School, sickness, work... Arrggghh

Buzzybee90

j.e.j. wrote: »

Pfft! what planet are you on? I've been ill on and off for a month! Luckily I don't have a nutter of a boss to report to, though.

Unless I can't move I'd go to work.

We don't 'do' days off in my family.

carmina_piranha

Buzzybee90 wrote: »

Unless I can't move I'd go to work.

We don't 'do' days off in my family.

If my child is sent home from school after being sick then somebody has to fetch him! If it's a suspected tummy bug then I couldn't ask a stay at home mum to collect him because he would put her own children at risk of getting the bug.

My mother can have unpaid emergency leave, but when there's caring needed for elderly relatives again you don't want to pass on the bug - or for her to catch it and need time off work unpaid.

The only fair option I can see is that either my husband or I come out of work to collect him and look after him at home. What other option is there? Schools aren't set up to care for a sick child, they are too busy and if a child is poorly enough to need to be in bed then it's not fair on the child to be kept in school.

purpleshoes_2

Buzzybee90 wrote: »

Unless I can't move I'd go to work.

We don't 'do' days off in my family.

You don't have kids that are ill and need collecting though. Different situation entirely.

purpleshoes_2

The bottom line is that there's a family friendly policy that the OP's line manager isn't allowing her to use, I think that's shocking management and speaking as someone who has managed staff in more than one post, if you have a policy that people need to use, it's good practice to let them use it.

cazziebo

purpleshoes wrote: »

The bottom line is that there's a family friendly policy that the OP's line manager isn't allowing her to use, I think that's shocking management and speaking as someone who has managed staff in more than one post, if you have a policy that people need to use, it's good practice to let them use it.

Is it not the case the OP has exhausted the family friendly policy? Or is close to exhausting it so early in the year?The LA allow five days and the OP says "she can't keep taking days off".

Managers have to work within policies, and also have to run their departments. At the same time, colleagues have to take on the extra workload. Very few organisations have any spare resource and unplanned absence can have a huge impact.

Whatever, I do think working parents need a back up plan to cope with minor illness that doesn't involve their own absence from work.

alias*alibi

cazziebo wrote: »

Is it not the case the OP has exhausted the family friendly policy? Or is close to exhausting it so early in the year?The LA allow five days and the OP says "she can't keep taking days off".

Managers have to work within policies, and also have to run their departments. At the same time, colleagues have to take on the extra workload. Very few organisations have any spare resource and unplanned absence can have a huge impact.

Whatever, I do think working parents need a back up plan to cope with minor illness that doesn't involve their own absence from work.

I've had 3 hours FF in over a year; therefore hardly exhausted it! You misread or misunderstood; I've taken days off but had to cover them with A/L or flexi, i.e. make the time up and took work home, despite there being a policy in place that I could had used.

alias*alibi

Buzzybee90 wrote: »

Unless I can't move I'd go to work.

We don't 'do' days off in my family.

So you go to work whilst being ill and infecting all of your colleagues? It doesn't pay to act the martyr.

gettingtheresometime

alias*alibi wrote: »

So you go to work whilst being ill and infecting all of your colleagues? It doesn't pay to act the martyr.

unfortunately full sick pay is now seen as a perk with a lot of people on ssp - so you get zilch for at least 3 days and then a pittance for the other days.

So for a lot of people it does pay to act the martyr

Better_Days

alias*alibi wrote: »

I've had 3 hours FF in over a year; therefore hardly exhausted it! You misread or misunderstood; I've taken days off but had to cover them with A/L or flexi, i.e. make the time up and took work home, despite there being a policy in place that I could had used.

Unless you are very lucky it is inevitable this is going to happen again. The current situation clearly isn't working for either you or your workplace. So be proactive and plan with your partner what you are going to do regarding childcare, and with your manager for covering your work. The workplace element may need to be further managed via HR or your union, if you feel you aren't making headway with your manager in line with the ethos of the FF policy.

If you don't change how you deal with this, nothing will change.

I agree with tea lover

Most working parents appreciate that they also have responsibilities to their employer and colleagues. Everywhere I've worked - including a couple of LAs - have offered FF time to arrange emergency childcare. If the parent is the one to look after the child they have then had to take this time as holiday or unpaid leave. Being given paid time off with no notice for sick dependents is really pretty generous.

snowleopard61

I very much doubt many people other than devoted (and local) grandparents would want to look after someone else's vomiting child. Unless there is an exceptional person such as the poster above, who is considering offering ad hoc paid childcare, I don't know what possible back-up plan there could be.

OP, you have my absolute sympathy. When my children were of school age, my own parents were no longer alive and their only surviving grandparent lived 100 miles away, and I have no brothers or sisters. The only other people I knew in the area where we lived were either single adults who were themselves at work, or the parents of my children's friends - who would hardly want my own sick child there when their well one was at school! I had no paid childcare because I worked within school hours and already used all my annual leave, combined with help from my ex-husband and as much unpaid leave as I could get away with, to look after them in the holidays. I worked from necessity because, before the end of my marriage, we had lived in tied accommodation which went with my husband's job.

We managed, by the skin of our teeth - but there were times when I felt they really could have done with a day or two in bed, and couldn't have it. Fortunately my employer wouldn't have questioned an actual phone call from the school asking me to fetch them.

I wish you well, and I hope you sort something out.