boss phones when i'm off sick

terra_ferma

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 expect if you have an accident at work they will write to your family to let them know.....
I also expect they will not need to write to you about a promotion or pay rise any time soon, with a positive and helpful attitude like yours...

Nitha

A boss of mine used to call me on my days off (I was part-time)!! I personally like my employer to contact me if I'm ill, I'd be insulted if they didn't ring to check I was ok. But I have a very good, trusting relationship with my team.

terra_ferma

Nitha wrote: »

A boss of mine used to call me on my days off (I was part-time)!! I personally like my employer to contact me if I'm ill, I'd be insulted if they didn't ring to check I was ok. But I have a very good, trusting relationship with my team.

You are lucky, a lot of people have problems. But you probably also have a positive attitude towards work, and get much more job satisfaction.

Nitha

Yeah I've worked for my company for years and they've treated me well.

dlk

Working for a large company there is a standard practice at my work that all managers must follow. If you are sick you must call in everyday (if you don't the manager will call you). On this call you must give details of what is wrong, what you have done to get better, when you expect to go back and the ridiculous question of what will you do in future to avoid futre illness!!!
I don't think one phone call a day is unreasonable. I beleive that the only time an employer isn't allowed to contact you each day when you are off sick is if you are off with stress. If that is the case they can't do a lot while ever your doctor keeps giving out sick notes.

biggaz26

I was off work in april this year with an illness that lead to an operation.

I went to the docs on the evening before the 1st day of sick and was admitted to hospital. I rang my boss on her co. mobile on the way to a&e to tell her what was going on. Now while she was very concerned for why well being there was lots of 'oh poor team having to cover your job' (if my job isnt complete there is a warehouse full of people with nothing today)

So anyway, I was in hospital for 1 week and recieved a call every other day asking after my well being. I was signed off for 2 weeks and after this i heard nothing. Even though the sick note ran out 1/2 way through a weeks holiday I had booked I still had to take some of the time off as hoiday.

I came back to work for a week knowing that I would need an op after and would be off after. I had the poor us phone calls at 1st then when i said i had a note for 2 weeks nothing.

After a few days at home I was re admitted with an infection and kept in a week and signed off a further week after discharge. The same thing again calls at first (Poor us) and then as soon as the sick note was written nothing.

Th whole thing left me a little confussed as to how i should feel. Im fairly sure that my boos didnt mean to put preasure on me to come back early but still did. And then pretty much once she knew how long i was off for stopped calling.

Should I have made more of it at the time? I dont know. But id be interested to know what other think.

Cheers

sexandthecity

I wouldnt be happy if my boss did that, they have no right to pester you at home. You generally can give an indication of whether you will be back the next day or not and the rest is up to them to manage. Isnt that why they are called managers ?

Depending on the relationship with your boss I would say the last thing you want at home whilst your really poorly is someone ringing you up to talk about work, not really promoting rest and recovery.

For the record, my last boss was wonderful she really was great and I think we got along just fine, I still would have found it unacceptable for her to call me at home to check when I was coming back. I would have the manners (if I was able) to let her know the likely situation in the first place or drop her a text or something during the day. She never felt the need to stalk me in the afternoon and the company ran just fine, its just a paranoid manager if you ask me.

As for the comment about they want to check you havent gone shopping for the day, well what does that prove, if they dont answer the phone that they have, or they are just really ill

Morgan_Ree

Some people really are such delicate flowers
One phone call, which would last probably all of a few minutes is hardly harrassment!

At my work it's pretty standard to speak to a manager when you're calling in sick
Reason being it's just so busy pretty much all the time that if you speak to the first person who answers the phone the message will undoubtedly either be forgotten or just not passed on till later

Depending on what shift I'm supposed to be on I'll usually get a phone call a few hours later to a) check how I am and b) to see if I'll be ok to work my next shift

RobertoMoir

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.

So what would happen if you didn't answer the phone because you were asleep or, for example, busy vomiting because you had a stomach upset?

speedbird1973

sexandthecity wrote: »

I wouldnt be happy if my boss did that, they have no right to pester you at home. You generally can give an indication of whether you will be back the next day or not and the rest is up to them to manage. Isnt that why they are called managers ?

Depending on the relationship with your boss I would say the last thing you want at home whilst your really poorly is someone ringing you up to talk about work, not really promoting rest and recovery.

It's also worth pointing out - they dont have to pay you for your first few days sickness, and only the statuary sick pay after that. If the company is willing to pay you 100% for your sickness, I see no reason why they shouldn't call you (within good reason!). I have a different attitude to holiday, if I'm on holiday I don't expect to be contacted by work, in that case I'm being paid what I owe and not because of the generosity of work. Like wise I won't conact anyone on holiday, no matter how urgent.