scoobyvirgin

Hey peeps, I've been having a bit of trouble with one of my members of staff. Unexplained absences and that sort of thing.

I'll call this person 'It' And cut it short.

Last week 'It' failed to turn up for work and didn't ring in sick. I asked what happened when 'It' was in next. The excuse was that 'It' had been throwing up blood through the night and early morning therefore being bed bound and unable to get in touch.

Since this incident I have been told by three members of staff that 'It' was with them during this so called ill period.

My problem is though, 'It' said they can prove they were ill by bringing me a doctors note.

Ok, but what should I be looking for? I've never seen a doctors note before so don't know if I could be getting a fake.

Any help would be great.

Pics even better.

Also does anyone know where you'd get fake notes? (Not the money kind )

Audi-Boy

Your going to turn into an old grumpy buisy body.

Jamo

iTrader: (23)

dead easy to get the real thing mate, all "it" has to do is say to the doctor ive been coughing up blood..... doctors answer will be was it bright red or dark red, if hes clever he will answer dark red "indicating not just throut blood" ie possibly something worst...

or "it" could just say im stressed, but dont want them to know, i told them i was coughing up blood would you put that to back me up, then it depends upon the doctor mate.

hope that helps, oooh ps. doctors note will be stamped with address of doctors, just ring them to conform they are real.

jamo

edited to add:

"it" can be off for 5 consecutive days before he needs a doctors note, and by law an employer cannot request one until that period of sickness, no doctor will supply one before then anyway.

Prince Popeye

PPl like you make me feel ill. Get on with you're job and stop being a tony blairite. does it affect you??? jobsworth

StickyMicky

even tho his job is to make sure his staff do what there supposed to do?

Regacy

I like the Tesco approach. Don't pay people for the first three days off sick.
That'd sort your problem.

r32

Ask them for a sick note next time, some Doctors will not give a sick note in the first 5 days as an employee can self certify for 5 days.
As an employer you need some written practices and procedures. So every one understands what is required and what can happen. Disciplinary, grievance and abscence procedures for a start. Run them through a local lawyer or an employers trade association if youre in one.
These will not only protect you but your staff too. You dont want an unfair dismissal case against you do you?
Most big companies are tightening up on abscence, my company (10,000 + people) will start the disciplinary procedure after three abscences in a rolling 12 months.
Dont stand for staff dicking you about or the rest will copy. Be firm but fair.

Abdabz

At my place more than 4 absences or more than 10 days in a rolling 12 month period earns you a verbal warning (even with doctors notes - at managers discretion). I gave one of my team a verbal for being off for a month for 'whiplash' after he was shunted up the rear end . This is within a FTSE100 company - so all legit & above board etc.

If you manage Its sickness proactively by discussing the absence and warning them of potential disciplinary proceedings should there be future absences in a set period of time I'd expect the problem wil cease to be. Document your coversations in 1-2-1's etc so you can refer back to it - but dont actually issue a warning at this point if you have no evidence...Let It know that you know...

Pabs

milo

thats the more ridiculous thing ive ever heard in my life. so if you're legitimately sick for more than 10 days, to avoid a verbal warning, u have to come in, pass whatever you've got on to everyone else and throw up all over the place?

Abdabz

No - its at my discretion as the gaffer - and as I manage it with a firm hand I didnt have any sickness on my team for the whole of Q1..Nice
It works Milo - If you're feeling 50/50 you're gonna come in or face the wrath of the abdabz

camk

I like that approach

scoobyvirgin

Of course it affects me, it's my company.

Thanks for the rest of the advise though.

Cheers

scoobyboy

our dealership just doesn't pay you for being ill at all so you have to claim ssp after a while but they still ask for a sick note after 3 days bit annoying really coz if they don't pay you why do they want proof you were ill and not skiving whats the difference you still don't get paid.

Aaquil

Phone the doctors when you gat the sick note. Ask them to cofirm it.

Redkop

For the first six working days absence from work, a self certification is all that is required, by filling in Form SC 2, Any longer than 7 days and a signed Doctor's Certificate after visiting a doctor should be requested.

Some companies can demand a "Private Note " from day 1, depending whats in an employee's Contract of Employment regarding 'sickness'.

ProperCharlie

i agree with Abdabz here. how often are people genuinely sick and how often hung over/can't be arsed/wanted to go shopping?

you can count the number of days i've had off sick in the last 5 years on one hand. am i super f*ckin healthy or something?

no. i don't chuck a sickie just cos i don't feel like going to work.

regardless as to whether you get full pay for sick, or just ssp, going off "sick" still effects the ability of the company to operate, so it's still a disciplinary issue.

