Just seen "sick" colleague in supermarket

[Daniellemcg]

We're part of a small team (NHS staff) and are chronically under staffed and overworked.
One team member went off sick earlier this week with what she called the most horrific back pain caused by sciatica. Submitted a sicknote yesterday for 4 weeks. Saw her in supermarket today carrying her toddler and pushing trolley full to the brim with other hand.
She led us to believe she's in agony but was laughing to her toddler and walking normally today. No signs of the pain she's been displaying at work.
She didn't see me today.
Should I say anything at work? Everyone at work has been saying "poor Emma (name change), she must be in agony.. The poor thing.".

But sometimes it is. I’m sure you can work that out.

If you're angry about your work being short-staffed, that's not your colleagues fault or responsibility. What are you expecting your workplace to do? They can't force her to go back if she's been signed off- her sick note is evidence enough.

Surely you would understand that if she was at work woth this, she wouldnt be able to just move around or rest when needed- or could injured herself more.

She's been signed off for 4 weeks- does sciatica automatically mean you're bed bound? No. Even a mild case of it is enough to be a reason to not be at work.

At home you can control the strain on youself. Being at work at a desk or on her feet, work isnt great for back pain. If she works on a ward then that's even more reason to not be at work.

Are you expecting her to stop being an adult who not only has to care for herself, but also has to parent and meet her child's basic needs of food, care and emotional stability.

If she was signed off with work related stress would you still think to report her? Or if she told you she had a fever and bacterial infection requiring antibiotics?

When i worked on a ward I've had a colleague that was signed off work for 6 weeks because they had very minor surgery on a little finger. Clearly this person was healthy and active enough to work, did anyone report her for going for a night out?

Being off work sick/signed off does not mean you stay at home 24/7 and life is on hold.

At the end of the day, it doesn't matter why they are off sick. They aren't working, they aren't producing any value, and other people are having to do their work and pay their wages.

Fucking hell, I hope you have never been off sick then.

And how depressing to see people as "producing value". Who are they producing it for?

She has a sick note and sometimes getting out or even going on holiday is therapeutic.

Thank you for your feedback, which has been noted.
So, just to clarify, are you suggesting that employees who are unwell and taking their legally entitled sick leave bring no 'value' and are an undue burden on colleagues and the employer?
Interesting perspective—have you discussed this innovative stance with HR yet, or is this more of an impromptu Thought Leadership moment?
Because under every employment policy, including the Employment Rights Act 1996 and most companies' Wellbeing Strategies™, employees are not only allowed to take time off when unwell, they are encouraged to—for their own health and the safety of others. This is what in HR call a “healthy workplace culture,” not an inconvenience to someone’s to-do list.
You mentioned ‘it doesn’t matter why they’re off’? Actually, it matters a lot. There’s a big difference between recovering from pneumonia and calling in sick to avoid another meeting with Colin from Sales. But here’s the thing—you don’t get to decide. That’s up to medical professionals, not keyboard critics with a martyr complex.
Your frustration is noted. If you’re finding it hard to manage the impact of absences on your workload, I’d suggest reaching out to your line manager or HR Business Partner instead of venting passive-aggressively on public forums.

Not on MN. There was a recent thread about someone having a colleague off sick with MH being on holiday.
Many people saying that if you can go on holiday, you can go back to work.

See that really depends where you live and how organised you are. Where we are it’s at least 2 days to get a slot which is fine if you’ve planned ahead but not if you’ve been unwell, overwhelmed, ran out of milk and nappies and the kids can’t wait.

And if you only need a few things rather than enough to meet the minimum delivery spend.

I agree that there are people out there who take the piss out of sick leave. But here we have the case of the OP reporting what they saw and the automatic assumption by a number of posters that as they've had something similar where their symptoms were different then by definition this person MUST be skiving.

This moved on to condemning anyone who is off sick for anything other than total physical incapacitation

Then we get the pile on posters saying things like all people off sick shouldn't get full pay because a small minority are taking the piss, so everyone will automatically go back to work to keep their pay.

If I went on SSP rather than full pay if I was off sick for any length of time, I would be bankrupt very quickly. I earn just enough to keep me and the roof over my head - typical for lower level public sector workers. Result of me going onto SSP rather than full would be losing my house & having to move into rented, then when the equity from the house runs out having to claim housing benefits. Net loss to the country in the long run, plus the effect on my MH would be such that I would never be fit to work again.

