Leave due to stress affect future chances?

Summerweather

Hi,

I would appreciate people's views and advice on the following.

I have worked for a public sector organisation for just over two years. In my first year my manager was both incompetent and work shy, messed up a number of projects, went through a disciplinary and eventually resigned last June. The whole process took about nine months and during that time the atmosphere in the team was difficult and sometimes even abusive. Senior managers often asked me and a colleague to perform my former manager's responsibilities and we did so without complaint and with no extra pay.

In March last year my mum, who lived abroad, died very suddenly in a house fire. I worked from home the day before I flew to Ontario and finished off tasks and prepared a hand-over document for colleagues. That same day the same senior manager who required me to perform my manager's work contacted me at home and asked me to return as soon as possible because I was the only person in my capacity. I did not think anything of it at the time but for the last few months it has felt inappropriate and insensitive.

Back at work I continued on with various projects and, after my boss left last June, a colleague and I managed the department until a new manager arrived. My work load was too much, often requiring ten to 12 hour days. I reported this to my senior manager, who listened, said she disagreed with me, and did not respond or initiate any changes. The woman who had my job previously and who moved into another team made the same comments and said due to one aspect of the job (dealing with the media) it was easy to get overloaded.

The new manager is good. We have had an internal restructuring and two teams are now one. However, I am now subject to demands to produce work immediately and meet other staff members' requirements without any notice. I have multiple projects to juggle. I have talked to my manager about this and she said she would address it but hasn't. She is also now friends with one woman who I find particularly hard to work with (as do other members of the group) because she manages to produce as little as possible, earns a lot more than others, and somehow convinces people she is always busy. Another colleague has qualifications in languages, knows nothing about marketing, and relies on me to help her, and issues demands when I don't.

When I have raised concerns about these two staff members in particular I have arrived the next day at work to be completely ignored by the whole senior management team - basically shut out.

I pulled myself through a bit of a depression last summer after my mum's death, and managed various aspects of her estate at a distance - including a challenge by a wayward brother.

I will add that other members of this organisation are under pressure too due to various work plans and public sector cuts. Also, I will add that I have been very successful in this post, achieving enviable results and outputs with the tiniest budget and minimal support and help. I get a buzz out of the core work and am good at it. I am respected by people in partner organisations, but lately have done things I would never do before, like forget to email people about the cancellation of a meeting (so they drove miles and discovered it was cancelled. I was mortified.)

I feel burned out; I feel myself heading back to that place I was in last July when I felt low and sometimes angry. I would like time off work. I don't really know if it is stress or depression to be honest. I am actively looking for another job but feel a bit desperate and feel ill at the thought of going to work.

It I take time off for stress or even bereavement (which would seem odd to senior managers as it is over a year since my mum died) would it affect my chances of finding other work? Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks.

teabelly

Simple answer is yes. If you go off with stress you'll get the attitude like you see on here that there is something wrong with just you and you must be weak or lazy or whatever. That attitude is unfortunately ignorant but it seems to be quite common.

Keep looking for another job. Keep out of the way of the people you don't like. If people want things from you and it isn't part of your job put them on the bottom of the pile. Do all the important stuff and leave the rest.

Getting forgetful, doing things out of character and mood swings are all classic signs of stress.

You need to look after yourself first so no more overtime or keep it to no more than an hour per day no more than a few days per week until you feel better. If you still feel bad keep cutting back on the hours until you are doing just your contracted hours. Don't take work home or answer any work related phone calls or emails while you are at home. Keep speaking to your manager and asking her what she is going to do about the situation. If she can't or won't then you have to go above her head but you may find that sours your working relationship. I think this is already happening so I think I'd just keep my head down until you find something else.

If you have holiday available then try and take that - maybe a few Fridays or Mondays in a row so you get a longer weekend for a while.

SarEl

Technically the answer is no. In reality, since all employers are tightening up on sickness absence, the answer is yes.

But taking time off sick is not an answer anyway, and you know it isn't. The same problems, and possibly more of them, will still be there when you return to work, as you will have to do. If you have grounds to complain about the way you are being treated, then the answer is to raise a grievance, not to go off sick.

debtfreenewbie

There are a number of people in similar positons on here. Have you seen your gp?There are tablets that can help or even over the counter, I take Kalms when Im feeling on the edge.
It is difficult to be in this position,my husband is about to hand in his notice after 15 years due to health and I have told him not to put that in his letter. He needs to protect his reference. It is not an easy decision, especially in this climate so I wish you all the luck. If you are in a position to ingnore calls, finish earlier then do it.
Take a deep breathe.....

teabelly

You can raise a grievance but they're not always tackled which leaves you with the same situation and an employer that now wants rid of you as you've rocked the boat. Even when people go off sick and adjustments should be made they can be ignored as again employers invariably believe it is always the individual's fault they're off sick rather than something wrong with the way they're doing things. The public sector is particularly adept at pretending everything is ok even when multiple people are off sick with stress and others complain of the same problems.

ellie101

Summerweather wrote: »

It I take time off for stress or even bereavement (which would seem odd to senior managers as it is over a year since my mum died) would it affect my chances of finding other work? Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks.

