Bradford Factor - Your opinion?

tomtontom

JWIOW wrote: »

Yes, they were individual days - I am not a drinker at all, therefore this is certainly not a 'hangover' problem as suggested by some of the above users.
I am generally quite a well person, however occasionally get short periods of dizzyness and sickness for a few hours that then pass. My doctor is currently investigating why this is, however advised me that the day this happens should be taken off and an appointment booked with them, as it could just be flu which obviously I don't want to pass on - best to not risk it.
Each of the days I have had off sick due to this, I have also accompanied this with an appointment letter provided by the doctor for each time.

I feel that I should only take the one day off as I am committed to my work and do not want the rest of the team to pick up the slack.

Now it seems that if I had just taken off longer periods of time, it would have given me the same score. This seems as though it encourages people to take longer periods of time off sick.

Overall, I think if the employer is understanding of a situation and speaks to their employees about any problems there should be no need for this kind of system at all.

If you truly had flu you'd be ill for more than a few hours!

RuthnJasper

tomtontom wrote: »

If you truly had flu you'd be ill for more than a few hours!

I agree with Tom - I've had "proper" 'flu twice in my life and it is quite literally a living hell. It wipes you out for a week at the very least and the muscular aches are just as bad as the cold-like ones. Wouldn't wish it on anyone.

Hope your GP is able to get to the root of your problem, OP. Best wishes for the future. x

Gingernutty

the_donchichio wrote: »

After closer inspection the bradford qoutient seems similar to most company policies wherein people with more separate days are penalised and people with less occasions but more days are treated leniently....makes sense as someone with some condition that forces them to miss 5 days in a year is different from the Five separate single days

What about someone with cancer, who has to take individual days off for chemo and/or radiotherapy - that's lots of individual appointments on separate days.

The Bradford Score System makes no distinction between Hangover Harry and Cancer Casey.

tomtontom

Gingernutty wrote: »

What about someone with cancer, who has to take individual days off for chemo and/or radiotherapy - that's lots of individual appointments on separate days.

The Bradford Score System makes no distinction between Hangover Harry and Cancer Casey.

But the Equality Act does make a distinction, and as such the Trust should be looking at how they can adjust their policy accordingly. This is generally done by discounting disability related absence from the calculation, but there are other ways. If a worker feels reasonable adjustments are not being made, they should make a complaint.

the_donchichio

Gingernutty wrote: »

What about someone with cancer, who has to take individual days off for chemo and/or radiotherapy - that's lots of individual appointments on separate days.

The Bradford Score System makes no distinction between Hangover Harry and Cancer Casey.

Obviously a company would be aware of a condition like Cancer and the employee would already have discussed this before hand thus being exempt from any disciplinary action...imagine if someone was sacked due to cancer, the press would have a field day

tomtontom

the_donchichio wrote: »

Obviously a company would be aware of a condition like Cancer and the employee would already have discussed this before hand thus being exempt from any disciplinary action...imagine if someone was sacked due to cancer, the press would have a field day

Having cancer (or any other disability) does not exempt them from disciplinary action - it means adjustments should be made to the disciplinary/ sickness absence policy. People do get dismissed due to absence through disability.

the_donchichio

tomtontom wrote: »

Having cancer (or any other disability) does not exempt them from disciplinary action - it means adjustments should be made to the disciplinary/ sickness absence policy. People do get dismissed due to absence through disability.

I want my last comment stricken from the records due to temporary amnesia

tomtontom

the_donchichio wrote: »

Which in essence is the same thing in the end

Do you have short term memory loss old chap? You have a habit of contradicting yourself in the space of minutes

InsideInsurance

HurdyGurdy wrote: »

They use it where I work, and it seems a silly system to me. If you are penalised for a period of sickness, then that would seem to be encouraging a certain type of person to take more than one day, even if that is all they need to recover.

How does it encourage people to take more days off? If someone is sick 3 times in a year and take 1 day each time they will have a lower score than people who are sick 3 times in a year but take an average of 2 days off - ie 3*3*3 = 27 -v- 3*3*6 = 54

If anything it encourages people to solder on and come in anyway if its borderline on if they are fit to work or not because the extra session of time will have a much greater impact.

Ok, there may be a counter argument that if someone has been genuinely and fairly significantly ill that it may encourage them to take another day off rather than rush back in and risk taking another turn for the worse and having to take another session off but if you are really at the level of sickness that this may be happening then (a) its much rarer and (b) you are almost certainly under the care of a doctor for the condition needing fit notes and they will be involved in the decision on if your best off at work or not

JimmyTheWig

James_B. wrote: »

Of course it doesn't mean that!

Had you taken two days off each time instead of one, then it would have doubled your score.

Imagine you are unwell on a Monday and take the day off.
Feeling just about ok to work on the Tuesday you go in.
Go downhill again and need to take the Wednesday off.
S = 2; D = 2
S x S x D = 8

Alternatively you don't bother to make the effort on Tuesday and take Monday-Wednesday off.
S = 1; D = 3
S x S x D = 3

So the scheme encourages you to take the Tuesday off.


I think it is a reasonable scheme (never heard of it before, I thought the OP meant he was being accused of being involved with recent unpleasant goings on in Bradford!), but should be tweaked that where you would be better off by taking inbetween days off that your score is calculated as if you had taken those days off. So in my example above, both plans would give you a score of 3.