Want to move jobs but worried I may need time off sick in future

[Shudacudawuda]

Hi,
I'm unhappy I'm my job at the moment and have been planning to update my CV and look for something new.
Unfortunately in the meantime I have been unexpectedly unwell and needed 3 weeks off sick. I've haven't taken a day off sick for 6 years prior to this so this is unusual for me.

My current employer has been fine about it, I have been there 12 years so feel I have good job security, back at work now and feeling better, however due to diagnosis there is a likelihood I may need more time off in the next couple of years depending on how treatment goes etc.

Moving company now feels like it has an added risk that I wasn't worried about before. What would others do? Would you still move, or stay in a job you are increasingly unhappy in, just for the job security?

Depends.

1. how soon will you need time off again? 2. Is your condition curable or permanent? 3. Does the current job pay well?

I'd stay in a job that pays well for the security and then move once I got better.

In your shoes I'd stay for the security of sick pay.

I'm just about to move jobs and will have no sick paid for first six months, also high sickness absence could mean I wouldn't pass the probation period. I have no conditions to consider but just the 'what ifs' really scare me about the insecure position it leaves me in. I'm leaving a job where I had 6 months full pay on sick leave.

Hmm yes, these are my fears @Invisimamma

Re the questions from @Wakemeup17

1.how soon will you need time off again?
I couldn't say, I may not need any at all, but most people do go up and down in their condition and some go on to need surgery which has a recovery period after.

1. Is your condition curable or permanent?

It's an autoimmune condition so not curable but it is possible to go into remission from symptoms with good management in the first 2 years of diagnosis. I'm 4 months in and feeling well now, but it's unpredictable as to how things will go longer term.

1. Does the current job pay well?

Pay is satisfactory, I could definitely earn a bit more if I moved but it's not a motivation for moving, I'm happy enough with current pay.

One of the things that apparently causes highest chance of relapse is high stress levels.
My current role is becoming increasingly stressful (change of management, new culture is that they want a pound of flesh). I want to do everything I can not to relapse. However, moving jobs would also be stressful initially and I suppose no guarantee that the culture wouldn't turn out to be the same in the end anyway.
Urgh, I feel a bit in limbo!

I currently have a job offer on the table, and also the same worries about giving up the security of sick pay etc. I’ve been in my current job 8 years and have grown to hate it.

I’m going to press ahead with changing jobs and take the risk of getting sick and not having any sick pay. However, I do have a private sickness policy in place (and I think we are also covered for critical illness on our life insurance - do you have this type of insurance to cover a mortgage?)

Trouble with your theory is, you could never change jobs again as you’d always have the same looming risk of a relapse. But it would also be more difficult to get new illness income insurance cover if you have an existing diagnosis.