Employer phoning asking questions whilst employee off sick?

Scania

Scania

Scania

Caporegime
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25 Nov 2004
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On the road....
As the title,
My wife is currently off sick from her job, she's been off for 10 days, with her first doctors sick note handed in.
She got a somewhat shirty call today from her manager asking when she would either be back in or presenting her next sick note.

She's not to happy about this, she works for a large national company and didn't expect this.

I know my employers (another large PLC) certainly wouldn't do such a thing...

Can / should they be doing this??

Thanks. :)
 
It's a reasonable reason unreasonably presented from the sounds of it. The general thing you do is to contact the person and voice your concern for their welfare and play it with a bit more sensitivity! You get the same results but your employees don't come back and tell everyone your an utter **** but rather how nice it was you inquired and said "and anything I can do blahblahblah to help you etc".
 
Seems perfectly reasonable to me. I would have thought that she'd have let her manger know that she would be off for a third week or longer.
 
Actually, it's 8days.

I was under the impression employers shouldn't pester somebody who's off sick, as I said, I know my own employers wouldn't phone, they would however put something in writing, but usually not if they already were aware of the nature of the illness and had already received a sick note.

She's off with Glandular Fever, and yes, they know she's off for a while.
 
Xordium said:
It's a reasonable reason unreasonably presented from the sounds of it. The general thing you do is to contact the person and voice your concern for their welfare and play it with a bit more sensitivity! You get the same results but your employees don't come back and tell everyone your an utter **** but rather how nice it was you inquired and said "and anything I can do blahblahblah to help you etc".
Click to expand...

You seem to have the nail on its head mate.

Cheers all. - just asking.....
 
How many times have they called? If just the once then it hardly constitutes pestering? Whenever Ive been unwell ive made sure to keep in contact so they're not kept in the dark.
 
Then she should respectfully point out that one of the best strategies for overcoming such a fatigue causing disease is appropriate rest and waking her up and preventing that with unneeded phonecalls will only increase the duration of the time she has off!
 
I would look at the absence management part of her contract.

My last place would be all over you every day after the first week for updates.
 
It's not unreasonable, but as others have said probably presented in the wrong fashion.

Where I work, the contract states that if sickness exceeds a week, HR are entitled to contact you at any point to discuss absence and even come to your home address.

A colleague was caught out on this as they did actually do a spot visit, only for his neighbour to confirm he was in LA on holiday.
 
Scania said:
3 times since she's been off and they are well aware if her situation.
Click to expand...

I'd say 3 times is just about OK(perhaps the first day she's off, after 5 days then after 10 days... - would be sensible to keep in touch once a week to see how she is establish when she's likely to be back). though the manager getting shirty very much isn't OK... not her fault she is ill.
 
Scania said:
As the title,
My wife is currently off sick from her job, she's been off for 10 days, with her first doctors sick note handed in.
Click to expand...

What was the period of the initial sick note? If it was for only a week and i hadn't received a concurrent one then i would probably be following it up with a staff member too.
 
Sindri said:
What was the period of the initial sick note? If it was for only a week and i hadn't received a concurrent one then i would probably be following it up with a staff member too.
Click to expand...

She's currently signed off until next Monday!
 
Firstly, it is quite reasonable - and not in anyway unusual for a company to contact an employee - especially for a 10 day sick absence. Most companies will want regular updates after a week.

Secondly, you have not told us any other facts about her, the job role or the situation - so any comments along the lines of "it's a disgrace" or "totally inappropriate" etc...etc are a bit dumb.

1.) How long has she been in her job.
2.) Is she on a fixed contract / on her probationary contract.
3.) How many occurances of sick has she had in the last x amount of months - and how long in total has she had off.
4.) Is there a pattern to her sickness - and has she disclosed any underlying medical complaints.
5.) Is she in a "high profile" job role that requires her to "be there" - will the company be able to cover her position with ease...ie does she work in a shift role that isn't easily covered.
6.) Most importantly - has she had any disciplinary warnings / meetings with regard to her sickness or work.

Sorry to sound so specific - but just saying they are wrong to contact her so many times is just incorrect........Now - once we have the facts we could determine whether the ethics of calling her so many times is the right thing to do.
 
Last edited:
1, Just over a year.
2, Fixed.
3, 1 day off in the last year to my knowledge.
4, No, doctors just said she has Glandular Fever, she's had it for neatly 3 weeks but was off on holiday - our honeymoon actually! (authorised) when it started.
5, She works part time hours in a Pharmacy!
 
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