Work colleague told me is going to go off sick

74jax

So if the last 2 Monday's and Tuesday's he spent on holiday were used to work at his old job, he must have had holidays left? Yet he said to you he couldn't go X amounts of months with out a holiday so would take a week sick. Doesn't make sense.

Personally I think he was 'messing' on, don't understand why, but he clearly did have holidays left.

Ignore it, on your breaks do something else apart from talk about work.

Aruba

Absolutely nothing to do with you. I would stay completely out of it and keep the info under my hat

Detroit

scd3scd4 wrote: »

What importance do you put on brown nosing and possibly getting another person sacked or disciplined. Where is the "honour" in that?

It's not always them and us though. It's sometimes about ' the right thing'.
While trying to discredit a colleague to advance oneself or from resentment that they're getting something you're no isn't great behaviour, blind loyalty to colleagues against employers is immature and misguided.

Poor employee conduct can have serious impact on everyone else. Dependent on the role the business could suffer serious detriment, loss of contracts, leading to job losses all round.

At the very least absenteeism places more pressure on colleagues covering the work.

In this case, as I said, I'd do nothing, but there's no way I'd have a blanket policy of loyalty to colleagues regardless of the impact of their actions.

In my view, honour is doing the right thing for the right reasons according to your conscience.

[Deleted User]

I also would keep quiet, just out of self interest. Although your colleague said they were intending to take days off sick, you have no evidence other than what you were told that they are in fact doing this now. It would be difficult for the company to prove. If you report it I suspect neither the company nor your colleagues would view it as praiseworthy but rather as causing trouble, whatever your intentions. Your colleague may well have just been venting, we have all done it, not realising the effect of their words.

You know how it is, when a friend tells her bestie that her husband is having an affair, they tend to lose the friendship of both parties. Honesty like this is never rewarded.

And to be frank, its between your colleague and the company. Its nothing to do with you. I would, however, make sure I was elsewhere when they return, being this sort of a confidant would make me very uncomfortable.

FBaby

No point in saying anything and just hope that indeed, he goes back to his old company.

My experience is that people like this think they are very clever and that's the reason why they stupidly share they 'plan', but although they get away with it, once, twice, maybe three times, I have always seen it backfiring on them without anyone having to get involved because they get overconfident and cocky and end up doing something that proves their lies.

Bosses are not stupid and yours has already implied that he is doubting the validity of the claim. He won't do anything about it because indeed, he can't prove it, but he will most likely start to keep a close eye on everything he does/say. Stay out of it.

shortcrust

You've sort of missed your chance. The only decent way to handle it was to say something to him at the time, even if it was just "please don't tell me stuff like that, it puts me in a difficult situation". You've allowed yourself to be a confidant so it would be a bit rubbish to tell tales now.

If you really really really need to do something then talk to him about how annoyed you are when he gets back.

sangie595

Whilst I totally agree with the comments to stay out of it in terms of reporting your suspicions, Detroit has made a very good point which I think we need to remember, because it's a huge point. The reason that we have sickness absence policies across almost all employers (and the rest of them mostly just sack you!) is because a very small number of employees have historically treated sick leave as additional holiday, so employers have been forced to get tough. It isn't about "helping employees" (although good employers will do that as well), and it isn't so much about people who are too sick to do the job. These policies are about the "several times seven" odd days off, or the week here and there. This form of skiving had resulted in every employee suffering as a result of a minority.

Similarly, whilst tribunals are currently free to claimants again, I don't expect that will remain the case. When the dust settles, it will come back to haunt us. The Tories may not be great supporters of worker's rights over employers, but the driving force behind fees was not primarily the desire to make it harder to claim their rights. It was to reduce the number of entirely frivolous claims being made by a minority of empliyees who used free access to make spurious claims in the hope of forcing the employer to offer a settlement purely on the basis that winning a tribunal was still too great a cost to them. And let's face it - it happened more than a little, and some people, on sites like this one, openly advocated doing exactly this! So for a time, people with genuine claims suffered because of it - some still do. And, as I said, it'll be back in another form at some point.

