'woman in work' rant!!!

azjh77

This is a bit of a vent, but not sure where to put it.

Next Tuesday our resident 'invisible woman' returns to work. She is called this as we only see her for 6 months of the year, she has been 'ill' since Christmas. I say ill, actually she couldn't have a days holiday, phoned in sick and we've not seen her since. Funnily enough she was 'ill' the previous xmas and was off for 6 months (on full pay) Actually in 5 years she has NEVER worked a Christmas. She's coming back on the 29th as then she gets a full months money for June - a month during which she has booked a holiday.

Why does this annoy me so much? My Mother works with me in the same office. Last year she had cancer and was off for her treatment (she came back in at Christmas as she knew we'd be short) She didn't recieve full pay as she has not worked there long enough. When she returned she asked:-
'wheres IW?'
'oh she had to have an operation on Saturday, she's in hospital '
'no she's not, I saw her in town on Saturday'

As she always has sick notes nothing can be done. But my Mum is particulary bitter after the following incidents:- IW brought in some BNP material and showed it to one of the girls in our office (who happens to be a Muslim) and said my Mum had given it to her..this caused loads of ill feeling and my Mum wasn't there to defend herself (works part-time) When my Mum came in the next day everyone was really funny with her and she was taken into the office for a 'telling off'. The IW then told one of the girls she had bone cancer and would need Fridays off for her appointments - she now denies she ever said this. (Obviously having had cancer my Mum is VERY annoyed that anyone would lie about this!) The IW had 4 weeks off when her Mum died, and yet one of the girls answered a phone a few months later and it was IW's Mum!!! And then of course there was the Brother who died in 9/11 and she once got another woman into trouble; 2 of the girls were discussing cancer, has her Grandad had developed it, and IW -who was not even part of the conversation- ran off crying to our manager. Apparently her Dad had died of it and it was decreed no-one was allowed to use the C word in her presence. She has reported 2 managers (one, a man for sexual harrassment! she wishes!)

Oh and the best one...she is off with a 'bad leg/stress' and yet one of the girls heard he on the radio the other morning talking about the pole in her bedroom which uses to dance round to improve her sex life!

The problem now is, she could be seriously ill and no-one would belive her. No-one will talk to her when she gets back, as she has recived all the vouchers/christmas wine/easter eggs etc that we have been given for working hard, while she was sat at home being paid for doing nothing. She will no doubt claim she is being victimised and sue us all !!!

Anyway, I have been moved to the desk opposite her so I am not happy!!! As you can no doubt tell. Anyway, thanks for letting me get this off my chest...I'll fill you in if there is a full one fight between her and my mum. We're on holiday next week so we miss her return, but after that we will see how it goes.....

azjh77

To make this a 'money saving issue' What are other peoples pay policies for long term sick? I was off for a few weeks after a skin cancer scare/operation on my foot and lost £100 as I only get 3/4 pay. We have a FAM system (Frequent Absence Monitoring) 3 instances of illnesses and you're on it. I was off for a day - sent home actually- in January, with a bad tooth, had 4 weeks after my operation, and have to go back in for another operation, that will be 3 instances so I get FAMmed, whereas if I stayed off for 6 months, that counts as 1 instance.....

alwaysonthego_2

I use to work with a loopy woman. We were working in a care home I was manager of the adjoining day centre and she was a senior carer in the home. I was helping the home out and caught this woman just about to use the wrong blood monitoring needle on the wrong client. She was bout to reuse the same needle that had previously been used on someone with mrsa. I quickly stopped her and reported her, infact she was promoted shortly after.

scheming_gypsy

find out when her birthday is and arrange a surprise party, invite the managers and do some digging so you can invite her mum, dad and brother.

When all these dead relatives turn up and get introduced to the managers her cards will be pretty marked for taking unauthorised absences.

Sagaris

Same as our place - I had 3 instances of sickness absence and was due to be 'hauled over the coals' for it - a sort of disciplinary hearing where you have to justify the reasons for your absence in front of your manager and a personnel officer! One of the instances was something very, very personal to me and I didn't want it discussing for all and sundry to judge (my manager is the biggest gossip ever and it would soon have been common knowledge in the office) so I walked out and told them to get stuffed!
I never had the disciplinary - the union got involved and said it amounted to victimisation!
Although my employer says they are doing it to make the company more efficient and cut down on staff absences.

azjh77

When I was in hospital last year (high dependency unit, 5 people died out of the 6 beds!!!) My boss phoned my husband twice and I had to phone from hospital before I was 'allowed' the week off...like I had a choice.!

