Employer not being supportive. Help needed!

Everyday living
1

I’ve been suffering with various symptoms for the last 2 years and am under investigation for possible MS at the moment (awaiting MRI).

Over the last 12 months I have had several periods of absence, some short and some longer term.

This has triggered the absence process and I am now on the last stage before they can decide to dismiss me. I’ve been told by my manager that I have until 8th March 2013 to improve my attendance or I’m out the door. They do not agree that I am covered under the DDA and are no longer willing to wait for a diagnosis as it has taken so long. Regardless of my diagnosis, even if it is MS, if my attendance has still not improved I’ll lose my job.

All of my absence has been recorded as sickness and none of it has been recorded separately in relation to my condition ( I feel this is simply because my condition does not yet have a label). I have been advised that the ‘best practice’ for many employers now means that they have to record absences relating to ongoing disabilities separately from normal sickness absence. This has not been the case and my disability absence triggered the absence policy.

My main symptoms are internal vibration, headaches, urinary issues and bowel urgency. I also have the usual weakness and sensory issues.

The only symptom which I am still struggling to cope with is the bowel urgency. I am now able to ignore and push on with the other symptoms but when the bowel urgency starts I am unable to leave the house for fear of an accident.

Part of the support agreement when I returned to work was that I could slide my shifts when I was unable to leave the house due to the bowel problems.

Early this morning the bowel urgency began again and I felt sick at the thought of having to call my manager. I finally plucked up the courage and told her the situation. I then proceeded to tell her that I would prefer today not to be noted as absence and be allowed the opportunity to work the time back next week, either by working longer hours Mon-Fri or working the full day on Saturday.

She said she was unwilling to allow me to do this as this would be masking my absence. I questioned what the ‘slide shift’ agreement was for if it was not to allow me flexibility when this symptom arose. She said that a ‘slide shift’ would mean starting my shift later that same day or leaving early if needed.

I have repeatedly explained to my manager that when the bowel urgency begins it’s not a case of knowing how long it will last and it tends to last 1-2 days at a maximum. Therefore a ‘slide shift’ to me means being able to swap my full working day for another or working longer hours to make up for the time off.

She refused to allow me to do this and today has therefore been logged as another absence. I now have myself up to high doe worrying that this one day off could mean the end of a 12 year career which I worked hard for.

Does anyone else feel that they are not giving me the right support? Should I be worried about having 1 day off when there are still 5 weeks left until they make their final decision?

I really feel sick now

2

Hi, would it help if you could get a letter from your GP to give to your employer explaining that you are waiting to have tests. I have not been able to work for four years now because of my ms, but I experienced difficulties with my employer too. I had an acute relapse where I spent eight weeks in hospital. I was lucky because of this all my tests were done in one go so I had a definite diagnosis. Because of the severity of the relapse I was unable to return to work for another five months and even then I was using crutches. They agreed that I could return to work on reduced hours for the first 2 weeks but after only 2 days they said they wanted me to go and see the company doctor because they thought I was a danger to other people at work and he would agree. They were even coming out with ridiculous things like there are two pregnant women here and you might fall on one of them. I said the pregnant women might fall on me. What a joke when all I did was sit at a desk on a computer all day. This really upset me but I went to see him with my husband. I told the doctor what they said and depending on what he said I was going to take them to a tribunal for discrimination. The doctor said as far as he was concerned I was able to go back to work. I then went back for the next year but certain people made things difficult. They then announced they were going to restructure the company and were looking for volunteers for redundancy. I decided to leave because I had worked there for 20 years so left with a good package. Maybe your company has a company doctor who you could see x.

3

hi nanny

, sorry to butt in on this but im sort of in the same possition with work and my boss said she might get their doc in for me , can they say if you are not fit for work as i only started in dec and suddenly went into a bad relapse now i feel stuck that i cant do nothing about

lucy x

4

Hi Nanny McPhee

Thanks for your reply.

I have already been referred to Occ Health and a company GP both of which advised me I would be able to go back to work with additional support from management i.e. sliding shifts, having an understanding approach etc.

I have made numerous suggestions to them over the last year about what they could do to help me maintain my attendance at work. At first they agreed I could use my holidays on the days where the bowel issues were causing me problems, this was when I was actually off sick and it was meant to be able to provide me with the support I needed to fell I could return to work. They allowed me to do this once and on the second occasion recinded the agreement saying it wasn’t going to be feasible against the business needs.

