Teetering on the brink

Keep_Buggering_On

Sorry, long time lurker, but your last post got me thinking and coming out of hiding. If I remember rightly, you work in HE? If so, I'm another who has worked in universities for decades, so you have my sympathy about their HR and Occupational Health departments. A colleague at a previous institution had a heart attack, followed by a stroke six months later and the HR department were more interested in trying to force her out than support her back to work. Luckily she was in Unison and her local rep was very good so they fought her corner at every meeting and she kept her job (then took a very nice voluntary severance payment two years later she would have missed out on otherwise and got to semi-retire in her fifties). It is an extra cost each month, but depending on how good your Unison rep is (some seem to be better than others), it might be advantageous to have someone fighting your corner in these meetings and it helps to keep HR from steam rollering you when you are feeling ill.

The PIP thing is a nighmare- my wife has fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue and needs to have a sleep every afternoon, can't even lift a heavy saucepan, uses a stick and is in constant pain, but after two attempts she still can't qualify for even the lowest level of PIP. She has been unable to work for several years and even UC have declared her unfit for work as no one could employ someone who doesn't know if they can move off the sofa from one day to the next, but PIP say she is fine! Her friend is an alcoholic and gets the full PIP, despite many of her problems being drink related- make it make sense!