Dismissed My Job Due To Absence linked to my Disability

[mummytippy]

Apologies for my lengthy post. I added a post (in May) regarding wanting advice for my employer to look to make reasonable adjustments for me due to my disability of hearing loss and Tinnitus. I had been employed by my ex employer 22 months. I had gone of work last November due to work related stress but was also waiting on an Audiology referral to come through. My employer was aware of all of my health issues. I had an attendance and wellbeing review (AWR) in May and was told I could discuss appropriate headsets at my next AWR which was scheduled for 18/6. I did contact the RNID and Tinnitus UK so that I could gather as much knowledge as I could prior to this. Before the AWR in June I had also bumped in to a colleague who has a similar hearing issue to me and he had recommended the headset he wears and sent me a link for it which I forwarded to my team leader. Just before the AWR, I then received an invitation for a capability assessment/attendance review to take place on 23/6. I contacted my TL and she said that it might not go ahead. It would depend on the outcome of the AWR with her. I had a fit note with a return to work date of 14/7 with recommendations from my GP. On the 18/6 I attended the AWR and tried to discuss my RTW but it was like the tone had completely changed. I took with me a proposed phased RTW plan to discuss, information from the RNID, Tinnitus UK and also evidence I had been speaking with an Employment Support Advisor via Talking Therapies but it all seemed to fall flat and was met with no interest. I was dumbfounded. I asked my TL to discuss my proposed phased RTW plan emphasising it would need to meet with her approval but she was not interested. She was really quiet. The note taker during the AWR was also a TL I knew (but not well) and he asked me questions which I felt were hostile. The whole experience was awful. I felt completely ganged up on. I did manage to show my white noise sound support and show how it sits behind my ear. The reasonable adjustments I asked for were: to sit somewhere quite on ‘in office days’ and for ad-hoc additional health breaks to adjust/remove my sound support. These were agreed to verbally. Where I raised the question about the link to the headset and the link I’d sent my TL, she said that she had been unable to follow the link and she asked why I had not just bought one. I explained that we were due to discuss headsets at this AWR. there was a cool response, my proposed phased RTW plan was merely photocopied and I was told the Capability/Attendance Review Hearing would still be going ahead. At this point in time I had 2 further medical appointments to still attend. One was my final session of CBT therapy due to happen the day of the hearing (23/6) and the other was with the Audiologist on 20/6 (rescheduled from 30/5 due to the Audiologist being ill). This was a follow up appointment to see how I was getting on with the sound support. Through my employer I had private medical cover. I had spoken with them at the end of May and a report was compiled. The report stated I have a disability and that my employer should allow me to trial a RTW after all my medical appointments were completed.
as I hadn’t like the time of the AWR and the Attendance Hearing was still going to go ahead, I sent a letter to my TL requesting a reasonable adjustment for the 2 requests above. This was never acknowledged. On top of this, when the notes from the AWR meeting were sent to me, they were inaccurate and incomplete. I replied to the email containing the Tale notes with my version of the notes asking for them to be recompiled. This was not done before the hearing. I had joined the Union but too late for them to represent me but they were able to give me basic advice which was if I wasn’t happy with the notes I needed to make this clear but I could attend the hearing to discuss my return to work. Unfortunately I didn’t receive a reply from the Union representative until after the hearing but the morning of the hearing I did send the hearing manager an email to ask her if it could please be rescheduled and why. She declined and because in the invite it had said that a decision on my employment could be made in my absence I felt I had no choice but to attend. My final session of CBT took place and ended an hour before the hearing. I did have a colleague attend and take notes. The hearing was a hideous experience. The hearing manager was very dismissive of my health issues and seemed to have an issue with my proposed phased RTW plan. I emphasised I was not happy with the notes from the AWR and that the RTW was a proposal. From the audiology appointment on the 20/6 the audiologist had put a new program on the device which was a hearing aid function and this was a significant improvement for both my hearing and Tinnitus. I was advised to have a period of ‘habituation’ to get used to this so explained this. In relation to the CBT my practitioner had advised a period of stabilisation following this (as she had also recommended I have some bereavement counselling too). I explained this and I must point out the final reports were not available at this time as still being typed up by the health professionals. I was just completely unheard. The hearing manager had also still been sending additional things into the appendices for this hearing on the 20/6 which was just one working day before the hearing (as a Friday) so I felt everything was rushed. The hearing manager ended the hearing at it was agreed I would speak with my GP to see if I could return to work sooner than 14/7 so I had agreed I would seek their guidance due to the recommendations above from the Audiologist, CBT practitioner and the companies healthcare provider which stated phased RTW at beginning of July after all appointments completed. About and hour after the meeting the hearing manager phoned me and asked if I could RTW on 30/6 and she would put 24/6 through to 27/6 through as annual leave. As I was away from 24/6 because my boyfriend had booked a surprise short break for me as I’d had a rough time and he knew I did not want to take any further time off work after returning, the earliest I could see my GP was on 30/6. I assured her I would seek their guidance on 30/6 and update her as soon as possible. I felt very pressured and told her this. I did this on 1/7 sending a revised fitnote in with a RTW of 7/7 with my GPs recommendations in the comments which included the habituation period and the stabilisation period and details of a phased return to work. I also added that I was open to speaking with my TL to discuss the plan for the following week during the course of that week. She acknowledged receipt, said she was still reviewing my case and that she would be in touch on 3/7 with her decision. I had logged in on my work laptop through the week, reading emails and preparing myself to return. On 3/7 I received her decision which was to dismiss me. She stated I had further delayed my return to work. I was distraught. I feel like I have been punished. I appealed the decision but the outcome remained the same. The hearing manager of the Appeal Hearing was a Customer Service Manager so I feel this wasn’t really appropriate either as no HR / Occupational Health element. I am now going through the Early Conciliation process with ACAS. I would like reinstatement as I do not feel I should have lost my job. My boyfriend (we do not live together) works for the same company (it is where we met) and I just feel completely isolated now as this has made things very awkward. I feel I have lost my career. My colleagues (our colleagues) who became friends now feel awkward. I’m now unemployed, obviously have outgoings and have gone from being in a secure position to the opposite and where I had improved my mental health to return to work, this has deteriorated again due to what has happened. If anyone could please advise me as I am so upset about all of this. TIA.

