NHS job offer withdrawn - is it sickness

Elmax · 13 August 2016 at 10:55PM

I'm devastated- after two months of providing all sorts of evidence I have received a letter stating I haven't satisfied the trust with my employment history and references.

I have worked for a trust for 20 years and in the past 6 months have been off with work related stress. I completed all the information and on the occupational health form was honest and out 84 days which I somehow had got this figure for being off nearly six months (I only with four days a week).

I went to see OH this week and she said she would sign me off as fit and the. I get a letter two days letter withdrawing my offer.

I have had two instances of sick in two years, this long one then another for three days.

I don't know what to do. My current manager (who was involved in my complaint at work and caused the work related stress) said that she had had a reference and what stage was at in line with something to do with nhs employers. I said I had a verbal offer and condition written offer. She said they had asked for my sickness and I said I'd declared it but had an amount she had pulled off esr which was over 100 days!

Why will they have withdrawn my offer? I thought only the sick I declared to Oh was seen by them and they didn't share it - or the have seen what I gave and have withdrawn it on the fact I've given a different figure than the referee.

Please help! I'm devastated and I'm wondering if there is anything I can do or is that it and they won't reconsider?

sangie595 · 13 August 2016 at 11:35PM

Nobody here can tell you why they withdrew the offer. Sickness is very possible - that is a lot of sick leave, whichever figure they looked at. Did you tell them (not OH - the recruiters) about your sick leave, or have you discussed it at all with them. Because if not, such a high rate of sickness is going to be a shock to them. OH can only tell them that they believe you are now fit - they can't reassure them that there won't be further lengthy periods of sickness, and that is likely to be what they are concerned about.

There is no harm done in speaking to them and explaining. The offer has been withdrawn, so the worst case scenario is they won't reconsider.

BobQ · 14 August 2016 at 12:58AM

You might want to edit your original post. It is rather confusing in places and not easy to follow.

If I understand correctly you are applying for a job at a different NHS trust to the one you have worked in for 20 years? If so the trust you are applying to will be keen to examine your sick record and it is not surprising they may have reviewed your application based on that information. You say they have withdrawn the offer, but that is not the same as making an offer which is conditional on satisfactory references etc and then not proceeding with the offer if the references are unsatisfactory.

No employer will be entirely happy to employ someone who has a poor sick record particularly if the sick conditions are stress related and difficult to pin down. Any failures to declare accurate information will provide an excuse to not proceed with the offer, but just because you declare a condition/sickness record does not mean that everything is OK if the information indicates the possibility of a future poor attendance record due to sickness.

trinidadone · 14 August 2016 at 1:11AM

I applied for a new job with a local authority in London. I completed the interview, and had back ground checks carried out. I had six weeks on my sickness record, due to a frozen shoulder. The new employee invited me in to see there OH. a few days later i recived an email informing me the job offer had been withdrawn, no explanation provided.

I contacted there HR and I was told nothing can be done, and no information was given, i was so disappointed.

sangie595 · 14 August 2016 at 9:12AM

trinidadone wrote: »

I applied for a new job with a local authority in London. I completed the interview, and had back ground checks carried out. I had six weeks on my sickness record, due to a frozen shoulder. The new employee invited me in to see there OH. a few days later i recived an email informing me the job offer had been withdrawn, no explanation provided.

I contacted there HR and I was told nothing can be done, and no information was given, i was so disappointed.

For a lot of local authorities I know, 9 - 11 days is the trigger point for a review of the application. That doesn't mean an offer will be withdrawn, but it would certainly be looked at again.

unforeseen · 14 August 2016 at 9:59AM

If I understand correctly

You are currently off sick with stress (work related)
You have applied for a similar(?) job at a different trust
From their POV the job itself to a certain extent is adding your stress and a similar one in their trust will be no different. Seems like they have weighed everything up and do not want the risk of the same thing happening with them, especially as you are applying for a similar )?) job while still off with work related stress from your current one.

sangie595 · 14 August 2016 at 11:56AM

unforeseen wrote: »

If I understand correctly

You are currently off sick with stress (work related)
You have applied for a similar(?) job at a different trust
From their POV the job itself to a certain extent is adding your stress and a similar one in their trust will be no different. Seems like they have weighed everything up and do not want the risk of the same thing happening with them, especially as you are applying for a similar )?) job while still off with work related stress from your current one.

