Will 3 phone calls in 3 days sick be deemed as unreasonable

[IloveMYredTROLLEY!]

If you genuinely don't think you will be even borderline ready to return to work for at least two days, say so and be pro-active in agreeing a more realistic contact frequency.

[Acca Dacca]

The problem imo with the current system is they try to pester you back to work right away while pleading short staffedness etc so you can end up going back while still ill to see how it goes, then when you realise you are still not fit for work you need to go sick again which counts as TWO periods of absence whereas if you just took the week to be sure it counts as one.

For instance if you are sick on Sunday night so are off Mon and Tue and get pestered enough to go back Wed, struggle so are off Thurs and Fri and back to work Sat - you have two absences on record but if you go off Mon and stay off till th following Mon you incur just one.

Why would you risk going back early? Its plain stupid.

You actually get punished for trying to do em a turn.

[Clared]

tell them to f**k off , it doesn't matter whats wrong with you all sick is genuine and they shouldn't be ringing you everyday its harassment , you are entitled to a 7 days self cert sick note , and then if you still aren't fit to work go to docs and get a docs note . don't be pressured in going back to work if you aren't 100%. contact your rep.

It is not unreasonable for an employer to maintain contact during a period of paid sick leave. The employee needs to recover after sickness and during that period of recovery it is not at all "outrageous" or "disgusting" for both employee and employer to make daily contact to ascertain both the wellbeing of the employee and the likely date of return to work. Royal Mail like any employer does need to plan its staffing duties.

At the end of the day you simply cannot have a situation whereby any given employee can phone up sick and then say 'now don't bother phoning me or asking me to phone you....but keep on paying me sick pay for the next number of days/weeks/months etc. with no questions asked".

Yet again there is this deeply embedded culture among those who have been at Royal Mail more years than they can remember that they are 'owed' or 'deserve' to be mollycuddled and are 'entitled'.

I have sympathy for genuine sick abscence, but there are too many throughout Royal Mail who will too readily go sick because they can't be bothered to get out of bed after a long night of heavy drinking or they just can't be bothered full stop. For these people stopping sick pay for the first 3 days would soon shift their backsides into gear.

[picture123]

Yes they can contact you everyday or at longer intervals it agreed (such as a broken leg). Part of the terms of you receiving sick pay is maintaining contact, informing your manager if you won't be at your normal address Bla bla bla. So yes , I'd say you're being over sensitive and if you avoid contact there's a chance they'll stop your pay which they're entitled to, cos you've breached the agreement.

[Lounge Lizard]

For every question the DOM asks you ask him two or three, on workload, lapsing, work time learning, those sort of things. That should do the trick.

[Tman]

Yep, especially if you want to be viewed as some sort of awkward tw*t with an (imaginary) axe to grind...

[Lounge Lizard]

Yep, especially if you want to be viewed as some sort of awkward tw*t with an (imaginary) axe to grind...

Showing an interest in how the office is managing in ones absence should not be construed as being some sort of awkward twit with an (imaginary) axe to grind.

[postslippete]

The last time I rang in sick (which was years ago by the way), I rang the office 1st thing in the morning to inform them that I very possibly had the flu (I had all the symptoms) and that I would probably be back in to work in a few days. 2 hours later I got a call from the line manager asking me how I was, and so I explained that there was no way that I was going to come in to work today because I was feeling really bad; there was no point in me coming in to work today at all, and there was a strong chance that I was going to be off for at least a few days. Then at 10am the DOM rings and asks if I can possibly do a few loops so that my absence wouldn't get classed as 'sick absence'!!??

And thats the problem in a nutshell. The managers need to cover their duties somehow, the DOMs have their targets to meet and the health of staff comes last. I've known staff that go on sick for months at a time and no one bats an eyelid and yet I go on sick for just a day and all hell breaks loose!!

[peshwaarinaan]

You think that's bad. I was rostered to work Wednesday to Saturday about a month ago. I saw my GP on the Monday afternoon and he signed me off for a week. I took the GP note into work and thought no more of it.

On Wednesday morning I receive a phone call from my Lino saying I have to go in for a face-to-face that afternoon with the DOM!!!! DOM asks me if I think I'm able to come in to work. I said no as I am in a lot of pain and my GP has signed me off. DOM says do you object to us writing to your GP to see if you're able to do any other type of work. I said no that's fine but by the time you've written to them I'll be back in work as I'm only going to be off for a week and then I'm on annual leave.

DOM said ok, but I might be calling you back in tomorrow or Friday for another interview. WTF?????

[stephen500]

all sick is genuine and the person should be treated with respect , regardless if the dim cant manage the office with people off.

ALL sick is genuine???? So the bone idle, do the bare minimum type who phones in 'sick' because he is hung over from a heavy night of boozing should be treated with respect???? And according to you the fact that then leaves the office understaffed is the DOM's fault!

This is the kind of mentality that has corrupted Royal Mail through the years. We all know the current system is being abused by a significant minority. We need to deal with it and not see everything as some big conspiracy to 'harrass' you.

Once again, when you are on a period of paid sick leave, it is not unreasonable for an employer to maintain contact with the sick employee to establish their wellbeing and to have an indication of when they will return to work. Management cannot be expected to simply guess whether a sick employee might turn up to work tomorrow or not because a quick phone call to find out will be deemed 'harrassment' by the union militants.

No other employer would put up with this nonsense.

Perhaps to be helpful, the employee should ring every hour

[jetblack]

Perhaps give the manager your GP's phone number - maybe the GP could accurately make a judgement on when you might be fit to return to work. You can't.
Better still, if DOM's harassing sick staff is widespread why don't we all give them our local GP's number in advance - that way there wouldn't ever be any need to ring us whilst we are sick.

edit. I know Dr.s wouldn't profer that information and that its all academic in that sense - but given that the legal profession is bound by medical confidentiality, maybe it should be OH Assist that should be given the GP's number ? They presumably have some kind of a legal right/entitlement at some point in proceedings ?
Of course, if we were to furnish managers with the GP's number then they can have a confab with occupational health.

I'm being serious here.
I object to managers harassing sick posties - and maybe this might be a way forward. We need to start pushing back - and coming up with some joined up thinking about how it can be done.

[bmccoll]

I said no that's fine but by the time you've written to them I'll be back in work as I'm only going to be off for a week and then I'm on annual leave

You've answered your own question. If one of my colleagues was off for the week before their AL then I'd be saying mmm...