Time off for bereavement?

Oldernotwiser

Uncertain wrote: »

The doctor's first (and legal) duty is to the patient. If, in his professional opinion, it is in his patient's best interest to refrain from work then he is quite entitled to issue a certificate.

You could argue that unless somebody is actually physically incapable of doing any work at all (e.g. in a coma) then it is always a debatable judgement call. Given that the GP will have had around ten years medical training and I suspect you have none I know who's opinion I would value.

You seem to be ignoring the fact that doctors now issue fit notes rather than sick notes.

The purpose of these is to indicate what work you are capable to do and you'll notice in the link that they talk about "illness", "accident" and "getting well" rather than "being unhappy", "upset" and "grieving".

http://www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/2584.aspx

As you'll see from this next link, bereavement is specifically forbidden to be used as a reason not to be at work on a fit note.

http://www.healthyworkinguk.co.uk/documents/healthyworkingukfitnotefaq.pdf

Slinky

When my grannie died, my mum (her daughter) wasn't allowed to take the day off for the funeral. :eek:

As mum worked part time in the afternoons and the funeral was in the morning she had to go in to work.

Uncertain

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

As you'll see from this next link, bereavement is specifically forbidden to be used as a reason not to be at work on a fit note.

But the consequences of it (e.g. stress / depression / anxiety) are all perfectly valid reasons.

And no, I am not forgetting that they now issue "fit notes". It is still perfectly possible for the doctor to advise that the person should refrain from work. The "fit" option is merely that, another option to use when appropriate.

moremore

Slinky wrote: »

When my grannie died, my mum (her daughter) wasn't allowed to take the day off for the funeral. :eek:

As mum worked part time in the afternoons and the funeral was in the morning she had to go in to work.

So my employers are not the only dogs with no feelings. What happen to me was last year what era was your mum's in when her lovely employers did this to her.......

hcb42

I can only imagine those who think this is a cut and shut policy have not had to live through it.

I took 2.5 weeks off when my mum died, although 1.5 weeks was sick.

after dad died, I took 6 days off. his funeral was on the sixth day. When was 3 days ever enough I dont know.

I went back to work on the 7th.

Oldernotwiser

hcb42 wrote: »

I can only imagine those who think this is a cut and shut policy have not had to live through it.

I took 2.5 weeks off when my mum died, although 1.5 weeks was sick.

after dad died, I took 6 days off. his funeral was on the sixth day. When was 3 days ever enough I dont know.

I went back to work on the 7th.

To a great extent it depends on the situation. Having a parent die unexpectedly in his/her forties is a very different situation from having an elderly parent die after a long illness.

hcb42

exactly, so why do we have 4 pages telling others what to do then

Fluffi

Acc72 wrote: »

But this does not work in practice and causes more ill feeling and resentment amongst the staff.

It is surely better to have a policy for this type of thing.

Surely it is the managers job to manage the staff properly - i.e. to reward the good employees and to properly manage those who under perform, and not to use an example such as bereavement leave to reward good employees or to effectively punish less regarded employees.

I'd be pretty miffed if there was a completely flat policy that treated my compassionate leave request (and paid sick leave - which is discretionary at my place) exactly that same as my colleagues that don't work extra (unpaid) hours and spend time chatting during the day.

Being flexible with compassionate leave is one of the few non-pay increase or non-bonus methods that a manager can reward their better employees who've worked consistently well over the months/years.

Just because an employer "rewards" good employees that have already put more into the work "pot" by granting a few extra days doesn't mean they are "punishing" the workers that do less work. Its more a case of the good people getting out what they put in.

Acc72

Fluffi wrote: »

I'd be pretty miffed if there was a completely flat policy that treated my compassionate leave request (and paid sick leave - which is discretionary at my place) exactly that same as my colleagues that don't work extra (unpaid) hours and spend time chatting during the day.

I assume that you are coming from the viewpoint at the employee who does not chat all day and works unpaid overtime and therefore would feel entitled to additional paid absences for sickness and bereavement?

But this is just back to front management - in fact it is not management at all !

The issue is that some employees are chatting and other employees work additional unpaid overtime - it is these issues that the managers should be addressing and managing at source.

At the moment, the manager is getting away with not managing effectively by sweetening employees of their choice with additional days paid absences.

But this does not solve the issue or remove resentment amongst the staff.

eg. you may be resentful of your chatting / non overtime colleagues, and then they are resentful if you get extra paid sick leave.

This then just results in a negative cycle whereby the staff then become so resentful that they chat more and work less overtime, which then makes the other staff who don't chat and work overtime more resentful etc etc.

Oldernotwiser

hcb42 wrote: »

exactly, so why do we have 4 pages telling others what to do then

Probably because the OP isn't talking about the death of a family member.