All too often everybody suffers for the actions of a few. In this case the OP doesn't actually know that the person isn't really sick, and that their comments weren't bravado. But honestly, if they did have proof, or if they are asked ( as opposed to volunteering the information), then I would say "tell".

And I wouldn't care two hoots about whether anyone thought it was "snitching". If you have nothing to hide, then nobody can disclose it. The people who most dislike snitches are the ones who get snitched upon, or who have something they don't want finding out. Most other people are actually really glad someone had the guts to say something, and wish it had been them! After all, where does the line on snitching get drawn? Shall we all keep our mouths shut when Tim accumulates three weeks paid sick leave when he was actually in Bournemouth? What about when John bullies Peter? Or Jane makes homophobic comments to Alison? Does it matter if she just generally makes homophobic comments in general? What other people do is our business, whether or not we know who gets hurt by it.

TELLIT01

One of the women who works with my wife is constantly saying she's going to take time off sick just because she wants time off without using her annual leave. To the best of my knowledge she's never gone through with it, probably because she says it so often and her managers should be wise to her.

gardner1

sangie595 wrote: »

Whilst I totally agree with the comments to stay out of it in terms of reporting your suspicions, Detroit has made a very good point which I think we need to remember, because it's a huge point. The reason that we have sickness absence policies across almost all employers (and the rest of them mostly just sack you!) is because a very small number of employees have historically treated sick leave as additional holiday, so employers have been forced to get tough. It isn't about "helping employees" (although good employers will do that as well), and it isn't so much about people who are too sick to do the job. These policies are about the "several times seven" odd days off, or the week here and there. This form of skiving had resulted in every employee suffering as a result of a minority.

Similarly, whilst tribunals are currently free to claimants again, I don't expect that will remain the case. When the dust settles, it will come back to haunt us. The Tories may not be great supporters of worker's rights over employers, but the driving force behind fees was not primarily the desire to make it harder to claim their rights. It was to reduce the number of entirely frivolous claims being made by a minority of empliyees who used free access to make spurious claims in the hope of forcing the employer to offer a settlement purely on the basis that winning a tribunal was still too great a cost to them. And let's face it - it happened more than a little, and some people, on sites like this one, openly advocated doing exactly this! So for a time, people with genuine claims suffered because of it - some still do. And, as I said, it'll be back in another form at some point.

All too often everybody suffers for the actions of a few. In this case the OP doesn't actually know that the person isn't really sick, and that their comments weren't bravado. But honestly, if they did have proof, or if they are asked ( as opposed to volunteering the information), then I would say "tell".

And I wouldn't care two hoots about whether anyone thought it was "snitching". If you have nothing to hide, then nobody can disclose it. The people who most dislike snitches are the ones who get snitched upon, or who have something they don't want finding out. Most other people are actually really glad someone had the guts to say something, and wish it had been them! After all, where does the line on snitching get drawn? Shall we all keep our mouths shut when Tim accumulates three weeks paid sick leave when he was actually in Bournemouth? What about when John bullies Peter? Or Jane makes homophobic comments to Alison? Does it matter if she just generally makes homophobic comments in general? What other people do is our business, whether or not we know who gets hurt by it.

Wouldn't like to working with you.....id be constantly looking over my shoulder to make sure you didn't stab me in the back:eek:

demiruss

sangie595 wrote: »

The people who most dislike snitches are the ones who get snitched upon, or who have something they don't want finding out. Most other people are actually really glad someone had the guts to say something, and wish it had been them! After all, where does the line on snitching get drawn? Shall we all keep our mouths shut when Tim accumulates three weeks paid sick leave when he was actually in Bournemouth? What about when John bullies Peter? Or Jane makes homophobic comments to Alison? Does it matter if she just generally makes homophobic comments in general? What other people do is our business, whether or not we know who gets hurt by it.

Most management I've worked for have frowned upon tattletales, especially if there's no concrete proof. They might appreciate a vague heads up, but the people who pulled them aside and told tales were usually viewed in a negative light (maybe they thought it reflected badly on them/brought their judgement into disrepute) and managers worried about their own conduct around these people. It seems like a lose-lose situation for the OP, they could alienate both parties :question: