Forced to resign due to disability - need advice
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Andromeda14
Posts: 8 Forumite
Hello, feeling a little desperate so looking for some guidance.
I’ve worked for my employer (a university) for 3+ years but the first year and a half of that was on a temporary contract with an agency so technically I’ve only been permanently employed by them for 1 year and a half.
In January of this year I suffered a severe nervous breakdown due to factors outside of work which resulted me in developing agoraphobia and becoming entirely housebound.
I was off for 7 months and worked incredibly hard on my recovery to get back to a place where I was able to work.
I went back in August on a phased return with reduced hours and reduced capabilities. I managed to go from 3.5 hours to 20 hours a week (working across 5 days) but sort of plateaued there and then began to struggle.
In the time I was off I developed a physical complaint which is still under investigation. This has caused me severe chronic pain. My GP thinks it’s endometriosis but unfortunately the road to diagnosis is a long one and involves me having surgery.
The problem is that even though I have beaten the agoraphobia, the chronic pain and hormone problems makes my anxiety 1000000x worse so if I have a flare up of the pain I often can’t move and therefore can’t make it into work which has meant that during this phased return I have continued to have days off when my anxiety and pain is that bad. This means that I have not been consistent or reliable as I just don’t know how I’m going to be from one day to the next. Last week I managed the whole week including all team meetings but after a terrible weekend with pain I couldn’t make it in Monday and tuesday!
My boss has said in no uncertain terms that the role is full time and that part-time would not be an option for me.
I’ve had various informal meetings with my boss and HR and it’s now got to the stage where they will be considering formal action.
I love my job and do not want to be dismissed because I am hopeful that once I am physically better I would be able to return and work elsewhere at the university - hence why they are encouraging me (quietly) to resign before I am pushed.
Is this the right thing to do? I joined the union but you have to be a member for 4 weeks before getting their advice and i only joined last week!
The adjustments they have made for me so far are reduced hours during phased return and reduced capabilities but I asked to reduce the number of days worked and they said no.
I don’t think I would be entitled to any disability benefit as I am able to work on my good days.
I’m feeling really hopeless And the stress its affecting my mental health again so don’t want to go backwards considering how hard I’ve worked to get to this point...
Thank you for reading
I’ve worked for my employer (a university) for 3+ years but the first year and a half of that was on a temporary contract with an agency so technically I’ve only been permanently employed by them for 1 year and a half.
In January of this year I suffered a severe nervous breakdown due to factors outside of work which resulted me in developing agoraphobia and becoming entirely housebound.
I was off for 7 months and worked incredibly hard on my recovery to get back to a place where I was able to work.
I went back in August on a phased return with reduced hours and reduced capabilities. I managed to go from 3.5 hours to 20 hours a week (working across 5 days) but sort of plateaued there and then began to struggle.
In the time I was off I developed a physical complaint which is still under investigation. This has caused me severe chronic pain. My GP thinks it’s endometriosis but unfortunately the road to diagnosis is a long one and involves me having surgery.
The problem is that even though I have beaten the agoraphobia, the chronic pain and hormone problems makes my anxiety 1000000x worse so if I have a flare up of the pain I often can’t move and therefore can’t make it into work which has meant that during this phased return I have continued to have days off when my anxiety and pain is that bad. This means that I have not been consistent or reliable as I just don’t know how I’m going to be from one day to the next. Last week I managed the whole week including all team meetings but after a terrible weekend with pain I couldn’t make it in Monday and tuesday!
My boss has said in no uncertain terms that the role is full time and that part-time would not be an option for me.
I’ve had various informal meetings with my boss and HR and it’s now got to the stage where they will be considering formal action.
I love my job and do not want to be dismissed because I am hopeful that once I am physically better I would be able to return and work elsewhere at the university - hence why they are encouraging me (quietly) to resign before I am pushed.
Is this the right thing to do? I joined the union but you have to be a member for 4 weeks before getting their advice and i only joined last week!
The adjustments they have made for me so far are reduced hours during phased return and reduced capabilities but I asked to reduce the number of days worked and they said no.
I don’t think I would be entitled to any disability benefit as I am able to work on my good days.
I’m feeling really hopeless And the stress its affecting my mental health again so don’t want to go backwards considering how hard I’ve worked to get to this point...
Thank you for reading
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Comments
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They do not have to change the job to suit your needs. I am sorry. They have been fair and allowed you a long period of sickness and a phased return for around 3 months? So thats a whole year of you not doing the job you are employed to do.
You say due to a disability, I am not sure endometriosis is classed as a disability, nor the pain your say is currently unexplained.
Sorry to sound so harsh but you cannot do the job. They need someone to do the job, and you cannot.
Reasonable adjustments are things like a relaxation of sickness policy, a new chair, a new office location, maybe varied starting times, an adapted desk.
A reasonable adjustment is not changing the whole job to accommodate your inability to do it...0 -
Sorry I didn’t make it clear - my disability is generalised anxiety disorder/panic attacks/agoraphobia which occupational health have confirmed is a disability and I have officially registered with our university disability support service.
It’s fine you don’t sound harsh I agree with everything you have said and understand.
They haven’t explored moving me to a different role with less hours and I was hopeful that that would be a possibility but I think the best thing for me to do would be to resign and just figure out what to do next day by day0 -
Andromeda14 wrote: »Sorry I didn’t make it clear - my disability is generalised anxiety disorder/panic attacks/agoraphobia which occupational health have confirmed is a disability and I have officially registered with our university disability support service.
It’s fine you don’t sound harsh I agree with everything you have said and understand.
They haven’t explored moving me to a different role with less hours and I was hopeful that that would be a possibility but I think the best thing for me to do would be to resign and just figure out what to do next day by day
But you are not off due to agoraphobia, you are off due to the pain and you say your agoraphobia is under control...
Are there any other roles available with less hours that you are qualified for? Have YOU asked about that? They don't have to create another job, but if there are others you are suited for that are vacant then that would be an option...0 -
I would suggest that you need to wait to be pushed out. If you resign, you will have trouble claiming JSA at the point you are well enough to start seeking work again.
There is no good reason why if they terminate your contract of employment due to a long-running health issue you should not return to the same organisation when the health condition is resolved. That said, practically, it can be difficult to reassure any new boss that your health condition is fully resolved so I understand why you are worried.
I would explain to your boss and HR that you want to carry on working as long as possible, and need them to follow the correct process if they want to terminate your contract. Hopefully this will give time for your union to be able to step in to help.
I think you also need to put some pressure, via HR, on your boss to reconsider whether the role could be part-time. You have been there so long as to mean that you don't need any training so the time you are at work is relatively productive. Depending on the size of the departmental budget, hiring another full-time member of staff and allowing you to work part-time could be a reasonable adjustment for you, although this is really stretching the point on reasonableness.
In summary, you have two issues:
Issue 1: you have a disability that is preventing you returning to work fulltime
Issue 2: you have an on-going health issue that is making it difficult to turn in for work reliably (even if you were allowed to work part-time, you will have this issue until your health improves).
It seem possible that issue 2 will result in a fair dismissal, making issue 1 irrelevant.
The following ACAS article may be useful:
http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=6074
Good luckThe comments I post are my personal opinion. While I try to check everything is correct before posting, I can and do make mistakes, so always try to check official information sources before relying on my posts.0 -
marliepanda wrote: »But you are not off due to agoraphobia, you are off due to the pain and you say your agoraphobia is under control...
Are there any other roles available with less hours that you are qualified for? Have YOU asked about that? They don't have to create another job, but if there are others you are suited for that are vacant then that would be an option...
It's interlinked, the severity of the pain makes my anxiety much much worse and leads to panic attacks which makes me feel unable to leave the house.
There are roles all over the university that I am qualified for with less hours so I will discuss that with them but i think the outcome will still be the same.
I know it doesn't make any difference, and no one cares about my sob story but i stopped getting paid 2 months in to my long-term absence, I know people like to milk the mental health card and that's why people are less understanding and skeptical but I have genuinely been severely unwell and considering the recovery rate for agoraphobia is 20% I really have worked so hard to get to a place where i was back at my desk. When I am there I am able to do my job and work hard so don't even need the reduced capabilities but recognise that is all meaningless if they can't actually rely on me being there and it's not their problem.
I don't even know why I asked for advice now. Just felt a little lost.0 -
I would suggest that you need to wait to be pushed out. If you resign, you will have trouble claiming JSA at the point you are well enough to start seeking work again.
There is no good reason why if they terminate your contract of employment due to a long-running health issue you should not return to the same organisation when the health condition is resolved. That said, practically, it can be difficult to reassure any new boss that your health condition is fully resolved so I understand why you are worried.
