Sickness levels

[user8900766]

Hi I had a meeting with my manager today as I have recently returned from sickness absence and he told me that there are concerns with my sickness levels. In the past 2 years I have had -

Jan 2022 - 1 week with covid which i thought did not count towards sickness absence as we had to self isolate back the even if we felt well enough to work.

May 2022 - 3 weeks with anaemia

Dec 2023 - 3 weeks with pneumonia

Is this excessive?

Yes

Yes

I mean i know they are proper illnesses but that wasnt the question 😂

Well what did they expect you do? Not like you can battle on with pneumonia!

You've had 6 weeks in 20 months. Yes, that's a lot. It sounds as though you've had a rough time.

I hope your employer is being sympathetic and supportive and that your health strengthens.

No. Three instances in 2 years is not excessive. If they'd all been within the same calendar year then I'd expect it to trigger a welfare meeting, but not for it to go any further. But over 2 years?!

What do you do? Depends really if you can sit down and wfh when recovering. If it's a more physical job and you are physically present then you might need more time to recover properly.

Is your job making you ill?

Also if you've had that long off for the last two presumably you've had proper sick notes. Do they think you were making it up?

I don’t get this. This is over a 2 year period? As the illnesses were for 3 weeks each time, I assume that you had a Doctor’s note? I’m so sorry that you work for such an unsympathetic and out of touch organisation. It’s not excessive in the slightest.

@Gazelda its really not a lot.

If you add up the days off sick it is a lot. Though I don't think that Op could have been expected to work through any of them. Sounds like you have had some bad luck re your health, Op.

Three weeks off work ill in one go is quite a long time, and two instances of that over 20 months is more than the average employee I would say. But it also depends where you work and how physical your job is.

Yes for private sector. How bad was your anemia? I didn’t know you could take time off for that.

I have had sick notes but my GP never puts the illness on the sick note for some reason.
When I had anaemia he just put on the sick note - tired
For pneumonia he put cough

When I had cancer he never put that on a sick note he just put surgery for the 11 months I was off.

Sorry, but whilst I kind of agree with you, that is an opinion. It is not the employers opinion, obviously, and that is what counts.

The OP needs to clarify what the concern is, what that means, and what their sickness absence policy is.

To be fair, I work in the public sector, notorious for its "easy" attitudes. Three weeks off would put you into sickness absence stage one immediately.

Fuck that. If that was what was written on fit notes I got, "concern" wouldn't be the word of be using! Questioning bullshit would be closer. It sounds to me like either your GP is an idiot and you need a new one; or he doesn't believe you.

That will be part of the problem then, 3 weeks off for being tired sounds ridiculous, as does 3 weeks for a cough. No wonder your employer is reviewing it. Why doesn’t your doctor put the diagnosis down?

That's shit! Of course it's going to be viewed as excessive to be off for 2 weeks with a cough!

If I were your employer I’d think you’re absolutely taking the piss, but that’s because of the GP notes.

I can’t believe you handed a 3 week sick note in that said you were off because you were tired.

Did you not think that looked odd?

There is your problem: "tired" and "cough". I am not at all surprised your employer has concerns.

Next time you need to challenge the GP to put the proper reason. Its really unfair on you for your GP to do this. You've had serious illnesses and the GP is minimising this.

It's certainly more than average but balanced maybe by not even having one day off between May 2022 and Dec 2023.

Two bouts of 3 weeks is a lot in 2 years BUT the underlying anaemia (are you sure it hasn't returned?) may have left you more prone to the chest infection.

I also think the problem is the lack of detail from your GP - having a cough isn't a reason to be off work. Presumably you had a chest X-ray to diagnose the pneumonia and antibiotics or something? I would show evidence of that. Likewise you anaemia must've been quite severe to need time off work - test results?

Ignoring the Covid week,in 2022 you had 3 weeks off and in 2023 you had 3 weeks off. I would say that was cause for concern yes, literally a sick day every month for the last 2 years. Having said that it is important your employer discussed these absences with you to see if there is anything they can do to help surely?

Sign up with a different gp, that is very unsupportive and makes it sound like you are sciving . Unless of course you were just ‘tired’ and didn’t actually have anemia severe enough to make you stay in bed.

The average sickness rate in the Uk is 3.2% for women. That's about 7 days per year, so you have had a lot more than that.

If you have had cancer you are covered by the Equality Act (Disability).
Has your employer told you that @user8900766 ?