@FlyMeSomewhere I have not played ‘the system’. There are people where I worked that have done what you’ve described and continue to do so. When I went on sick leave I knew I’d be on SSP.

Each person deals with their health issues in different ways. Do you have Tinnitus?

I was ready to go back as soon my medical appointments completed as per the recommendations of the companies healthcare provider.

And once your had your little holiday with your boyfriend

OP why do you want to go back to a job that made you stressed enough to need time off sick when you’d barely started?

Your poor employer

All I wanted was some actual support from my employer in the form of them coming to me when I was due to return

It sounds as if you want a bit more than that with hoping to be reinstated, @mummytippy, but I expect the die was cast and they'd made their minds up by 7 July

We're not there to hear your employer's side of things, but PPs have explained all the reasons they might have done what they did, and on what you've said it's hard to blame them for having no confidence that any return to work would last

I warmly hope you find something suitable, but it seems quite clear this isn't it, and if you involve a tribunaal do remember that this could harm your employment prospects still further

@CantHoldMeDown I replied to a Zombie thread from 2020 when my symptoms started in February 2024.

Still doesn’t help your colleagues picking up the slack for nearly a year.

I suspect that the OP is not going to accept that she needs to have acted reasonably as well. No matter how many people say it here.

@DoYouThinkYouCouldTell Thank you. It has been awful. Mental health and learning I had hearing loss and Tinnitus. It’s been a long road but what I can recommend for you if you’re experiencing Tinnitus is a hearing aid. I wear a Oticon Engage behind my left ear with a 2 programs. One is white noise for when you’re in a quiet environment and the other (new setting which was added on my most recent appointment) is a hearing aid setting which means the microphone (at the end of the tube in my ear) picks up surrounding sounds which masks the Tinnitus. I hope this helps 😊

Obviously I don’t know if OP knew or not but yes, a lot of people assume it’s paid by the government rather than their workplace. I think that can sometimes lead to a “why do they care, I’m not costing them anything” approach to sickness when they are actually getting a monthly amount paid to them that a NMW worker would need to work 40 hours to earn.

The company’s healthcare provider said that I had been extremely proactive in getting the help I needed

They may have been right if you were battling with the NHS - though why an audiology appointment would take 38 weeks is beyond me - but that doesn't change the point that their own provision may have hurried things along, or that your boyfriend was deeply unwise to book a break which would compromise you being able to follow up

It's not just one incident an employer (or a tribunal) will look at though, but the whole pattern, and on what you've said yourself it really doesn't look good

I was ready to go back as soon my medical appointments completed as per the recommendations of the companies healthcare provider.

