Sickness policy

sangie595

TELLIT01 wrote: »

That is certainly one by product of the rigid absence framework. Any decent manager should be able to differentiate between those who are only off when genuinely ill, and those who suffer from the Friday / Monday syndrome. The problem, as somebody else said, is proving that all staff are being treated fairly, when in reality all staff are being treated equally unfairly because of the skivers.
There is also the problem of gutless managers who seem to be scared of certain staff members. We had 2 staff members, sisters in fact, who would regularly phone in sick on a Monday after posting about on Facebook about how they had got totally wrecked at the weekend. That was never raised with them and unsurprisingly really got other people's backs up.

I agree with the gist, but I think you are missing a point. Most employers these days don't care whether sickness is genuine or not. They care whether you are present in work or not. Nothing more. If you saw some of the callous and cruel capability dismissals that I see, for long term loyal staff, done without an ounce of compassion, you wouldn't believe it had anything to do with genuine sickness. Once upon a time, yes, good and loyal workers may have had a great deal more leeway from employers. But that is sadly becoming more and more rare.

TELLIT01

sangie595 wrote: »

I agree with the gist, but I think you are missing a point. Most employers these days don't care whether sickness is genuine or not. They care whether you are present in work or not. Nothing more. If you saw some of the callous and cruel capability dismissals that I see, for long term loyal staff, done without an ounce of compassion, you wouldn't believe it had anything to do with genuine sickness.

Unfortunately I have seen examples of totally unfeeling management, who think they are applying the rules, when in fact they are bullying people.
One example was a manager actually visiting a staff member whilst they were still in hospital following cancer surgery, asking when they would be coming back to work. Another, which I'd mentioned before in another thread, was a staff member returning to work following a period of "Work Related Stress" as stated on the medical certificate. At their return to work interview they were handed a letter informing them that due to their extended absence they were getting a written warning. You really couldn't make the either one up.
Both examples are from Civil Services employment. Who says the Civil Service is an easy life?

breakinthesun

One thing that is worth bearing in mind regarding sickness absence policies is that an employer is required to carefully navigate the interaction between an absence policy and disability discrimination. In the OP's example, if she was disciplined as a result of hitting the requisite number of absences, but some of those absences were as a result of things that arose due to a condition that impacted or would likely impact the OP's ability to carry out day-to-day activities for 12+ months, then the employer may find themselves on the wrong end of a tribunal claim. You therefore find that some of the more competent HR departments don't approach sickness absence in such a rigid way because the level of risk involved in that area.