boss phones when i'm off sick

surreysaver

tractorboy80 wrote: »

when any of our staff are off sick, the boss always phones them in the afternoon to ask if they will be returning to work the next morning, i've been old that this is classed as harrasment does any body kn ow where staff stand in these circumstances

Exactly the reason my employer does not have my phone number. They know not to write to me at my home address either - I also class that as harrassment.

Bogof_Babe

If you expect to be paid in full during sickness absence, I think the company has every right to know for how long the situation might continue. For one thing they might have to budget for (and arrange) temporary cover if the absence is likely to be prolonged.

I always think if you have nothing to hide you shouldn't mind a phone call. Another thing that irks me is when people get their partner or someone else to call in sick for them - this is only acceptable in my view if you have lost your voice, are in hospital, or don't have a phone at home or a mobile.

tanith

Bogof_Babe wrote: »

If you expect to be paid in full during sickness absence, I think the company has every right to know for how long the situation might continue. For one thing they might have to budget for (and arrange) temporary cover if the absence is likely to be prolonged.

I always think if you have nothing to hide you shouldn't mind a phone call. Another thing that irks me is when people get their partner or someone else to call in sick for them - this is only acceptable in my view if you have lost your voice, are in hospital, or don't have a phone at home or a mobile.

If the situation is likely to continue for more than a few days then a doctors certificate will be supplied of course which will the give the employer at least an initial indication of how long the employee is likely to be absent, as said in previous posts if the sickness is going to be longer than a few days then a call from your boss is acceptable but daily calls to check on you is not acceptable. Its not a case of having nothing to hide, but once given notice of sickness or a sicknote then the employee is legitimately absent and should not be harrassed and put under pressure or be questioned regarding absence or return to work. This could be an employer suffering stress or depression and receiving calls from a boss would only antagonise the situation. In my experience its normally an over zealous boss who does this type of thing most HR depts know its unacceptable.

vegankris

Bogof_Babe wrote: »

I always think if you have nothing to hide you shouldn't mind a phone call. Another thing that irks me is when people get their partner or someone else to call in sick for them - this is only acceptable in my view if you have lost your voice, are in hospital, or don't have a phone at home or a mobile.

IMO it should also be acceptable if you're off with mental health issues.

liney

surreysaver wrote: »

Exactly the reason my employer does not have my phone number. They know not to write to me at my home address either - I also class that as harrassment.

I see. So you if you dissapear without a trace they are not to call you or write to you because it is not their right to know where the person they are paying is, instead of at work, or whether they should be filling your role?

I don't think it's an issue if you have not indicated the likely length of your absence. I usually ask people who are absent with minor things like upset stomach, sore throat, migraine etc, to call me by 5pm if they are unlikely to be back in the morning instead of calling them though.

I have also been know to call someone on a day's holiday to ask them an informal question regarding work. The alternative would be to wait until they return, and have a formal meeting about the whereabouts of XYZ and not doing a proper hand over before their leave.

If people treated each other with courtesy instead of jumping up and down about rights which they often don't even want to exercise, most work places would be much happier places for all.

Bogof_Babe

I don't see why it is "harassment", it seems perfectly logical to me. I mean how many people are so sick that they cannot take a phone call?

I think people should give consideration to the fact that redundancies are happening everywhere at the moment, and try to make themselves as amenable as possible if they wish to keep their jobs.

I don't get this attitude of the person paying for your time having no rights to contact you during it.

As for HR departments knowing the score, that will no doubt be due to human rights legislation or some such nonsense. Just because it exists doesn't make it right.

Daytona_nev

Scaredy_Cat wrote: »

I used to work in a call centre and the (ridiculous) policy there was that I would have to ring in sick and speak to a supervisor - who would then get a manager to ring me back later.

This was REALLY annoying if I was ringing in because I had a migraine and needed to go to bed.

My personal suspicion is that they just wanted to be sure you were actually at home and hadn't just taken the day off to go shopping.

I think that says more about the reliability of call centre staff than it does about the management.

sheeps68

Am currently off sick and in hospital. Had several texts and emails from work. All fine, totally supportive and telling me not to rush back. It can be nice to feel they care enough about you to call etc. I dont feel at all harrassed!

Scaredy_Cat_3

Daytona_nev wrote: »

I think that says more about the reliability of call centre staff than it does about the management.

Maybe it says more about the management's PERCEPTION of the reliability of call centre staff?

This is a side issue and I don't want to detract from the main question, but just wanted to respond. Maybe there are some people who take time off when they are not really sick - but you get that in all walks of life. In my experience call centre staff are as reliable as any others - and given how bad you are made to feel when you do ring in sick, believe me, many of us went in to work when we didn't feel well enough because it was easier than trying to justify illness to the manager - and then having to go through a return to work interview and answer stupid questions like, did you visit a doctor - (for a migraine)?????, and well, what causes migraines?

jac29

Just wonder why vegankris thinks it is acceptable if you are off with mental health issues? Does vegankris know how genuine depression can affect people and remove their ability to manage what were simple tasks? I was off sick with depression after working for a govt dept for 23 years and resigned after receiving no support from my employer only what felt like harrassment. I would not wish what i went through on anyone.