Sickness trigger met

[Notsure330]

Hi all
I am currently off sick with a flu type thing . I have now met the sickness absence trigger ( work for the civil service ). I will have to have a formal meeting . My absence has been because of illness such as colds/ flu . I have just had particularly bad luck if I’m honest . I’ve never met any trigger before .

Is it likely I will get a warning ?

Thanks

Find the sick absence/attendance management policy on your Depts Intranet. It will go through the stages and possible outcomes.

This is clearly your first breach so it may be just a chat or a verbal warning.

Look at the policy. It might just be a chat to establish whether there are health/disability concerns and if any support is required to improve your attendance.

The same happened to me last year, it is surprisingly stressful! You feel like you've done something on purpose when of course you haven't. They were easier on me as one of my three strikes was covid. They are a decent employer so were more sympathetic, it was just a policy they had to follow.

Likely to be a warning. Mgr can use discretion ie an accident, perfect sickness record however for things such as colds and flu then highly unlikely. It’s unfortunate and its in no way saying your absences were not genuine but the Business needs to have an attendance policy in place to tackle absence levels.

your mgr will be following a policy and will need to be able to justify why they are not giving a warning if there’s no mitigating circumstances.

Agree with posters above. Read the policy to understand trigger levels and possible outcomes. Your invite to meeting letter should also give you a possible outcome. If your sickness is all genuine then you have nothing to worry about, they will just be following proper procedure.

Do you really need to be off with this "flu type thing"? that you've got? Ie if you didn't get full pay would you be off? That's how I judge if I stay off tbh.. and if you can work from home then you're not spreading germs either!

It might be worth just being honest with yourself when you are ill as to whether actually you can dose up and carry on or take flexi time/leave if you work for the cs? It must be stressful! But as a manager I can't lie, I would be thinking "off with flu AGAIN?" tbh!

Obviously only you know if you were truly too ill to work on all occasions.

Technically I have hit my trigger point too, however I have had two unexpected hospital admissions and a follow up operation which happened to fall just before the Christmas holidays so my work have used their discretion! I am dreading getting a sickness bug or similar however! So I do feel for you, however having been forced to take unexpected leave where it was an actual emergency I'm now conscious of being in no matter what if I can possibly help it! (Probably a terrible attitude to have tbh!).

Hope you feel better soon op!