07:54

Sorry for your loss. However those are lengthy and frequent absences, certified or not. Were you paid in full? Most organisations limit the number of sick days over a 12 month period before disciplinary action is taken.

Princessglittery · 01/12/2022 19:33

A key question around how you count absences is are you paid on a 365 days basis or 260/261?

What does your employers managing attendance policy say about counting working/calendar days.

PinkFrogss · 01/12/2022 19:56

Sorry for your loss OP Flowers

Your timings are a little unclear - you were off for a miscarriage fromAugust to November last year, but the funeral was only in May this year?

It’s good they’re not taking the miscarriage absence into account for sickness management, as it should count as pregnant related.

Anything separate however can be managed. Do you have a copy of the sickness management policy, and how long have you worked there for?

You haven’t said how long you’ve had off with Covid, but it does sound like you’ve had a lot of time off this year and so a stage one meeting sounds appropriate. No more than 2 absences in 6 months also sounds fair that’s a fairly normal level of absence to aim for.

It sounds like they are concerned not just about your absence, but about your attitude to work when you take into account refusing to work during school pick up, when it sounds like that’s during your contracted work hours.

potchy · 01/12/2022 21:03

How long have you worked for the company op?

If you disregard the time off that was pregnancy related how many instances/days off did you have?

Some company policies are quite strict.

Priminister · 01/12/2022 22:25

It never ceases to amaze me how people think they can type a wall of train of thought nonsense and expect to get advice.

Having read the OP’s other thread, purely by accident, it appears the OP has been doing school pickups during work time and her manager is taking exception to it. I’m not clear if this has been agreed ahead of time but whatever, it’s an issue now and OP is kicking off.

I’ve got literally no idea what the rest of the post is meant to be asking.

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