Stress (due to working situation)

millymac

Due to a horrible and mentally exhausting situation at work, I now feel I am unable to go back to work, certainly in the near future but wonder what should I say when I phone in sick? DO I just have to say the stress is making me ill, or do I have to give a blow-by-blow account of how its making me feel - sick, sleepless, depressed, etc, etc. Also, a Dr's line is needed after 7 days so I should just be able to self-certificate for the first 7, is that right? Will they ask when I will be back at work? Thanks so much

Strider590

Go to your doc, tell them your symptoms, don't try to self diagnose in front of your GP.

You are not legally obliged to tell your employer any details of your medical condition, they are also NOT legally allowed to demand details. This example shows why:
employer "whats wrong with you?"
employee "oh ive got a sexually transmitted disease"
employer "oh ok, i'll just go tell the whole workforce"

You simply say you feel unwell and are seeking medical advice.

Tell your GP you feel stressed, you feel ill, your having sleeping difficulty, your emotionally drained, etc etc. He or she will ask if you've contemplated suicide, be truthful.
You'll be offered help in the form of a local phsyc nurse, he/she will asses your current state and suggest either medication or counseling.
At this point your GP should have given you a note for your employer.

bookduck

I would speak to my GP and tell him what is happening and your difficulty. He may very well book you off sick for a period of time, make a copy of the sick note and send the original in to work. Also Tell your GP that you have problems contacting work and how he would recommend that you contact them and what steps to follow.

You could just phone work, but then you will get the prying questions and seeds of nastiness in certain circumstances get planted and grow. I would not go down this route unless I really trusted the organization AND management. I would only deal with occupational health, second choice would be personnel at a push.

Write down why you are stressed and keep records of all letters and conversations.

Pssst

Stay at work. Thats where you earn a living and staying at home moping round will maybe make you feel even worse.

Once you take your foot off the pedal,its even harder to put it back on.

Strider590

Pssst wrote: »

Once you take your foot off the pedal,its even harder to put it back on.

While this is true, work stress can be a killer. Sometimes for the sake of your own health, you have to do what you have to do.

In many cases up their own a**e managers LOVE to walk all over downtrodden employee's. The worse you get, the worse they seem to treat you.
In very basic terms this is like making an employee with a broken leg do a heavy lifting job that they would never normally have to do.
If your not coping at work, you make mistakes and your less efficient, this could lead to dismissal. By bringing the stress to the attention of your GP, your back is covered and your employer can't do sweet FA against you.

I think it's obvious by now that ive been there, my GP and the local phsyc nurse told me that for the sake of my own health I should "not go back to that company" or "continue to expose myself to that level of emotional and mental abuse".

BuddyBonthenet

millymac you do fill in a self-certificate for the 1st 7 days, but you should just ring your employer and say you are not well and will not be at work for the rest of the week. Tell them that you have made an appointment to see your GP, so you don't know when you will be back at work. Although you will probably be asked, you don't need to say what your illness is at the phone call stage, just say you are unwell.

If you have someone who can do this bit for you like a partner, a parent or an adult child then that could make things easier for you, but the information they pass on should be the same.

Then make an appointment to see your GP in time for when you need a sick note. If you are given a sick note by your GP, when you ring your employer just say you are sending in a sick note for X number of days and that you will be going back to your GP at the end of that time, so you don't know when you will returning to work. Again you do not need to say what the illness is.

Also I don't know if this will help but when I went to the doctors in a similar situation, I knew I would start crying and not be able to speak properly, so I wrote down what I wanted to say and gave the piece of paper to my GP to read explaining the reason for doing this. I still ended up crying but at least I was able to give the GP all the relevant information. The GP will want to know how you are feeling rather than all the details about the work situation, so keep that part brief and concentrate on telling then in what way you are feeling unwell because of the situation.

However, Pssst may well be right and being at home will not necessarily make things better right away or for a while, and as you adjust to being out of the stressful situation you may feel even worse at first. But only you can decide what to do next based on how bad things are right now. Have you reached the point where you must do something? Is this your only option? Is there no one at work you can turn to for help? How easy would it be for you to find another job if you handed in your notice instead?

You need to think long and hard about this step, as unfortunately in the eyes of most employers this is not the same as being off sick with a physical illness and it could affect your future employment as well as your current employment.

Good luck.

SnowyOwl_2

Regards sick certificate you have to self-certify for the first seven days (including weekends/other days off). GPs can only write sick notes which start on the 8th day.

Have a look at your employment contract and staff handbook to check what the procedure is for sickness absence - some companies insist on speaking to the employee rather than to a partner/friend etc (unless clearly impractical ie they are in a coma or whatever).

I went through what you went through and while I was very low was unable to take control of the situation (I could hardly tie my own laces as I was in such a mess - don't get to that point of despair!!!). I ended up resigning because I couldn't face the situation again, and had to take a menial job just to earn some cash. I don't recommend this route, I have never recovered professionally nor emotionally some three years later, so try to take some control over what is happening.

The root cause seems to be the situation at wo*k so that really needs to be sorted out. I think you are doing the right thing (speaking from my own experience) by taking yourself out of the situation. Once you have seen your GP and s/he has made a diagnosis and decided how much time you need you will also need to tackle the problem with your employer. You can't go back to a situation that makes you ill, nor can they get rid of you because of a situation that is within their control to remedy. IMO they would be putting themselves vulnerable to a claim for constructive dismissal if you were to resign because they won't sort the problem out.

Good luck, take it step by step, but don't let your employers walk over you or drive you out of your job.