SnowyOwl_2

To the OP, as far as I am aware, as this woman is on sick leave, and element of her pay will consist of statutory sickness pay. Therefore if she is not genuinely sick then she is fraudulently receiving sickness benefit. Sickness benefit is actually claimed by the employer and it is passed on to the employee via their salary payments. Drop her in the sh*t I say...

BTW these "return to work" interviews really really annoy me too. I work with the public and had flu twice and a really bad cold once during my first three months there. I only took two lots of sickness because I was genuinely unfit for work, but I lost six days pay as the first three days of any period of illness are unpaid. IMO I got the cold and then the flu because of working with the public, but tough t!tty to me, I lost the pay. Then my employers had the cheek to give me a warning about sickness as well.

paddy's_mum

azjh77 - how many people both work in the office in question AND have had experience of this woman's fanciful/spiteful/dishonest behaviour or tales?

If there are even only four of you, by getting together and going very calmly to management and stating your case, they cannot subsequently say that any single one of you is a causer of trouble should the resentment erupt into the workplace.

It may just serve to put IW on notice that her behaviour has been both noted and disapproved of. United we stand and all that ....

Errata

OP - it may be that the woman has serious mental health problems and management don't know how to handle things. I agree with paddys mum and would also suggest that if those of you who work closely with the woman are being stressed and made anxious by the woman's behaviour you draw that to the attention of the management as employers have responsibility to ensure their workplace does not compromise employees health

misty

azjh77 wrote: »

This is a bit of a vent, but not sure where to put it.

Next Tuesday our resident 'invisible woman' returns to work. She is called this as we only see her for 6 months of the year, she has been 'ill' since Christmas. I say ill, actually she couldn't have a days holiday, phoned in sick and we've not seen her since. Funnily enough she was 'ill' the previous xmas and was off for 6 months (on full pay) Actually in 5 years she has NEVER worked a Christmas. She's coming back on the 29th as then she gets a full months money for June - a month during which she has booked a holiday.

Why does this annoy me so much? My Mother works with me in the same office. Last year she had cancer and was off for her treatment (she came back in at Christmas as she knew we'd be short) She didn't recieve full pay as she has not worked there long enough. When she returned she asked:-
'wheres IW?'
'oh she had to have an operation on Saturday, she's in hospital '
'no she's not, I saw her in town on Saturday'

As she always has sick notes nothing can be done. But my Mum is particulary bitter after the following incidents:- IW brought in some BNP material and showed it to one of the girls in our office (who happens to be a Muslim) and said my Mum had given it to her..this caused loads of ill feeling and my Mum wasn't there to defend herself (works part-time) When my Mum came in the next day everyone was really funny with her and she was taken into the office for a 'telling off'. The IW then told one of the girls she had bone cancer and would need Fridays off for her appointments - she now denies she ever said this. (Obviously having had cancer my Mum is VERY annoyed that anyone would lie about this!) The IW had 4 weeks off when her Mum died, and yet one of the girls answered a phone a few months later and it was IW's Mum!!! And then of course there was the Brother who died in 9/11 and she once got another woman into trouble; 2 of the girls were discussing cancer, has her Grandad had developed it, and IW -who was not even part of the conversation- ran off crying to our manager. Apparently her Dad had died of it and it was decreed no-one was allowed to use the C word in her presence. She has reported 2 managers (one, a man for sexual harrassment! she wishes!)

Oh and the best one...she is off with a 'bad leg/stress' and yet one of the girls heard he on the radio the other morning talking about the pole in her bedroom which uses to dance round to improve her sex life!

The problem now is, she could be seriously ill and no-one would belive her. No-one will talk to her when she gets back, as she has recived all the vouchers/christmas wine/easter eggs etc that we have been given for working hard, while she was sat at home being paid for doing nothing. She will no doubt claim she is being victimised and sue us all !!!

Anyway, I have been moved to the desk opposite her so I am not happy!!! As you can no doubt tell. Anyway, thanks for letting me get this off my chest...I'll fill you in if there is a full one fight between her and my mum. We're on holiday next week so we miss her return, but after that we will see how it goes.....

Could I ask where you live? This sounds exactly like someone I knew - down to the 9/11/cancer etc but the person I knew also claimed to have lost relatives in tsunami disaster.

izoomzoom

We have this 3 sick instances within a 6 month rolling period and you are hauled in.

However, the policy is more to curb occassional days being taken then genuine sicknesses that lasted a couple of days or weeks (in some cases).

Notwithstanding though, it is amazing how peoples attendence improves during their 'probabtionary period' thereafter, only to slip again when they are past the probation period.