Absence Monitoring Review

[Frankcapa]

I have received a letter today asking me to attend a meeting regarding my absences with my boss and HR. I have had two periods of absence in the last twelve months. One was for a day and the other was for two days. Six months apart. Apparently two absences in a rolling twelve month period or ten days or more absence triggers this.

This seems harsh. Am I wrong?

It does seem harsh, but it is only a "review" - might just be a formality

The letter is very formal. Something along the lines of to discuss the reasons and identify support and prevent additional meetings under the absence management procedures.

I think 3 is the trigger where I work.

I just have a meeting and issue them with a ‘letter of concern’. If they have further absences within a certain time period, it could be a warning next time.

That is very harsh, and a bit pointless. What are you going to do? Swear never to get ill? Go to work with D&V etc? I’ve only been off with Covid in the past 12 months, but I work part-time and I’ve managed to keep my minor illnesses to days when I didn’t work. You’ll be ok, but it is annoying.

Seems harsh to me. There's been a lot of sickness in the last 12m because of the covid vaccine rollout. And then the first recent winter outside of any sort of lockdown etc.

Just be cooperative and hopefully they're just checking in on your wellbeing :) good luck and try not to worry about it too much.

Same at my previous workplace... 3 and you're out of under 18 months service

Written warming otherwise

I have ten years service.

It's pretty standard in most workplaces to have triggers for these things. I imagine it's an informal meeting but they do have to notify you and give you reasonable notice of the meeting, it can't usually be covered in a normal return to work meeting if you've hit a trigger point. Check your absence policy, but if it's informal I'd expect a chat going over why you were off, if there's anything at work that might have caused an issue (stress or burning out and becoming ill because you're working too much etc). Then looking at putting support in place at the workplace if needed.

As a manager, it's really frustrating having to jump through these hoops when someone has just been unlucky enough to just pick up a couple of bugs. But sometimes they are good for picking up underlying issues. If it's just a couple of bugs I'd expect it to end there, potentially put in place a short target i.e. no more than two absences in the next three months and discuss self care like taking regular breaks and using holiday allowance to recharge. Try not to worry, if you've got a decent manager it should be a supportive chat.

Don't panic. Honestly, this sounds like a standard trigger point rather than a disciplinary. Two absences in 12 months is strict, but some companies have very rigid policies.The scary wording is almost certainly just automated. I work with this stuff, and usually, it's not a manager deciding to be mean, it’s just the wording that the system uses. For example, we use an absence management software called edays, and it tracks everything in the background. As soon as someone hits a threshold (like 2 instances in X months), it auto-flags it to HR and prompts the 'Return to Work' forms.It’s actually designed to make things fair, so managers don't miss patterns. But it can generate very formal-sounding alerts for minor things. It’s likely just a process they have to follow because their system flagged it. Just go in calm, explain the reasons, and everything should be fine.