Excuse needed for long sickness..

[Miolo]

Please don't judge, I already feel bad enough 😔. I need to be off from early June to early September.
Plausible reason suggestions needed please.
I feel guilty but it's circumstances out of my control that mean I need the time off. Don't want to reveal as might be outing.
Big public sector worker.. Months of being overworked and stressed. Curre doing the work of 3 people, not sustainable long term. I'm burning out.
Stress a plausible reason for 3 months off? Any other ideas? I do have a chronic physical health condition, would it be best to use that?

Just say it’s work related stress why lie

I dont understand why you cant tell them the real reason for your sickness?

If your sick then go off with work related stress, fit note from GP.

Why go off then and not immediately? Not enough info on your OP.

If it's for childcare reasons as a manger I would not be happy about this, not to mention the stress that would be added to the other team members

Are you sick now? If so go off sick and stay sick

Things may well have changed but I worked for the Civil.Service. in 2003 I needed time off work which was due to stress (not only work related). Chatting with the lovely GP I had at the time he said he would just put 'illness' my sick note. Said it was none of their business what was going on in my life. He thought I was unfit for work and that was that. That was for 3 weeks.

If you are burning out, what makes you think that you can carry on like this until June? Have you raised the fact that you are doing work for three people, with your seniors?

Times have changed since 2003 though, back then mental health was very stigmatised and work related stress was seen as a personal failure.

Whereas in 2026, work related stress is seen as an employer failure and you get additional protections. It’s also a paper trial should things go awry. You want to be clear these days that your stress is due to work as opposed to your personal circumstances

As someone else said why wait until June? Or do you need a chunk of time off for something else that isn’t actually sick leave? Saying I need to be off from early June to early September. Plausible reason suggestions needed please.
I feel guilty but it's circumstances out of my control that mean I need the time off. Don't want to reveal as might be outing. Doesn’t sound like sick leave to me, it sounds like you’re just needing time off for something. Either take it annual leave or unpaid in that case.

Well, are you sick or not? If no, stay at work. If yes and it’s work related stress, just get that on the Fit Note. If you are that unwell, you could easily be off for three months with WRStress. The way you have written your op however seems to suggest you are creating something as you need the time off for something else. I am hoping that is not the case.. ? If you are not sick, you take annual leave, with maybe some unpaid leave depending why you are off.

So, you want 3 months off work paid on the sick but you won't actually be sick?

Is that correct?

We all have stresses and burnout from work at time to time, thats what annual leave is for, to recharge the batteries.

Honestly I wouldn't lie to the company, if you get found out you could be on permanent leave from work

Public sector has special leave for some things? Can you use that to cover the absence, it probably won't be paid for very long though. Plus annual leave and parental leave?
If you need the time off because of stress, be honest about it and take sick leave. I know quite a few people who have been off work for several months due to mental health.

You sound like it's not the stress that's making you need time off though? Especially as you state a specific time frame that isn't starting until June.

I'm trying to imagine what your reason can possibly be for feeling it's ok to have 3 months paid holiday on top of the quite reasonable official civil service leave? And can't think of anything non medical related that would be reasonable.

It's not making sense to me but that may be because you've left out some identifying details.

If it’s child related (school summer holidays) then apply for parental leave
If you pretend to be sick you will have to lie to your GP and to your employer. If you get found out you will be dismissed for gross misconduct and rightly so and presumably could be prosecuted for falsely claiming sick pay. This is a bit more than a Monday sickie.
Or just give notice since you hate the job anyway. Quit and go travelling (or whatever you were planning to do) legitimately and apply for another job when you are back.

Request a sabbatical if you're not actually sick. may not get paid though.

The real reason!
If you are sick enough not to work for 3 months, then that can be certified by a doctor.

Just so we're clear, I never have and never would do this but it's an interesting question.
If it was actually for something not sickness-related, let's for argument's sake, say childcare during the Summer holidays, I'd use work place stress as the reason because the tests are so easy to fake. But so it didn't look suspicious, I'd actually take a bit more than needed.
I would know (because I'm ex-HR) that I would only get away with this one time and I would need to lie consistently to colleagues, friends and family (or get them to lie for me) to prevent being found out. If I really did have stress, this alone would probably make my condition worse.

If you are not ill do not pretend to be. It impacts on really ill people. People see those who are not really ill off work and think that all people who claim to be are exaggerating their condition. It eventually leads to a conversation about removing benefits. That some really disabled people utterly rely on.
So you won’t say why you need three months off ?
Another job ? Do not take your salary from the taxpayer and go and earn elsewhere whilst pretending to be sick. So you get paid twice. That is a form of theft in my view.
Looking after someone else? Extended holiday wanted ?
Whatever the reason be honest about it. You may not need to lie.

If you need time off for personal reasons you need to ask for unpaid leave, faking medical leave is wrong

So many questions. If you're not sick, don't go on sick leave, to me that's fraud. If you need the time off to look after your children during the holidays you can legally use parental leave but there are a mix of other things you could use for this if you're not going away for that whole time.

If you need the time off to, I don't know, project manage a house renovation, you can take a sabbatical, which would be unpaid I guess but you'd have to factor that into the cost of the build.

If you need the time off to do another job, like say working at a festival or some short term freelance opportunity, again you can ask to take it as a sabbatical or a CPD opportunity or something.

If you are actually experiencing burnout or a MH crisis, I'd assume that you're not able to schedule that for the summer because that's not how our bodies and brains work.

If you're not actually sick or stressed in any way, please please please don't you dare lie and take it as sick leave. It spits in the face of anyone who genuinely needs the time off.

This is why it's so hard to give any decent advice without the context.

If you can continue working until June then you're not burnt out. What's the real reason?

I assume you have a big operation or similar scheduled and don’t want to tell your employer?

you will need a GP note to sign you off, noone can take 3 months off without providing medical evidence, so you won’t be able to make something up

I once had a mini breakdown and my doctor put general debility on my fit note.

If someone I manage is off sick with work related stress I would be in regular contact with them to try to resolve the issue so they can return ASAP. I wouldn't just leave it for three months and deal with it when they returned.

I had a miscarriage and didn’t want to tell my boss so my GP wrote ‘haemorrhage’ which I then wound up having to explain anyway as my boss was so alarmed!

I keep thinking what it could be
cosmetic surgery?
got selected for a reality TV show?