I would explain to your boss and HR that you want to carry on working as long as possible, and need them to follow the correct process if they want to terminate your contract. Hopefully this will give time for your union to be able to step in to help.
I think you also need to put some pressure, via HR, on your boss to reconsider whether the role could be part-time. You have been there so long as to mean that you don't need any training so the time you are at work is relatively productive. Depending on the size of the departmental budget, hiring another full-time member of staff and allowing you to work part-time could be a reasonable adjustment for you, although this is really stretching the point on reasonableness.
In summary, you have two issues:
Issue 1: you have a disability that is preventing you returning to work fulltime
Issue 2: you have an on-going health issue that is making it difficult to turn in for work reliably (even if you were allowed to work part-time, you will have this issue until your health improves).
It seem possible that issue 2 will result in a fair dismissal, making issue 1 irrelevant.
The following ACAS article may be useful:
Good luck
Thank you for your advice I really appreciate it.
My head of department has made it very clear that he doesn't want anyone working part-time so I know he will dig his heels in and ensure that's not an option for me. He never anticipated my return and hired one of his friends as my replacement so will do everything to make sure I am gone and my permanent contract is given to his friend.
He has treated me abhorrently since my return, made many many inappropriate comments over the course of my phased return but there's no point in me trying to fight it because he always escapes these things.
Even though we work in HR and he is a head of HR, he's one of the worst for not sticking to policy or bending it so things work in his favour.
I have seen him give 'off the record' telephone references before to other managers about former members of staff which has resulted in them not being offered jobs which is my worry. But I suppose there's not really anything I can do about that.
Thank you again and I will check out ACAS0 -
Andromeda14 wrote: »
I have seen him give 'off the record' telephone references before to other managers about former members of staff which has resulted in them not being offered jobs which is my worry. But I suppose there's not really anything I can do about that.
Thank you again and I will check out ACAS
This happens more often than you think...0 -
It is entirely reasonable to ask for advice; you've been battling to overcome your agoraphobia, an unexplained pain, and a difficult work situation. I would encourage you to seek advice and support from any possible source.
There are other places you could go for support:
- Check if your home insurance has any legal cover; any legal helpline provided by the cover should be staffed with trained solicitors who will provide advice for free if you have this cover.
- You could try your local Citizens Advice, they might have an employment specialist who can advise you.
- You should also find that local solicitors will offer a free half hour consultation at no cost. The local Citizens Advice can probably tell you which local solicitors specialise in employment law.The comments I post are my personal opinion. While I try to check everything is correct before posting, I can and do make mistakes, so always try to check official information sources before relying on my posts.0 -
Andromeda14 wrote: »My head of department has made it very clear that he doesn't want anyone working part-time so I know he will dig his heels in and ensure that's not an option for me. He never anticipated my return and hired one of his friends as my replacement so will do everything to make sure I am gone and my permanent contract is given to his friend.
He has treated me abhorrently since my return, made many many inappropriate comments over the course of my phased return but there's no point in me trying to fight it because he always escapes these things.
Even though we work in HR and he is a head of HR, he's one of the worst for not sticking to policy or bending it so things work in his favour.
I have seen him give 'off the record' telephone references before to other managers about former members of staff which has resulted in them not being offered jobs which is my worry. But I suppose there's not really anything I can do about that.
There might be something that you can do about it, but given the number of other issues you are dealing with, I think I would leave this for someone else to fight. In your situation, you may be best just deciding to rise above his behaviour: if you always behave professionally, but politely and firmly when protecting your own situation he won't have any 'bad' behaviour he could reasonably cite if he is asked for a reference.
If you have a senior colleague who is aware of how he is treating you, you might consider asking if they will provide a reference for you should you apply to the same organisation in future. At least then his feedback can be taken with some context.The comments I post are my personal opinion. While I try to check everything is correct before posting, I can and do make mistakes, so always try to check official information sources before relying on my posts.0 -
Going to be a bit mean but I note that you joined your Union "last week" and you had your nervous breakdown in Jan and went back to work around August....
You should have joined the Union around August AT THE LATEST. That's really unfair, both on the Union (who rely on sub fees to exist) and other paying members (who treat it as a sort of "insurance").
You will be very lucky to get any advice from the Union, and if you do I hope you consider giving something back in any way you can.0
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