RSI/stress/depression/sick leave options and consequences

katrina123

Hi, my Daughter works with computers and has been suffering some discomfort in her wrists and arms over the years. She has seen the NHS physio, who gave her some excercises. Her personal life is a troublesome too, she is dealing with several personal issues, problems which are weighing her down. She says she wants more time to relax, rest and get stronger and feel better about herself and solve the personal problems shes dealing with.

She doesnt know whether to quit her job or whether to reduce her hours, or whether to see the doctor to discuss a prescribed authorised sick leave.
Can anybody advise us please? Pros and cons of each option.

She feels tired, exhausted, unhappy, weak, sad, and by working full time and dealing with the personal home stuff, currently , nothing is being bettered or solved. Something neeeds to change she says. And I agree.

Thanks in advance for any comments.

paulwf

katrina123 wrote: »

She doesnt know whether to quit her job or whether to reduce her hours, or whether to see the doctor to discuss a prescribed authorised sick leave.
Can anybody advise us please? Pros and cons of each option.

Another option is to ask for an extended period of unpaid leave. I can't say what option is best as that depends on personal finances. I just thought I'd mention unpaid leave as taking 3 months off is a lot less of a dent in personal finances than quitting and being unemployed.

Uncertain

Although it shouldn't, it depends a lot on the type of employer and their attitude to longer term sickness.

If her doctor feels it is best for her to be off sick (and obviously that is his professional call) then realistically, with this type of problem, she is going to be off for some considerable time.

Various regular posters on here will give you the impression that a week or two off is virtually end of career. Presumably this is because this is what they have experienced!

On the other hand other employers (local authorities, civil service, universities etc) have a far more reasonable attitude and it may well be months before they even raise an eyebrow. How long she has worked for the current employer may have an effect as well.

If her employer is likely to be in the second category then, assuming her doctor feels it is best, a reasonable period of sick leave may help.

However, if her employer is going to hassle, pressure and threaten if she is off for more that a few days then she may be just be swapping one problem for another.

From a financial point of view it is normally best not to resign for heath reasons. Just sit tight and let the employer make all the moves. If you don't want to go back then even an "aggressive" employer can be strung along for some considerable time. If they cut corners they leave themselves wide open to a claim.

If her illness amounts to a disability (in the legal sense) then she has some additional protection.

SueC_2

It's impossible to give any specific advice to your daughter on the basis of the limited amount of information it is possible for you to provide on a forum.

However, if depression is a significant factor, then I would question whether stopping working altogether is the best move. In my (admittedly limited) experience, many depressed people are helped by retaining some routine in their lives - ie. having to get up at a certain time, having to get washed and dressed, having to leave the house to go to work, having to 'appear' to function normally despite how they may be feeling.

In the cases that I have known where someone suffering from depression has not been working, there has been a tendency for their life to 'close down' even further - days on end spent isolated at home behind closed curtains, not interacting with anyone, becoming gradually more and more insular and 'afraid' of the outside world.

As I started off by saying, it's impossible to make a recommendation for your daughter, and you are right to be looking at the various options. Perhaps she should start by discussing these with her doctor.

Mand_x_

Hi, I know it is not going to help but I wanted to just point this out as it has happened to me. I left home at an early age (14) and had a few problems as a teenager. I started work before I should have officially left school as I needed money to live on. As soon as I was old enough (18) my bf and I bought a house on mortgage. 2 dyas later he had a car crash (luckily he was not hurt to bad) but the car was a write off and he also lost his job. Not having a adult parent figure to go to I kind of used my Doctor being the only mature responsible adult in my life at the time I could turn to for advice. I also turned to him again a couple of years later when I suffered with a little postnatal depression after my first child. At one point I was signed off work for 6 weeks with depression and on my first original visits I was offered and prescibed anti-depressents but did not take them or repeat the prescription. Anyway, the reason I am mentioning all the background for this is that even though I do not feel like I am a manic depressent and feel I have always been able to get through things - the doctors do not necessarily see it that way. After recently applying for life insurance for my husband and I, I was turned down for wavier of premiums and also for Total Permanent Disability Benefit due to the history of depression as they call it. I tried to explain to them about living on my own and then with my bf from the age of 14 and half and the fact I thought my problems were circumstancial due to using a doctor as an authorative figure but it made no difference. They had on record 4 visitis to the doctors over a 3 months period. Another visit a few months later and then 3 visitis to the doctor with my psot natal depression. I wish I would have know the implications then. I would probably have not gone the doctors in the first place and just muggled through myself as by doing so I feel I have now been penalised and tarnished as someone who has a long history of depression. It can also have an impact when applying for jobs that require a full medical as once you have depression down on your medical records it is there forever. It was 16 years and 10 years ago since my depression encounters with the doctor and it is only now it has come to bite me in the backside

BY THE WAY - I WOULD LIKE TO ADD THAT I AM NOT BY ANY MEANS ADVISING YOUR DAUGHTER NOT TO GO TO THE DOCTORS. DEPRESSION IS A SERIOUS AND OFTEN MIS UNDERSTOOD ILLNESS. IT IS IMPORTANT THAT IF SHE REALISES THAT SHE DOES HAVE DEPRESSION THAT SHE GETS MEDICAL HELP FOR IT. - I am just saying that my experience I believe that I might have been able to get through it on my own without going the doctors but I used the doctor because he was my only adult authoritive person I felt I could trust at the time being only a teenager and now as I look back being only a child still. The postnatal depression I suffered when I was 22 with my first child is slightly seperate.

dickydonkin

Hi, my Daughter works with computers and has been suffering some discomfort in her wrists and arms over the years.

katrina123 Should your daughter decide not to take sick leave or indeed return after a break, the issue of the problem that could potentially be RSI really needs to be addressed, otherwise she could be back to square one after returning to work.