Carefully omitting to mention that you delayed a medical appointment to go on holiday.

@mummytippy can you answer why you want to be re-instated to a job/role that is clearly not a good one for you?

What do you think you bring to this job? How does this job benefit you? You have been off sick for 10 months of your tenure of 23 months there, surely you can see the job is not viable for you and you are not a viable employee for the company?

I do and frankly there is little you can do between appointments which can be spaced far apart (took nine months for a referral from ent to audiology on nhs in my case) so working may have been a useful distraction. What had changed since before you went off with stress that suddenly made it too difficult to manage. You got the headset, what more were you needing to make it tolerable other than a dedicated office which may or may not have been feasible as a ra? In my case some background noise can be helpful but not constant chatter like in a restaurant. Do you now have ha (as that could negate the usefulness of a headset)? Could you have asked to wfh some days for example to give your mind a break? It seems very strange you needed to be signed off for nine months except to attend appointments, what did you do with your time. It feels as if you opted out and used this as a justification.

@Plugsocketrocket My RA was for the following two things. I worked from home with 2 office days per month. I was looking for somewhere quieter to sit in office days. The second one was to have (only if required) short ad-hoc health breaks to adjust my hearing aid if necessary. These were agreed to verbally on 18/6 but the actual letter I submitted was not acknowledged before my employment was terminated.

with regard to the headset, it was agreed at an AWR on 21/5 that we would look at them at the next AWR on 18/6. Then when I attended in the 18/6 I was asked why I hadn’t already bought one when it was the responsibility of the company to provide one and that had already been agreed once a suitable one found.

@BrambleGrabber FYI I have worked all of my life or studied whilst my son was young to keep my skills up to date. I’m not going to give you my age but I have paid in 35 years of NI contributions. I know the kind of people you’re talking about and I am not one of them.

But why did it matter that your RAs hadn't been implemented when you hadn't even been at work? They had already been agreed to verbally, so what negative impact did the lack of confirmation actually have on you? Surely the RAs would only have been relevant if and when you actually returned to work. Which you didn't, because you were dismissed because of your poor attendance.

From what you've said, it doesn't sound as if you had requested these RA's prior to going off sick, so the lack of action from your employer can't have contributed to your absence.

With work related stress part of the time? How? You were hardly there!

Come on OP. Are any of these responses getting through to you?

But you were off sick form stress. You’d been off since November with stress. They approved the RA for your panic attacks. So why did you need to be off unail July?

The tinnitus stuff didn’t require time off. My mum has meniers disease and suffers from tinnitus. She never took time off, unless having a meniers attack and that was just a normal sick day.

Why didn’t you got back to work, continue therapy for mental health and go through the process of sorting hearing aids etc whilst in work? Why did you actually need 7 months off work?

If it was so stressful for you then it isn’t the right job. Get a job you can do.

@Bobiverse You are entitled to your opinion. The reason I used the NHS and my own GP is because they supported me fantastically when my parents passed away. It was a very personal service. I had used the 24 hour GP service via my employer in relation to my first absence and did not like the service. I had explained this to my TL and my decision 2nd time around was respected as I have already said. Because this was the case I did not see there was an issue with this. I was told to focus on my recovery and not work. Yes going through the NHS maybe took longer but ultimately I got excellent treatment. I was not paid by my ex employer and was only asking to see my GP after 2 very recent medical appointments had just taken place to get the green light from them to return to work. I did not see anything wrong in doing this.

I see you have ha with white noise, so should be able to cope with office noise , yet you don’t seem to have been willing to try. You can’t complain RA were not provided if you were not attending to need them. What was the issue with working around appointments?

@Bobiverse Unpaid. Why would anyone delay returning when they’re not being paid?

Ok, so I'd pictured a loud and busy call centre, but actually your role was 90% working from home. Surely you could have just used your headset?

And why on earth would you have to wait until your appointments were all done before you returned to work? Most of us work seeking medical appointments or just have the time off for them.

This makes no sense.

@Tiredofwhataboutery I was absent during probation but passed and offered a permanent contract. I’m not blowing my own trumpet but I was good at the job and had a very high NPS score and customers would ask for me by name.