I then asked if it would be possible to slide my shifts on the days I felt unable to leave the house - our office is open between 8am and 8pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 5pm on a Saturday. We are also able to work overtime on Sunday as agreed. I currently work 8am to 4pm so there are enough extra office opening hours between 4pm and 8pm Monday to Friday and the weekends to allow me shift flexibility but they are still unwilling to let me do this as they feel it would only mask the absence. My view was that it would help me maintain a good attendance rate whilst not affecting the level of work they get from me.

In addtion to the above, I have also been in contact with Access to Work regarding the possibility of getting assistance with travel costs to and from work. I use public transport which takes 90 minutes from leaving the house to getting to work and vice versa. With the bowel and balance issues being out on public transport can make me very anxious and especially when the bowel issues are present it is virtually impossible for me to cope with a 90 minute journey. My theory in asking for taxis to work is that it would cut my journey time to approx 25 minutes which I may be more able to cope with. I discussed the possibility of this with my manager and she said ‘but won’t that cost the company money, as they seek the costs from your employer. I don’t think that would really be appropriate because our concern is that we are paying you to do a job which you have not been present to do. I appreciate that you are now back at work but if we agreed to the Access to Work support then that means we are paying you to be here and also paying for you to get here, causing more cost to the company than when you were actually off sick’.

I’ve tried explaining that the type of support I need is not simply a desk adjustment or equipment, it’s about my time and how I feel from day to day. They just won’t listen.

5

Hi Lucy, If you only started work in December is it possible that you could have started on say a three or six month trial? If so they could possibly make up an excuse to dismiss you as not suitable. In my case as I said in my post I had worked at the company for 20 years and until that absence had very little time off. Also what I should have said in my post as well is that I had a letter from my neuro to say that I would be able to return to work so in effect had the company doctor said I wasn’t it would be like calling the neuro a liar. If they had not allowed me back I would have taken it to a tribunal not just for my sake but for other disabled people who have a hard enough time without all the stress of something like this x.

6

Hi anonymous, lots of companies seem to have these abscence processes, the company where I work does too, tbh, I feel that where I work, this is more to do with young guys phoning in sick on a Monday morning after a weekend in the pub and that’s all well and good but this isn’t what’s happening in you case. I know that lots of people on here say that absence related to a condition like ms should be recorded separately, I don’t know if that is the case or not, I have to say my workplace, which is excellent in regards to my ms have never told me this but I’ve never been off due to ms so perhaps this is why I’ve never been told. You have been I’ll and are awaiting a diagnosis so I feel they are being a bit heavy handed with you, after all if you had had a heart attack or cancer or a bad accident you would have been off for ages and would not expect to lose your job over it. I actually think it is the several periods of absence you have had that they don’t like, rather than the length of time you have been off. Companies don’t seem to like people being off, back, then off again and so on. How do you move forward with this. I think you need to arrange a meeting with your manager and explain all that is going on. Don’t argument with them, you need them on board and on your side. See if you can get some sort of arrangement to move you forward, still in your job. You say the symptom you struggle most with is bowel urgency, is there anything that could be done to help you with this, have you spoken to your gp. Good luck. Cheryl:-)

7

Hi Anonymous, when I was at work I claimed access to work and unless it has changed your employer is asked to make a contribution if they can but you can still claim if they won’t. Mine wouldn’t and I suspect most employers would be the same. The only thing I’m not sure about is it seems to stick in my mind that you have to be getting higher rate DLA to claim it but I can’t remember. Maybe somebody else could clarify x.

8

Hi Travel costs are covered by access to work with you contributing the public transport costs. Your work don’t need to pay any of it. It’s only workplace adaptations they are asked to contribute towards. Best of luck S4ar

9

hi nanny

i am on a 12 week trial just now but as far as im aware ive told her about my problems and cis and going for another mri as neuro says def relapse my boss wont let me go now incase i put it down to my condition and i can say she only let me go for my condition she cant take the risk either so looks like we are stuck with each other , i wouldnt have took the job if i new any of this was going to happen but it did and there was no question on application form asking for medical conditions

lucy x