Time off sick with Crohn's Disease

[mattw12345]

Good morning,

I had a flare up with my Crohn's a few weeks ago which meant I had just under 2 weeks off work. My sickness record is generally very good, and I'm worried about how this will affect it and how it may look on a reference. Does anyone know if there is special dispensation when it comes to chronic diseases and whether I can request this can be left off my general sickness recored or with some sort of addendum.

If anyone knows anything about this or could advise that would be really appreciated.

Thanks

 

[dowie]

What employers can say in a reference - Job references - Acas

What employers can and cannot say in a job reference, and when references can be discriminatory.

www.acas.org.uk

A detailed reference can also include someone's sickness or absence record. However, an employer must follow discrimination law. The reference should not include any absences related to:

• disability
• parental rights – for example, maternity or paternity leave

Now Crohn's *can* be treated as a disability if it meets some conditions re: having a long-term adverse effect on your ability to carry out normal activities. In which case the absences related to flareups shouldn't be included in a reference. I think HR would typically err on the side of caution regardless if you mention disability and were to request this when leaving the company.

Make sure HR know you have it too at the moment (like obvs you've reported the reason for your absence but separate to that do they know - don't assume they'll have noted it from a sick note for this one instance) so they don't start flagging up your sick days internally when they relate to Crohn's.

Also references often can just be confirmation of your job title and dates you worked there so it wouldn't be an issue anyway.

 

[mid_gen]

I've never seen a reference in the UK that went beyond "X worked in the role of Y between these days".

The reference I got from my job in Germany was two pages of glowing praise from my old boss. Still get that one out for applications even though it was a while back!

 

[D-Ranged]

I've never seen a reference in the UK that went beyond "X worked in the role of Y between these days".

The reference I got from my job in Germany was two pages of glowing praise from my old boss. Still get that one out for applications even though it was a while back!

This.

Also, If I ever need a reference, I use people in the company that I get on well with, luckily that was usually my boss anyway!

 

[dirtychinchilla]

Good morning,

I had a flare up with my Crohn's a few weeks ago which meant I had just under 2 weeks off work. My sickness record is generally very good, and I'm worried about how this will affect it and how it may look on a reference. Does anyone know if there is special dispensation when it comes to chronic diseases and whether I can request this can be left off my general sickness recored or with some sort of addendum.

If anyone knows anything about this or could advise that would be really appreciated.

Thanks

I have had many weeks of for crohn’s or my back. It’s never been a problem at all, although my work is generally pretty chilled. I’m a professional in an engineering environment in case that helps

 

[DB_SamX]

Good morning,

I had a flare up with my Crohn's a few weeks ago which meant I had just under 2 weeks off work. My sickness record is generally very good, and I'm worried about how this will affect it and how it may look on a reference. Does anyone know if there is special dispensation when it comes to chronic diseases and whether I can request this can be left off my general sickness recored or with some sort of addendum.

If anyone knows anything about this or could advise that would be really appreciated.

Thanks

Also a Crohnie and working in engineering consultancy. I've had to take up to a week off every now and again over the years, usualky taken as sick leave, but it's never affected my references or been an issue as far as I'm aware.

An old company had a calculator for rating staff taking sick leave so i had similar concerns as yours but apparently few long time off didn't rate as badly as taking many individual days off.

 

[TrojanWhore]

Also a Crohnie and working in engineering consultancy. I've had to take up to a week off every now and again over the years, usualky taken as sick leave, but it's never affected my references or been an issue as far as I'm aware.

An old company had a calculator for rating staff taking sick leave so i had similar concerns as yours but apparently few long time off didn't rate as badly as taking many individual days off.

I'm late to this thread, but what you mention is called a Bradford score - It's calculated as number of instances squared, multiplied by total days off.

Essentially means if you're having a bad week/period of time, that you're better off taking it as a block rather than pusing yourself to get back in to work (1 day off, back in for a day, day off etc. )

As an isolated example (assuming no other absense throught the year):

Take a week off: 1 instance of 5 days = 1x1x5=5
Take Monday, Wednesday and Thursday off: 2 instances totalling 3 days = 2x2x3=12
Take Mon, Wed, Fri off: 3 instances totalling 3 days = 3x3x3=27

(lower=better, obviously!)

 

[DB_SamX]

I'm late to this thread, but what you mention is called a Bradford score - It's calculated as number of instances squared, multiplied by total days off.

Essentially means if you're having a bad week/period of time, that you're better off taking it as a block rather than pusing yourself to get back in to work (1 day off, back in for a day, day off etc. )

As an isolated example (assuming no other absense throught the year):

Take a week off: 1 instance of 5 days = 1x1x5=5
Take Monday, Wednesday and Thursday off: 2 instances totalling 3 days = 2x2x3=12
Take Mon, Wed, Fri off: 3 instances totalling 3 days = 3x3x3=27

(lower=better, obviously!)

Yes, that's the name for it!

 

[dowie]

That also shouldn't apply, as with the previous issue of disability and time off being mentioned in references (shouldn't happen with time off in relation to a disability) - in the case of chronic conditions then the Bradford Score doesn't take into account of and shouldn't therefore apply to chronic conditions.

It also potentially opens up the employer to discrimination issues and in the case of disability (as with racial discrimination) then payouts are theoretically uncapped - so this is an area competent managers and HR are generally very cautious about.

In particular, this is useful:

Bradford Factor and disability: flexible absence management

Here we discuss the Bradford Factor and disability, focusing on how this absence management formula may complicate managing workers with disabilities.

www.myhrtoolkit.com

In light of this, employers should consider making reasonable adjustments to how they measure Bradford Factor scores for staff with disabilities. Response strategies can be tailored to ensure these considerations are at the forefront of an employer's response to absence.

For instance, some organisations count disability related absence differently to general sickness absences, or discount it altogether. This means that disabled workers are less likely to surpass sickness trigger points where absence management procedures would usually kick in. The employee might also require other adjustments to their role, so make sure that you discuss this thoroughly with them. If sickness absence becomes an issue, putting an adjustment in place could help.

If someone is known to have a condition then time off related to that condition can be logged separately and excluded from triggering the Bradford factor - that could be hospital appointments or procedures or just general issues/sickness related to it.

That doesn't necessarily mean all their sick leave is logged that way - they might still have an injury or get signed off with stress or whatever else and that should be logged as per normal as with any other employee.