The Growth of Toxic Workplaces

shortcrust

pickledonionspaceraider wrote: »

I think some of the behaviour towards toomuchdebt on this thread is pretty shameful to be fair.

The vultures are circling again.

In several decades of working both as a manager and employee, I have never heard of workplaces request evidence of a family emergency, and that stands for everyone I know IRL. I have never known it to be company policy in management positions

This request is not a regular occurrence, and it is not normal + literally the first time I have heard of a company doing this

The management need to realise that they are humans they employ, not robots - and family does - and should, come first.

It does not make you 'Entitled' to expect to be treated with a level of humanity, as an employee.

Me neither. In fact it’s so unusual it makes me wonder why the employer feels it’s necessary in this instance. As you say in the post above, employers know who the mickey takers are...

pickledonionspaceraider

shortcrust wrote: »

Me neither. In fact it’s so unusual it makes me wonder why the employer feels it’s necessary in this instance. As you say in the post above, employers know who the mickey takers are...

Hmm I see what you are saying there - food for thought, indeed

Undervalued

shortcrust wrote: »

Me neither. In fact it’s so unusual it makes me wonder why the employer feels it’s necessary in this instance. As you say in the post above, employers know who the mickey takers are...

Is it so unusual? Some employers take a very firm by the book approach with a "welcome back" (or whatever they euphemistically call it) interview after any unplanned absence. Others are more relaxed.

The law gives a right to a very limited amount of unpaid leave for situations with dependants. I would have said that the vast majority of employers actually allow far more than the legal minimum. The law doesn't actually give any right to compassionate leave at all, yet it would be a rare employer indeed that doesn't allow some and many can show great flexibility. Sadly a minority of employees abuse such situations, just as the do with sick leave. That, in a way it a bit like shoplifting. It happens, some stores take more active steps to prevent it than others. Overdone that can become unpleasant for the honest majority who are also ultimately paying for what does get stolen!

shortcrust

Undervalued wrote: »

Is it so unusual? ...

I’ve never known someone have to provide evidence of a relative’s illness when they’ve taken some sort of carer leave, but of course it might just be a standard thing in some places. However, a lot of the time when carer leave is taken there isn’t any ‘evidence’. There isn’t always a hospital or doctors appointment. That’s why I though this is more likely to be an “oh yeah, likely story” situation, particularly given the backstory.

theoretica

It is easy to photocopy a hospital or other medical letter, black out the personal bits leaving name, date and any bits you don't mind being known and then copy it again (so holding it up to the light won't show the redacted text). Reasonable privacy maintained while giving the workplace some support for the story.

pickledonionspaceraider

Where does it end though?

Demanding to see death certificates?

I had a relative pass away only earlier this month and I needed a day of personal leave to help with the necessary. If I had been asked to provide evidence, I couldn't type what my reaction would be - I would get banned from the forum.

I haven't had cause to have a personal day in years, but sometimes, you just need to be cut a bit of slack

Life is really hard sometimes. In fact, for some people, life is hard enough without even factoring in work at all. Home life, or whatever, no one knows what other people are dealing with in their private life

There are people out there, that are carers, and have to work full time, and then leave work to care for someone else, and haven't had a holiday in years and get no support from anywhere - but omg take one day off work because their care is ill and omg the whole workplace turns against them

people struggling with illnesses, allsorts - none of us know what other people are having to deal with outside of work - yet each judge the other.

Undervalued

pickledonionspaceraider wrote: »

Where does it end though?

Demanding to see death certificates?

I had a relative pass away only earlier this month and I needed a day of personal leave to help with the necessary. If I had been asked to provide evidence, I couldn't type what my reaction would be - I would get banned from the forum.

I haven't had cause to have a personal day in years, but sometimes, you just need to be cut a bit of slack

Life is really hard sometimes. In fact, for some people, life is hard enough without even factoring in work at all. Home life, or whatever, no one knows what other people are dealing with in their private life

There are people out there, that are carers, and have to work full time, and then leave work to care for someone else, and haven't had a holiday in years and get no support from anywhere - but omg take one day off work because their care is ill and omg the whole workplace turns against them

people struggling with illnesses, allsorts - none of us know what other people are having to deal with outside of work - yet each judge the other.

As I pointed out earlier, there is no actual legal right to compassionate leave / personal days at all but it would be a rare employer indeed that didn't grant at least some. However, as it is at their discretion they are entitled to ask for whatever proof they feel necessary.

It is never pleasant being asked to prove something as it always leaves the feeling that you are not trusted. Equally it is not great for an employer to find that an employee's grandma has died three times in four years!

There is a limited legal right to unpaid carers / dependants leave. However, if the employee has a spouse / partner it is perfectly reasonable for the employer to check / insist that and such leave for children is shared equally between the parents and not always taken by whichever parent earns the least!

Gavin83

pickledonionspaceraider wrote: »

I haven't had cause to have a personal day in years, but sometimes, you just need to be cut a bit of slack

I suspect that helps your case somewhat and if it's a rare occurrence most companies will be reasonable in the circumstances.

If a company is asking for proof it's essentially because they don't trust you. Either the company is really paranoid or they've got good reason not to trust the employee. If they don't ask other employees for similar proof then I think the employee in question really needs to take a look at themselves and question why their employer clearly doesn't believe them.