Firstly I have to qualify my whinge by saying i’m not by nature a whingey person. I get my head down and I get on with it cos no-one loves a whinger!
SO - on to my whinge
I work for the NHS and had my full 6 months of full pay sick leave last year (yes i’m very lucky) due to having time off in the run up and aftermath of being diagnosed with this delightful condition. I’m also lucky in that my MS has not so far made my life too difficult. However - on my return to work in late May my line manager informed me that i was to be put on sickness monitoring until 17th May of this year…also any time off sick until i’d been back for a full year would be on half pay. Since then I have slogged on through my fatigue (which IS a big problem)…I had a really bad cold back in November - but I kept on going cos I don’t want my monitoring phase to be extended and nor do I want to be on half pay and extend the timescale before I would be back on full pay either. I’m a single person with just the one income and who can survive on half of what they’re used to!? I know I won’t qualify for any government help cos i’m not sick enough (laughable really).
Anyhoo…Over Christmas I suffered from a large and nasty abscess in a rather delicate place (I shall leave that to your imagination - should you wish to imagine!). I have been plagued by these ruddy things since my teens and right now they seem to be out to get me. Despite antibiotics (which don’t really work long term anyway), this thing is still ongoing. I feel absolutely knackered - more so than usual. I’m taking painkillers like they’re going out of fashion and I have also been having some new symptoms which I worry might be the beginning of a relapse. So now i’m sitting at home feeling very sorry for myself, knowing that i’ll be back in work on Monday whether I feel up to it or not and it’ll be like this until the end of May.
I really REALLY do appreciate that my situation is SO much better than for others…but oh my god I just want to go to bed until it all goes away. Off for a little cry now - see if that helps!
Are there any circumstances where employees can have time off with full pay such as - hospital/doctor appointments - caring for a sick relative - funerals -
Would you get full pay if you became ill at work due to say ‘slipping’ on a wet floor. Or if you thought you had a contagious disease and were advised to stay at home.
Has your employer discussed making reasonable adjustments without which you can’t work full-time. Mention the Disability Discrimination Act.
Not suggesting you er tell untruths but a bit of ‘creativity’ may help.
I can take time off for MS related appointments on full pay. I have already had reasonable adjustments made and i have already cut my working week down to four days. I work Monday and Tuesday - have Wednesday off to get over Monday and Tuesday - then I work Thursday and Friday. I have asked a friend who works in HR to look at the ins and outs of their policy for me to see if there is any wiggle room, but I fear they have covered all bases!
Sorry, I have no useful info for you, I just wanted to sympathise. It’s a sod keeping on working and being the only breadwinner makes life tough. I’m sorry you’ve got to go through this. Working with a nasty abcess must be particularly nasty.
I do hope you get some useful info from someone who can actually help rather than just say there, there.
Aww thanks Krakowian and Ssssue. I’m not really expecting any help tbh, I just needed a whinge lol Looking on the bright side i only have just over 9 years to do before I retire
I believe they do Polls, but that’s a scary route to go down as I would have to be off work a LOT…I will end up on half pay before that’s even put on the table…and IF I did get to retire through ill health, i’d have no other income and my pension most definitely won’t be enough to live on.
So sorry you have to go through this. It’s so shitty having to work when you feel crap all the time. Im the same as you dropped my hours so only work three days but it’s such a slog. Worked this last week with a cold and as soon as I was home went straight to bed. I’m like you iv got 71/2 years to retirement. Unlike you I’m not the sole breadwinner and could at at a pinch retire but really don’t want to.
Cant offer you any advice but send you support for what it’s worth. As for the abscess, my eyes are watering.
I have suffered with these abscesses since I was in my teens. I have seen SO many doctors, consultants, specialists and no one knows what causes them or how to cure them. I was told I could have surgery to get rid of the most troublesome ones, but there were no guarantees that they wouldn’t recur somewhere else - so I didn’t bother. I’ve had two lanced and drained in the past - both times without an anaesthetic and im definitely NOT going down that route again! Antibiotics don’t work quickly enough - they usually burst before the antibiotics start to do anything - and like I said they just come back a month or two later. They were the total bane of my life - until MS came along - now I don’t know which is worse
There’s a problem with ESA and pension payments. I think the ESA entitlement is reduced pound for pound by the amount of pension paid. It certainly used to be the case for Incapacity Benefit and I can’t see the DWP being any more generous over ESA.
And of course, we all know the pain in the behind that is a claim for PIP. There’s no guarantee of getting it. Better to try and claim it now whilst still working? (Obviously depending on needs)
Well that’s the thing…as I mentioned, the MS hasn’t made my life too difficult yet. I don’t think I would qualify for anything PIP related cos i’m too well. When I have other issues aside from the MS (colds and abscesses and all that) that’s when things get really hard. So far they don’t last too long thankfully and i’m sure i’ll be back to ‘normal’ levels of wellness soon and as usual i’ll just keep going wi’ yed down
Little update: I contacted my MS nurse about my new symptoms and her thoughts were that they were more than likely due to stress (no shit lol)…So I made an appointment at the doctors and also with occupational therapy at work. I’m now taking Gabapentin for the pain and although i’ve only been taking them since Wednesday it feels like it’s already making a huge difference. I’m also on a low level antibiotic to see if the abscesses can be controlled.
I contacted the Disability Law Service via the MS Society site and I got some valuable information from them. The meeting with occupational health went well and she is going to put my concerns to HR. I have also been in touch with the Union and on the sickness absence front they are ready to put in a grievance if needed.
Finally I have decided to apply for PIP. I may or may not get anything, but it’s worth a try if I can get some help.
Nuther little update: Got a meeting tomorrow morning with myself, my line manager, occupational health nurse, HR advisor and Union rep. I’m hoping that the outcome of the meeting will be that any time I have off which is due to the MS (i.e. not a cold, flu etc etc) will not be logged and used as part of the attendance monitoring procedures.
I have spoken to a few people over the last couple of weeks and have been told that ACAS believe this would be ‘good practice’…The disability law service do too…as do my union.
Also my employers have just been officially recognised as a “Disability Confident Employer” which means they are taking positive steps to attract, recruit and RETAIN disabled people…time for them to demonstrate that to me I think
I know i’m a lot more fortunate than some Paolo, it’s just so frustrating when conscientious people like myself - who have never thrown a sickie in their entire working life are treated the same way as those who are off at every given opportunity…and I guess don’t care if they’re on attendance monitoring or not.
Meeting was a complete waste of time anyway. No one said anything that I havn’t already heard so that’s that
