Colleague off sick due to 'stress' when she is partying

jennikitten

Don't print out anything at work - most places will track who's printing what.

scooby088

OP how petty you want to grass up a colleague at least have the bottle to put your name to accusations and if you don't like it remove her from your facebook. Plus if she is signed off work by a doctor then surely that should be between her and your employer. Not the subject of gossip by you and your colleagues.

scooby088

boliston wrote: »

Anyone who starts posting on Facebook when they are off sick is simply stupid and deserves to be sacked - I have no sympathy.

Especially when you have work colleagues who are jealous and may want to grass you up.

Never add anyone you work with to facebook simple rule but effective.

kwmlondon

Well, I've never had to take any time of work for stress. However, there are times I've felt very pressured. I cope by going to the gym and doing some exercise, I cycle to and from work so that helps. I try to get out, see friends, have a lovely meal out with a partner - forget about work for a while and then I can come back refreshed.

If your colleague has been signed off work for stress and is out having a good time with friends and family then there's no reason to think it's not a good way of sorting the stress out.

If it was a back problem or migraines then it would be different.

On the subject of sick time, your employer should be applying something like Bradford Factor to apply a formula to someone's sick leave patter. If someone takes a number of Mondays and or Fridays off they get flagged up http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradford_Factor It's more sophisticated than just totting up the number of sick days as you could be unlucky and get salmonella and be off for three weeks, but someone else who takes the odd Monday or Friday will get picked up as the pattern is more suspect.

At the end of the day it's your employer's responsibility to deal with it, annoying as it is for you. If you get drawn into a messy situation it may end up being more of a pain for you than it's worth (this kind of stuff is deeply unpleasant and what HR people get paid to deal with) - keep the moral high ground, make a complaint if staffing levels mess up your ability to take holiday and you'll be seen as one of the reliable, reasonable and desirable people by senior staff.

paulineb_2

Ive suffered from work related stress in years gone by and I was also encouraged by my GP to go out. Its isolating enough as it is suffering from work related stress or depression, being in all the time and staring at 4 walls really isnt productive

And no, I wasnt out on the booze and clubbing, but if someone had asked me out for a drink or a meal then Id have gone.

The stress is work related and to be honest the times I did have stress I was quite ill, because nothing was getting resolved in the workplace so I knew I would have the issues to deal with and more when I went back

My view is, she is being daft posting this all over fb because its just giving someone ammunition against her, but unless you know the real truth about how she is and whether she is ill or not, tread carefully.

Because she may end up disciplined/sacked and she has a responsibility towards her employer, but her kids are in the middle of all of this, 3 kids under 7 and you are starting a chain of events that might end up with her being sacked?

If you ever go off with stress, real stress and I know that some people do swing the lead, the last thing you need is people snooping and checking up on you when you are unwell and you feel like your life is falling to bits

My GP encouraged me to exercise, in fact he was insistent that I did, but I had low self confidence at that point and it took me a while, but I ended up signing up for a GP referral to my local gym and made use of that.

Absolutely no way did my GP say to me, you have stress and you need to stay in, thats totally unrealistic.

Oh, Id also say, if you do shop her, have the courage to put your name to it.

Cycrow

At a place i used to work, there was someone who took time off with stress every summer and every christmas. In the summer they usually had a 1 book off and would take the few weeks before and after off with stress.

It ment that over the christmas period, the busiest time of the year, there were less staff around, which made it more difficult and had to put up with constant moaning from customers due to lack of staff.

And some people (including me) couldn't take time off during the summer due to there being no one to cover

luckily she was eventually fired

unfortuatlly some people just use it as an excuse to get extra time off work

FBaby

I totally disagree with saying that it is ok to have fun outside of home when signed off for work related stress. It is not because of the stress itself that you get signed off, it is because of the effect that stress has on your life, as in it makes you feel so ill that you can't continue with your work. If you are getting that ill, then going out having fun shouldn't be a possibility.

The problem is that people beg their GPs to sign them off for stress just because they find it very difficult to cope at work, not being they have reached the stage when they are ill with it and GPs do it because they can't be bothered to argue with the patient, or to ruin their patient-clinician relationship.

bargainbetty

I was signed off for approx two weeks due to stress-related illness. My doctor quite specifically told me not to sit at home staring at the wall, but to go away for a few days to wherever I could afford and relax. Have some fun, even, because it would help me more than sitting, stewing over things.

Then again, I have a lovely doctor.

dori2o

FBaby wrote: »

I totally disagree with saying that it is ok to have fun outside of home when signed off for work related stress. It is not because of the stress itself that you get signed off, it is because of the effect that stress has on your life, as in it makes you feel so ill that you can't continue with your work. If you are getting that ill, then going out having fun shouldn't be a possibility.

The problem is that people beg their GPs to sign them off for stress just because they find it very difficult to cope at work, not being they have reached the stage when they are ill with it and GPs do it because they can't be bothered to argue with the patient, or to ruin their patient-clinician relationship.

What a load of absolute rubbish.

I've had diagnosed depression and stress related illness now for about 5 years.

both my GP and my therapist urge me all the time to get oput of the house and do something different. I find it difficult to do this because of my chronic pain condition which is the reason I suffer from stress/depression.

After my first attempt at suicide my therapist insisted that I take a break and have a few days away with my wife and kids. Essentially he gave me a (hypothetical) prescription, and the medication was a holiday.

It's probably the best thing I did as it almost immediately lifted a lot of the weight that was keeping me down.

I was at the time on sickness leave, not due to that, but because of my disability.

Had I shut myself off, stayed in the house and not gone on the 4 night break, it's likely I wouldn't be here.

fishybusiness

It is not because of the stress itself that you get signed off, it is because of the effect that stress has on your life, as in it makes you feel so ill that you can't continue with your work.

Can't continue with work, and many other things in life too. Often people stop looking after themselves, they spend too much money, stop caring as much in general.

The road to recovery necessitates taking time out. Time out means many things, getting re acquainted with ones self, remembering what it is like to talk to friends that may have become strangers, maybe not going to work for a while, maybe changing job or career.

Whichever way, symptoms of stress can begin to be alleviated by laughter, or fun as you call it.

So why not?

The problem is that people beg their GPs to sign them off for stress just because they find it very difficult to cope at work

Why do you think people beg their GP's for a sick note? If indeed they do so.

Ah yes, just because they find it difficult to cope at work.

What is the next step from finding it difficult to cope? Not coping?

It can get quite serious from there, especially if someone has children and a mortgage.

Come on, some people surely take the p***, many do not.