Fired for faking sick day?

ILW

dori2o wrote: »

I would have simply asked them when and where the did their degree to become a Health care Professional.

If a Dr has signed someone off sick, but has stated that that person needs to exercise, the employer is in no position to dictate what that exercise should be. It's about time employers butted out when proper medical advice has already been sought.

Fine, as long as they are not expected to go on paying.

SarEl

ruggedtoast wrote: »

A guy at work has been off for a few days. He has had his out of office on saying he's sick. He generally has a very good reputation I think, and is a nice guy.

Then today an email goes out from a manager saying he is leaving with immediate effect, and won't be back. No explanation given.

Someone else then tells me he's been seen by other people enjoying days out with his family, and has obviously been faking the sick days to get the time off.

He is a family man kind of guy who has a mortgage and kids, so probably hasn't run off backpacking in Nepal. Putting 2 & 2 together he's been canned for faking his sick days.

Is this possible? I thought you'd get a warning or something, or a lot of warnings, but my wife who worked in HR said it would basically be instant gross misconduct; the same as groping or punching a colleague.

Just while I am stopping by, and not wishing to rain on the parade of people who think nobody should be sick or get sick pay (or work in the public sector)... but this is all conjecture! Anywone in the IT department (and probably several other people at least) can put on an out of office message, and just because it says something doesn't mean it is true! He could have been suspended for something else and this was the cover story. He could have won the lottery and told his manager where to shove the job (and now be happily backpacking in Nepal, from where I have, incidentally, recently returned!). There are two facts here. He used to work there. Now he doesn't.

starrystarry

SarEl wrote: »

Just while I am stopping by, and not wishing to rain on the parade of people who think nobody should be sick or get sick pay (or work in the public sector)... but this is all conjecture! Anywone in the IT department (and probably several other people at least) can put on an out of office message, and just because it says something doesn't mean it is true! He could have been suspended for something else and this was the cover story. He could have won the lottery and told his manager where to shove the job (and now be happily backpacking in Nepal, from where I have, incidentally, recently returned!). There are two facts here. He used to work there. Now he doesn't.

Gosh, are you back? Or is this an imposter?

Valli

dori2o wrote: »

I would have simply asked them when and where the did their degree to become a Health care Professional.

If a Dr has signed someone off sick, but has stated that that person needs to exercise, the employer is in no position to dictate what that exercise should be. It's about time employers butted out when proper medical advice has already been sought.

Well said.

My dad was off work sick not (not long before he was due to retire actually) with pneumonia. Properly diagnosed shadow-on-the-lung, raging temperature etc. BUT because my mum was at home, and a former nurse to boot he wasn't admitted to hospital; she looked after him at home, changed the bedding in the middle of the night etc.

Some jumped-up jobsworth from the County Council, for whom he worked, had a LOT to say on a home visit to 'check up' on him - and this was his FIRST EVER period of sickness - including doubting the doctor's diagnosis because he wasn't in hospital...

TBH not only was HE better off at home but it also meant the NHS didn't have to isolate him in hospital.

I was NOT impressed.

SarEl

starrystarry wrote: »

Gosh, are you back? Or is this an imposter?

It isn't an imposter, but no - just stopping by to pick up a matter that crossed boards, and happened to find it amusing where this thread had started and where it had gone!

seven-day-weekend

Daedalus wrote: »

The thing is a lot of recruiters I have spoken to all come out with the same line 'Employers prefer candidates who are already working'. Yet how do they expect candidates who works office hours to come to an interview during office hours without a really nice boss or the more likely skiving.

Take leave?

Taiko

Didn't see anything in the thread, but how long had this person been working in the public sector?

iwb100

The attitude to sickness absence in this country is all wrong. We should be encouraging people with colds and flu to stay at home and IF well enough and possible, work from home, OR if not take sick leave until recovered.

People feeling under pressure to come in spreads the disease around and ends up costing more. There is quite a bit of analysis to show this.

Its entirely possible for someone to have 8 separate sickness incidents and not be faking it. In that case the employer should look at how they can facilitate that persons needs and also referring to occupational health for a full assessment to see what can be done.

I had a member of staff with severe asthma and about 1 time every 2 months they'd have a severe attack during the night, and would struggle into work the next day but only last a few hours through lack of sleep and generally feeling unwell still. I got them assessed by occupational health and through that process determined that part of the problem was that since they used public transport to get into work and it involved a walk up a hill in the morning, after they had suffered an attack this was likely to make the situation worse.

So we arranged for them to either work from home the day after suffering a bad attack OR to pay for a taxi to pick them up and drop them off so that they did not make the situation worse before they arrived in work.

As a result this persons productivity is 50% higher than previously and their overall performance has gone through the roof. Primarily because they feel valued and think their employer has improved their overall life.

Very small thing for an employer to do, very big thing for the employee.

C_Mababejive

Just to add further..if i am off sick,my company has a facility to take money out of my wages and give it to someone else who covers for me. This amount could vary between £60 and £120 per occasion so if someone covered for two days when i was off sick,they could get their base pay for those two days plus £60 gross per day=£120 gross in the least case scenario

PurplePow

I do find it funny in the NHS they used to say don't come into work when you're feeling ill to stop the spread of bugs in hospitals. But, if you were off on 2 occasions in 1 year it was an occ health referral and disciplinary note on your file.

This meant a colleague of mine, who had already been absent twice for broken foot and other sickness, then had to come into work one day with a really bad cold as she couldn't be off sick again. The managers could see she was ill, but didn't care.

Loads of people ended up coming down with the bug and being off ill, there was a week or 2 of being extremely short staffed and stressed, lots of work went undone!