I hadn't realised until I read this, but I think you are right - I read the OP very differently, and took the "days off sick" to make it around three months out of six months. But looking at it again, I can see where the OP went wrong in their calculation.... the confusing post made it difficult to understand at first.

OP, you are not only off sick on working days! You are also off sick on non-working days. You have counted up four days a week only when looking at how many days you have had off. But you do not become not-sick when on a non-working day. You are sick seven days a week. So six months is six months sickness, not 84 days.

And as a result of this, I would have to change what I said. There's nothing to loose by asking, but frankly, I don't expect them to change their mind, and I don't think you have any real chance of convincing anyone else to employ you either, as things stand. Sorry, but I think you need to know that.

Assuming it is correct that you have been off sick for six months and have not returned to work yet, you must appreciate that work-related stress is not a diagnosis that is of any help at all. It doesn't even exist, in reality. So, what the doctor means is that you have some form of anxiety or depression, and you say that the cause is something to do with work. The doctor can't say that it is something to do with work because what they are saying is based only on one side of the story. And even if they could say that, that does not mean that work is "wrong" and you are "right" - people often get sick with work related stress because they don't agree with something, or are facing a disciplinary.

So how you are looking at this is that whatever it is that happened at work that prompted your sickness, getting a new job is a cure. The potential new employer doesn't see it like that. They see that you are still off sick, so there are a few potential reasons for that. It may be that you simply are not resilient enough to do the job any more - in which case they are not going to give you a job doing the same thing or something similar. It may be that you are facing a disciplinary and have gone off sick. Or it may be that you go off sick whenever you get told something you don't like. The fact is that they don't know why you are off, just that you are, and they are going to interpret that as being a potential liability to them. There will be other candidates who don't have such worrying backgrounds, and they are going to go for one of them.

The only way to really resolve this problem is to return to work - in other words, to resolve the problem that you have with your employer. That way, despite a lengthy period of sickness (which is never good) you are able to say in future that the issue was resolved and show that you are reliable as an employee by being in work. Or you can wait until your employer dismisses, although that isn't likely to be a recommendation either. Or you could resign and go to agency working for a time to get this off your record.

Please understand that I am not deciding that you are in the wrong, or that this is all your fault. But six months without any form of resolution that allows you to return to work is very serious. The NHS has, like most public sector organisations, pretty fast responses to work-related stress claims, so they must have done something (you said you made a complaint?) under their policies and procedures. Why did this not resolve the issue?

TBH, whilst this withdrawal of the new job offer is what you have posted about, I think you are posting about the wrong thing. What you really need is advice on what has caused you to still be off sick. And that means you need to tell us the story behind the stress. That way, we may be able to help more.

bigjl · 14 August 2016 at 12:26PM

The NHS operates an unofficial blacklist.

Which operates within the wider public sector aswell.

Your current trust will not give you a bad written reference.

But the public sector HR world is not a huge one and people will make phones calls or ask questions like "would you re-employ this person"

To be perfectly honest though as you have had such a recent and long term incidence of sickness I doubt if anybody would be successful in getting a job with the NHS or other public sector body

GothicStirling · 14 August 2016 at 2:36PM

In my Trust two incidents of sickness in one year would trigger a Sickness Review. Having been off for six months for one period of sickness alone would definitely trigger a Sickness Review.

BobQ · 14 August 2016 at 2:42PM

bigjl wrote: »

The NHS operates an unofficial blacklist.

Which operates within the wider public sector aswell.

Your current trust will not give you a bad written reference.

But the public sector HR world is not a huge one and people will make phones calls or ask questions like "would you re-employ this person"

To be perfectly honest though as you have had such a recent and long term incidence of sickness I doubt if anybody would be successful in getting a job with the NHS or other public sector body

NHS trusts certainly share information but to call that a blacklst is misleading. To then extend that to the public sector is a wild fabrication. There are thousands of HR staff in the public sector to accuse them of colluding over a blacklist without evidence is unfair on them.

bigjl · 14 August 2016 at 3:07PM

BobQ wrote: »

NHS trusts certainly share information but to call that a blacklst is misleading. To then extend that to the public sector is a wild fabrication. There are thousands of HR staff in the public sector to accuse them of colluding over a blacklist without evidence is unfair on them.

I have evidence

Just because I have not put that in my post means nothing.

You sound like an NHS Management apologist.

NHS job offer withdrawn - is it sickness

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free