I am sorry to hear about your mum. I took a couple of weeks off with stress a few years ago.

Can't really go into too much detail on a public forum as not meant to talk about my company.

But at the time, for a few years my mother had been ill, then she became terminal. Work got worse and worse.

To be honest, while the union sympathised with me, my bosses were legally entitled in the way things had been handled (even though it could be said it was done badly). In your case though, I'd definitely explore options about making things more formal, as in a grievance as the poster above says (I had that option but decided not to as the chance of redundancies came up, and I knew I could probably leave that way).

I did get offered another job at a later date and I was honest about the time off (it was a public sector job I was offered). I explained fully why...I said I was working long hours (which I was), trying to juggle taking care of a terminally ill relative and those circumstances had now changed and I had a good overall work record. I did not say anything negative about my managers.

Out of all the perm jobs I went for that was the only one that asked for details of my time off, but that may be because the field I'm in often doesn't check.

I would explore other options if possible before taking time off as the job market is dire but if it gets to the point where you feel too ill then I'd definitely go your GP. Yes, time off isn't great but neither is depression/stress.

Doctors see it all the time, good luck.

SarEl

teabelly wrote: »

You can raise a grievance but they're not always tackled which leaves you with the same situation and an employer that now wants rid of you as you've rocked the boat. Even when people go off sick and adjustments should be made they can be ignored as again employers invariably believe it is always the individual's fault they're off sick rather than something wrong with the way they're doing things. The public sector is particularly adept at pretending everything is ok even when multiple people are off sick with stress and others complain of the same problems.

True - a grievance may be a double-edged sword. But equally, if you do not make any formal complaint about things are are wrong, then you cannot later rely on your word that these things have happened. It really depends on the extent to which someone feels that what is wrong ought to be tackled. Whether or not it is. And it is also the case that employers may be more wary of those that do complain than those that don't. They are just as likley to back off pressing an issue with someone who is known to raise grievances than to use them against them. It's a judgement call which nobody but the OP can make. But taking sick leave isn't an answer, either way.

Tigsteroonie

You say you work for a public sector organisation. Do you have welfare officers, or a welfare section of HR, that you could turn to for advice?

In my last civil service job, I had two month-long periods off work. The most recent one was classed as general anxiety disorder (threat of closure/redundancy) and I undertook some CBT to help me cope with the situation. The first one was due to work-related stress (unachievable workload & conflicting priorities), and the Welfare Officer acted as a negotiator between me and management to discuss and improve the situation, giving me the confidence to return to work.

bristol_pilot

Going off with stress (or indeed any type of sickness, but especially stress) will certainly harm your employment prospects. Especially if you were 'signed off' by a doctor. People will either think you are lazy, too precious to do an honest day's hard graft or not completely recovered from your stress - meaning you will go off with stress again with the new employer and hand them a lawsuit or something.

Why not just take some annual leave for a break, then start looking for another job in the usual way - career development will look much better than stress! It is quite common for employers to ask these days how many days sick you have taken in the past 2 years and there is only one right answer - zero.

Summerweather

Hi, thanks for your responses, which have been helpful and give me a lot to think about.

Yes, I do work for the public sector, a small organisation attached to an RDA. Like others here I don't want to go into a lot of detail because I don't want to be identifiable. However, it's very small and there is no HR - things are expected to be managed by one's line manager.

I have raised concerns about these issues and have been told they would be dealt with and they aren't. I know that the board of directors has concerns about the very high turnover in the company - we've had nine people leave in the last two years and there's just a staff of 14!

I don't take this decision lightly at all and thoroughly understand what the job market is like out there. That's why I am so concerned. Equally, I am concerned about how I feel and some of my behaviour (forgetfulness, apathy) and realise I need to look after myself. I'm not sure that dealing with full blown depression or some kind of breakdown would look good to a future employer either.

SarEl

bristol_pilot wrote: »

It is quite common for employers to ask these days how many days sick you have taken in the past 2 years and there is only one right answer - zero.

Quite right - it is common these days. But it won't be from 1st October because it will be illegal!!! After that date, it is more likely that OH assessments will be used as part of recruitment processes, and certain things act as flags on OH assessments. Stress is one of them. So the changes are not a get out of jail free card for sickness absence - but assessments for recruitment purposes must be based on medical grounds, not unqualified assumptions, or employers could be facing new claims over recruitment processes being discriminatory or unfair.