</**** mode>

Turbohot

I would talk to my HR department if I were you.I have had it people bringing me sick notes repeatedly.Every organisation/company have their own policy to deal with such matters.Obviously,"It" sounds as if "It" has a problem."It" is incapable for getting on with "It's" normal routine work due to "its" ill-health repeatedly.Your organisation's HR ruling may decide to ask "it" to take redundancy or, to voluntary resign due to "Its" health matters causing suffering to work or,they might decide to give "it" long sick period to deal with "its" health issues and then come back (of course, they will require doctor's certificate to get it as a proof if "it" has possibility of having terminal or long term sickness).Usually people get less paid if they are on long sick.Your HR might decide to appoint someone else to perform "Its" task in "its" absence.
If you can prove that "it" has been taking a mick, "it" can be verbally warned,then formally warned in writing and eventually dismissed.

Spoon

4 in a bed is more common than you'd think today. Ask nicely they may just want to include you next time, maybe in the "who's the daddy" role.

r32

our dealership just doesn't pay you for being ill at all so you have to claim ssp after a while but they still ask for a sick note after 3 days bit annoying really coz if they don't pay you why do they want proof you were ill and not skiving whats the difference you still don't get paid.

Whats the difference? You serious?
We dont have spare staff just waiting to take over when some one doesnt feel like turning in, how do you think our Customers feel when we let them down for no good reason? Just as your company has a contract of employment with you, the employee has a contract with his or her employer, that at leasts covers being there at the contracted times and doing the contrated hours.
You cant run a business efficiently if folk dont turn up.
Now serious illness is not a problem, you can work round that and most employers dont want to penalise genuinly sick people, (I had 5 and half months off with cancer) but they wouldnt let me keep away just because I felt like a lie in or I had been out boozing the night before....... even if I didnt get paid, the pay is the least important thing in this.........

homer lawtey

Policies like people are mentioning here are bollox...

My wife works at a food factory with one of these policies. She had 3 weeks off work after an operation to sort an ingrowing toenail went wrong and she couldn't walk (certified). Then 3/4 months later we returned from holiday, except the anti-malarial pills had really affected her, and she had a week and a half off work throwing up constantly and very dizzy (certified). A few months later she had to have the operation repeated on her toe to fix what had gone wrong first time, and she needed a week off work (certified again).

All this time off work resulted in a verbal warning, and suspension of full paid sickness absence. The last time she missed work was for a few days with a viral infection. She got paid the very basic statutory sick pay. As a result she goes to work no matter how sick, dizzy or injured she feels. The result? Someone working on a moving factory production line who feels dizzy and weak, handling and breathing viral germs all over the freshly cooked food products that they make. Not to mention spreading her illness to any of the dozen workers on her section who may well go absent later. Why, so she doesn't lose out on her next pay packet.

Think about it....

Umesh

You must tell It to seek help, help him. Umesh

ProperCharlie

the trouble is that policies designed to penalise p*ss takers also penalise those who are genuinely ill. unfortuntely, there isn't really an easy way to avoid one problem without creating another.

Suhail

Lazy people should be fired not given sick pay or let of.


In 10 years of work I never took one day off, but I'm work for my family and have good ethic, not like the lazy ones I see claiming their benefits money. I would have them working on the streets to clean them.

davegtt

my misses works at asda, there if u have been ill 3 times in 6 months you have a meeting with some busy body who wants to make sure your OK and grill u as to why u was ill..... WTF!!!!! they have a sit down session with some stupid pyscologist or something making sure they are metally fit to work Id tell them where to go if I worked there

Geezer

It never ceases to amaze me the poor attitude of british employees display with regards to sickness. I know people who consider themselves to have a 'scik leave allowance' per year! WTF is that all about? If you take time off sick and you are not sick, you are effectively defrauding your company. Imagine if they made up some **** and bull story about how they couldn't pay you this month?

If you were running a small business, and one of your employees kept taking a sicky when you knew he wasn't really ill you'd be pretty pissed off.

That's why this country is going to the dogs and all the jobs are going abroad.

********

Geezer

little miss fire

A company I used to work for had a 'duvet day' policy. You could phone your boss 3 days a year and just say 'duvet day' which meant you were not coming into work that day, no questions asked. Seemed to work!