THE MAJORITY OF PEOPLE ARE GENUINELY SICK WHEN THEY ARE SIGNED OFF.

This reminds me of the "good" old days when the government were promoting the lie that everyone out of work were 3rd generation benefit scroungers who were living the life of Riley.

If you can take pain killers and go out shopping carrying a toddler, looking happy, then you can work. Lots of offices have things in place to accommodate people with bad backs. Ie raised desks. Imo.

Do they? Because I work in the NHS, and you can't just magic up a raised desk on the day. It takes months. With the NHS in financial straits, chances are a request for such a desk would be refused, because they are very expensive. Besides, OP and everyone else don't actually know what is in this person's sick note, and they have no right to. It might not be a bad back at all, and the sick person is fully entitled to confidentiality.

Deliveries are not just available when you need it, often you have to prebook quite a way in advance. Sometimes I’m lucky and there is a same day delivery (which always astonishes me) and others I can’t get a slot for a week. I subscribe to Tesco so am reluctant to use other supermarkets too often because of the delivery charges.

This would be true if shopping trips were 3-8 hours long, or if work shifts were the hour or less it takes to do a shop 🙄

Absolutely untrue. I suffer from chronic back pain and am on prescription painkillers. I got a new job a couple of year’s ago and at the end of the day I had to apologise and tell them I couldn’t continue as by the end of the day I was in agony. It hurts if I sit for too long and hurts if I stand for too long. I do though go to the supermarket and look fine to other people but by the time I get home I’m in a lot of pain.

Exactly. OP saw her for what, 30 seconds? And has apparently made a diagnosis based on this 🙄

Exactly this.
Ffs.

Anyone saying people should condemn themselves to pain and suffering just to make it into an office or boiling hot unbearable ward to work for these greedy corporations and public sectors who pay the top grifters far more than they should (and no, I don’t take accountability for things going wrong as a reason to be paid far more than is needed to live, than the people literally saving lives) need to wake up.

I am selling my services and time to these vile cretins, they aren’t purchasing me as a whole. If I am sick I’m not going to sit there at home in a dark room because some people think “that’s the done thing” and quite frankly if I want to be off work for a minor sniffle then I bloody well will be. It’s already shit enough making money for a handful of people to live in mansions while the rest of us literally force ourselves into work with back pain and illnesses just so we can get into debt with greedy energy companies and get taxed to the hilt to support boomer pensioners.

It’s not worth it. Take the sick day and keep your nose out of other peoples lives while you are at it.

Fuck me, let’s hope YOU never get sick then. I’ve got cancer, long term sick. I’m producing zero value right now!!

Well bloody said!

I’d have spoken to her. Then you can go in on Monday and say “oh I saw Emma at the supermarket on Saturday, she looked like she is doing so much better!” and that’s just normal chitchat, it’s not telling on her for the sake of it.

I have a long-term illness myself and click and collect is my normal because that’s all I can manage, online delivery if I’m really feeling rough. You wouldn’t have found me in a busy supermarket with a toddler.

Yes she could be skiving. There's a lot of it about in professions where you get paid no matter what, no questions asked.

Everyone with back pain caused by sciatica that I know (including myself) - experiences it as an intermittent condition. I doubt you or a GP can predict that you are going to be in agony for 4 weeks solid.

Unless you are her immediate line manager you should not be privy to the reasons why your colleague is off.

Depends on the cause of the sciatica, which is a term relating to pressure on the sciatic nerve which can have a number of causes.

I have 3 of the common causes of sciatica (herniated discs, spinal stenosis and spondylolisthesis), which which can only be corrected by an operation. However minor back injuries, including muscle damage, can cause short term sciatica which can be improved by avoiding the cause of the injury. In the medium term treatments like physiotherapy usually help, but there's a horrifically long waiting list for this in most of the UK.

But in the short term, you can get a "vicious circle" of the pain causing inflammation to the area, which increases pressure on the nerve, which increases pain, which causes more inflammation and so on. You need to try to avoid the cause of the pain in the first place (e.g. stop doing whatever caused it) and give the area a chance to calm down.

I’m guessing that you aren’t clinical? If you were you might realise that spotting someone doing their shopping is a tiny snapshot of their life.
You might also realise that you don’t get signed off for four weeks if you don’t need to be.