Advice on sickness and notice

farmerboy

Hi this is for a friend who works for the council in social services on home visits.

She has been signed off sick yesterday with work related stress, and has been looking for work elsewhere. Can she put her notice in whilst on sick leave?

Also does she have to put her current employer as a reference?

Personally I cannot see her being signed back fit to work in this job, they have a manager who couldn't manage her way out of a paper bag, they are understaffed by 50% (3 employed for a job needing 6) The manager has allowed 2 to have hoilday over the xmas period at the same time leaving 1 to cover the 2 weeks alone. The cause of the stress was brought up 3 months ago and was dealt with for a couple of weeks and then let get back to how it was before, thus causing the current situation.

nicolascowen

You can resign from a job at any time but when you can terminate your employment will depend on your contract and employer. In terms of previous employer as a reference you don't have to offer this information but if you do most employers now are very vague about what they write in references such as start and finish date and reason for leaving, however they may put in sickness record.

SarEl

Councils are rarely vague about what they put in references (including sickness) - and social services are never vague about anything because they are legally required to give very detailed references.

Putting aside management issues, which are hard to comment on with little detail, social services departments across the country are understaffed and it is getting worse. Unless your friend is talking about moving away from this work entirely, it isn't going to be any different anywhere else. I would suggest stopping and thinking this through before rushing in.

farmerboy

SarEl wrote: »

Councils are rarely vague about what they put in references (including sickness) - and social services are never vague about anything because they are legally required to give very detailed references.

Putting aside management issues, which are hard to comment on with little detail, social services departments across the country are understaffed and it is getting worse. Unless your friend is talking about moving away from this work entirely, it isn't going to be any different anywhere else. I would suggest stopping and thinking this through before rushing in.

Thanks for that, she's looking at things away from SS, and something with more structured hours. This has been coming for a while, and she has done alot of thinking about what she wants.

If this job was what it was made out to be in the interview, she wouldn't have a problem. Its also to a stage where she doesn't trust the management to keep to their word.