How angry should I be? Queen wasp through letterbox while adopting boxing stance? He’s swanning about having a grand time while on the sick, without using his holidays while we’re picking up his work on top of ours. I believe my immediate management knows. Some are livid with rage about it, I’m unsure if I should be angry, ambivalent, not bothered etc. Please guide me oh masters of GD!
Colleague off sick for five weeks. Has Doctors note. Is currently in Ibiza.
- Thread starter MissChief
- Start date
Man of Honour
Depends what they're off for, if it's stress or something along those lines then that doesn't really stop them going on holiday.
Caporegime
- Joined
- 13 Nov 2006
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You can’t control the situation (other than push back on extra work) so I’d try not to dwell on it. Save your anger/energy for other things.
Caporegime
As Tom says, if the doctor says he has the likes of stress or depression, then a nice holiday could be considered as treatment or recuperation.
We don’t know why. We suspected Covid initially but not so sure now. He’s very much not a team player, does the bare minimum for anyone else yet expects us to pick up his slack which we have done for five weeks now. We work on a ticketing system, so far he’s an average of thirty tickets less than we have and some of us have 100 each.
Commissario
Some years ago, I was signed off sick for a few weeks and I had a holiday booked. The nature of the illness meant that I was perfectly fine to still go away on my holiday so I went. The company were aware of it, they had no problem with it and I even got my holiday days returned to me. The time away really helped my recovery.
Not all illness means you're in bed and unable to move.
/edit
Not all illness means you're in bed and unable to move.
/edit
Basically this.
Should he be able to go while on sick leave, without using his actual holidays? The holiday year just started, there’s no issues with getting time off, I feel it’s taking the **** a little.
Commissario
Yes of course. If someone is off sick, their holiday days should be returned to them. That's how any decent company should deal with it.
What you feel is frankly irrelevant. It's nothing to do with you.
I was signed off for five weeks once. Because of stress. I socialised, went to the pub, had lunches with friends and played computer games. It was very necessary to completely take my mind off what was going on at work and to get some semblance of normality back into my life so that I could go back to work and be productive again.
In short, it depends why he's been signed off. If he's been signed off for stress, it's perfectly fine. If he's been signed off for e.g. a broken limb that's another matter.
Maybe what's annoying you is his social media photos and how he's presenting himself in them. Maybe it's his attitude that's annoying.
In short, it depends why he's been signed off. If he's been signed off for stress, it's perfectly fine. If he's been signed off for e.g. a broken limb that's another matter.
Maybe what's annoying you is his social media photos and how he's presenting himself in them. Maybe it's his attitude that's annoying.
Do you know why he's been signed off?
Soldato
About 15 years ago, I worked at a place where a colleague was on the sick for breaking two toes (we were on our feet for work). Someone on her team saw her on holiday in Devon jogging about a week after she rang in sick. You don't run on broken toes for at least a couple of months.
Another colleague went on an activity weekend with her family. Guess who was staying there doing activities like rock climbing etc - 'broken toes'.
She got severely disciplined.
OP, did your colleague try to book off this week off and got rejected as fully booked? It looks very dodgy if someone phones in sick at the time they wanted to have off.
Another colleague went on an activity weekend with her family. Guess who was staying there doing activities like rock climbing etc - 'broken toes'.
She got severely disciplined.
OP, did your colleague try to book off this week off and got rejected as fully booked? It looks very dodgy if someone phones in sick at the time they wanted to have off.
Caporegime
This, it's not worth getting worked up over unless the extra workload is unmanageable and starting to stress you and the others on the team out.
What he chooses to do with the time off is his choice, if he's broken any rules with the employer then let HR deal with it. Otherwise, don't look at social media if it's bothering you that much.
Associate
You could familiarise yourself with your company's policy on sickness etc, if you've not already.
You could also raise your concerns via a line manager. While a manager should hear your complaint, you should manage your expectations and not expect anyone to discuss any detail or specifics with you of an individual case, as someone's sickness is confidential information. Unless you're the manager dealing with it then you have no right to know, as others have mentioned.
Regarding your job not being high stress, that's not the full picture of how stress can affect people.
You could also raise your concerns via a line manager. While a manager should hear your complaint, you should manage your expectations and not expect anyone to discuss any detail or specifics with you of an individual case, as someone's sickness is confidential information. Unless you're the manager dealing with it then you have no right to know, as others have mentioned.
Regarding your job not being high stress, that's not the full picture of how stress can affect people.
Commissario
The reason I was off was also for stress but it was nothing to do with stress at work, it was entirely non-work related.
The discussions between your colleague and the company are absolutely nothing to do with you, you don't know the circumstances at all.
To me it seems this is a case of the employee posting annoying photos on social media and it looks like [i.e. appears to the unknowing] that he's taking advantage of the situation which is leading people to question the legitimacy of the leave.
However, if it's mental health-related there could be a raft of reasons for his being signed off, the details of which no-one will know about apart from him and his doctor.