Am I safe to take 10 weeks off sick for stress and anxiety? No previous sick record

MORPH3US

wishface wrote: »

If the OP is genuinely ill

That matter is very much in dispute here (of and its a "her" not a "him"...)

I think you misread the thread or didn't read it at all....

Someone who comes on a forum to ask "am I ok to take 10 weeks off sick" is obviously not sick.

If you genuinely are sick then you take the time off, end of story. The OP hasn't even been signed off yet.

gizmo111

MORPH3US wrote: »

As an employer... I wouldn't touch you with a barge pole if I saw you had taken 10 weeks off sick......

What for anything? What about a one off operation? Broken leg etc?

MORPH3US

Sorry Gizmo, you're right, I wasn't clear... I was being specific to the OP's situation.....

Do you really get 10 weeks off sick for a broken leg? In the building industry maybe, but I would expect my staff in work with a broken leg after a week or two....

gizmo111

MORPH3US wrote: »

Sorry Gizmo, you're right, I wasn't clear... I was being specific to the OP's situation.....

Do you really get 10 weeks off sick for a broken leg? In the building industry maybe, but I would expect my staff in work with a broken leg after a week or two....

Don't know - never broken one but recenty had my throat cut and had to have 12 weeks off, which was a short time off GP recommended 20 weeks.

hayley11

MORPH3US wrote: »

As an employer... I wouldn't touch you with a barge pole if I saw you had taken 10 weeks off sick......

Wow that's a bit mad really. There are so many reasons where somebody could have had that time off but then could be perfectly fine to return to work properly.

I've had probably triple that off over the last 6 years, and that's not actually including the time i've not been employed but have been sick. I'm never going to get hired ever again if/when I get better :rotfl:

Precious_Thing

The woman has had a miscarriage! I wouldn't be surprised if she was depressed in the true sense of the word.

I can't believe some of the attitudes I have read in this thread. Has no-one any compassion left these days??

To the OP - If you have an understanding GP, try to discuss how you are feeling regarding your whole situation with him/her. You do sound like you are very down. It could be that your GP suggests referral to a specialist.

I wish you lots of luck whatever you do. Please look after your health, it is one thing that cannot be replaced.

Precious Thing.

hayley11

Precious_Thing wrote: »

The woman has had a miscarriage! I wouldn't be surprised if she was depressed in the true sense of the word.

I can't believe some of the attitudes I have read in this thread. Has no-one any compassion left these days??

To the OP - If you have an understanding GP, try to discuss how you are feeling regarding your whole situation with him/her. You do sound like you are very down. It could be that your GP suggests referral to a specialist.

I wish you lots of luck whatever you do. Please look after your health, it is one thing that cannot be replaced.

Precious Thing.

The only problem I had with the whole thing was the fact that she was planning to be off for 10 weeks, nobody knows if they are still going to be unfit for work 10 weeks down the line.

But I do appreciate after later posts that the OP hasn't been treated very well at work. I hope she gets the redundancy she's after

I just don't like people using depression as an excuse (and the OP did say she was stressed, there is a difference) because it gives people who really suffer from it a bad name.

Precious_Thing

Perhaps the OP did use the word ``stressed'', but it can be difficult to know exactly how you feel sometimes. I don't think she was using anything as an ``excuse'' as she was coping with very difficult circumstances.

There are degrees of depression. Just because one person's depression might be different or less severe than someone else's, does not mean that the first person cannot legitimately use the word ``depression''. There are many kinds of legitimate depression and who is anyone to say someone shouldn't use the word or apply it to his/her own circumstances.

Even if someone cannot predict exactly how he/she will feel in a certain number of weeks time, they can have an overall idea of how overwhelming things are and perhaps that is how the OP felt. If she has been treated terribly at work, why shouldn't she be considering ways of getting the best deal she can out of a terrible situation. It doesn't sound like she owes them anything.

I am just appealing for some CARE and CONCERN towards human beings. It's so easy to jump in and blame or be aggressive. Horrible!!

Precious Thing.

mrs_moneyspinner

why don't you be honest with employers? tell them how unhappy you are, take a week of unpaid leave to get your head together, ask them if they will consider a voluntary redundancy package - maybe they will be pleased to help you out? nobody can afford to employ people who arent coming up with the goods for whatever reason and if you are considering a career break anyway this enables you to leave on good terms with your head held high.
p.s. I am sorry you have suffered so much - many employers these days have a confidential counselling service - have you checked to see if yours has one?

patman99

In the firm I work for, they had 3 guys who were always off sick, so they gave them all a final written warning and ....wait for it.......promotion to Leading hands.
Another guy who was genuinely ill, and had less time-off got the sack.

o/p, if you are getting loads of grief in your new position, and your managers are giving you nothing but hassle (like all the sh*t jobs, longer hours & are always riding your back), then you could have a case for 'Industrial Bullying', or 'victimisation'.

Our firms' Ergonomics Manager was in that position earlier this year, he had about 8 weeks off sick, took firm to court and got £25k pay-off.
Trouble is, my employers don't learn from their lessons, and the bully-boy managers are still working for the company and still waging phsycological warfare on the shopfloor staff.