Your daughters workstation should have been assessed as a legal requirement, however, it would seem this has not been carried out or if it has, no remedial action has taken place.

Unfortunately, any condition will seem compounded if one is suffering from stress, but I would certainly ask her to enquire at work who is responsible for ensuring DSE (Display Screen Equipment) regulations are adhered to.

This may help: http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg36.pdf

SueC has some very sound advice above as it can be so easy for such a condition to spiral into depression. I would definitely suggest medical help.

katrina123

thankyou thankyou thankyou all.

Yeah it may stain the employement record for life etc.
And I guess it could get worse as you keep making the arugments for the stress and depression and in effect you get more of what you think about.

Extended period of unpaid leave. This wouldnt affect employemnt record would it or future references?

If she went part time, would she be eligible for any kind of benefits? Even if she voiuntarily decided to go part time? She may struggle with a part time income.

Her finances are very bad, she has no money, debt, she lives with her father and desperately wants her own place, she is about to approach council, housing associations, neighbourhood offices to get advice on this matter. Or she might just start renting a flat now.

Based on what shes told me, I think the doctor will definately sign her off for a while.

Yes routine of job helps depressed people. But she has other interests and goals and passions, and wants to explore them more and try to earn incomes from these, in time. She is a focused person and has some idea of what she wants in life, and her current job and current home life is not helping her achieve her desires and only making matters worse.

See doctor first? Or discuss with employer first?

Shes pretty certain that whatever happens, she can not work there full time anymore. So she sees herself either leaving or going part time.

RSI: she was given a specialist mouse a couple of years ago, that helped.
She politely asked for a 5min sandwich break, which the manager responded by shouting and speaking with hate and contempt at this request, after a few meetings with higher ups, it was granted, albeit coming into work earlier. For a 5min break! They persuaded her to not go to HR about it, as it would shake up the work/break system for the whole workforce. And it seems the managers are pushing everyone to work faster and faster and she feels the pressure and so this pains the wrists more, as when you work faster, this equals more pain.
Workstation seems ok i think, they have occupational health and guides etc.

jdturk

katrina123 wrote: »

RSI: she was given a specialist mouse a couple of years ago, that helped.
She politely asked for a 5min sandwich break, which the manager responded by shouting and speaking with hate and contempt at this request, after a few meetings with higher ups, it was granted, albeit coming into work earlier. For a 5min break! They persuaded her to not go to HR about it, as it would shake up the work/break system for the whole workforce. And it seems the managers are pushing everyone to work faster and faster and she feels the pressure and so this pains the wrists more, as when you work faster, this equals more pain.
Workstation seems ok i think, they have occupational health and guides etc.

I'm presuming that this is an extra break ontop of a lunch break for working 6 hours or more.

Talk to the dr over the employer first for guidance on where to go, do you have a copy of the companies sickness procedure?

katrina123

They work through a 30min break so go home early, so the 5min break was the only official break for long shift. They class drink breaks, toilet, walking around breaks from the computer. They were quite hostile to the 5min break request.

Company sickness procedure is standard one, I read it and it said 3 months sick leave with full pay with doctors medical note, then its reduced or SSP.

jdturk

katrina123 wrote: »

They work through a 30min break so go home early, so the 5min break was the only official break for long shift. They class drink breaks, toilet, walking around breaks from the computer. They were quite hostile to the 5min break request.

Company sickness procedure is standard one, I read it and it said 3 months sick leave with full pay with doctors medical note, then its reduced or SSP.

That is not a standard sick pay, standard sick pay is SSP from the start so they have a pretty good sick pay.

It's upto you, if she has stress/depression then speak to the dr and get help, if she is just wanting to go on the sick because of homelife pressures then that is obviously wrong.

So techincally she has the time off but I would have thought they are not allowed to force her to have that at the end of the day and if she requested it for the around the lunch time they can't refuse this (someone will confirm or deny this I am sure), however if it is engrained into everyone in that company doing this change is far from easy and could cause unwanted hassle

SueC_2

I think your daughter needs to give some serious thought to what she wants, and then balance this against what it is reasonable to expect in return. From your posts above it seems:

• She wants to either reduce her hours, or stop working altogether, but doesn't want it to affect her employment record.

• She wants to go part-time, but doesn't want it to affect her income.

• She wants to move into her own place, currently has no way of funding this, but still wants to reduce her hours at work.

• She wants to work through her lunch break so she can leave work early, but wants to be given an additional 5 minute break to eat her lunch.

In every case, what she wants and doesn't want are fairly mutually exclusive. This may sound harsh, but she needs to accept that there are choices to be made, but no choice comes without a cost. In each case, only she can decide whether the cost is one worth paying. She may well benefit from some kind of counselling to help her work this through.