I havent posted for a while as my life has been a bit up and down ( down mainly). I have a question about changing job roles due to illness.
i am diagnosed and also suffer with anxiety, depression and OCD. I work 30 hours a week in a high stress job as a stockbroker, which I am finding increasing difficult to do. I used to work full time but due to illness reduced my hours last May. My managers are constantly on at me to take on more work and also are saying that im not performing all the duties im being paid for under my job role. they want me to undertake more training and take on these responsibilites they that say i should be doing already. I have told them i dont feel able to do this either physically or mentally and they are threatening to go down the capabilituy route and fire me. I wanted to ask whether they can force me to do this extra work or whether i can ask to have my job role changed? If i do change my job role would i have to take a cut in salary or would my existing salary be protected? Lastly if they did start the capability ball rolling could they fire me with no payment or would i get a settlement to leave the company?
Sorry for so many questions but I am reeling with all of this and could really use some help.
I can’t answer that for you but here is a link for ACAS who have been brilliant in answering any questions. If they can’t give you an answer, they will pass you on to someone who can. http://m.acas.org.uk Or, also as good and in hindsight might be better for you is The Disability Law Service http://www.dls.org.uk I hope that helps xx
This is why I joined the union not long after I was dx’d and my manager at the time was being a complete ar$e. Her idea of understanding was to reply with my requests for a little rest time with ‘Well, if you really can’t manage …’ and to make me the scapegoat every time we were short-handed even when I hadn’t been off sick!! I now have a new line manager at my request.
I hope you seek some professional help per Amanda’s advice and get the support you need. Good luck
As others have said, you need to get some professional advice on where you stand here. It is a rapidly changing area, with relatively new legislation and constantly developing case law as the Equality Act 2010 gets bedded in. You need up to date advice from someone whose job it is to be bang up to date on a complex area of law - ACAS is a good place to start, as someone has already suggested.
There should be a written “job description” for your role which should clearly state the duties the role entails. Have you seen one, or even better, have you actually got one?
(…that would be the first step to clarify?)
Many moons ago, I used to be a Quality Assurance rep. and every job was supposed to have a proper printed description as part of the QA system …and I ended up having to write quite a few
Yes there is a written description for my job and the things they want me to train to do are in there but I havent ever done them since taking the post in 2007. If i was completely well i would have no problem but with the state of my health now I just cant cope with the responsibility and pressure of the extra duties. I will contact the organisations you have all memtioned and see how i go. They have also mentioned ill health retirement to me but my company only pays the amount put into the pension with no lump payment so that isnt an option. They have said this is due to change next march so if i can hang on for a year i may be able to leave via that route.
Just wanted to ask if your job description has been reviewed due to your needing to reduce your hours? It would be very unfair if you were expected to complete everything / manage the same responsibilities as a full time member of staff. Is there a HR department to review this? Just a thought. Take care. xx
I went through a horrible process with my previous job following my diagnosis and period of absence at the end of 2012. My Manager was off on long-term sickness and the Assistant Manager and a Supervisor was taking care of things when I returned to work. His view was that if wasn’t capable of fulfilling my job description as a sales assistant (which I hadn’t done for at least a year beforehand due to health problems) then I was not fit for work. He also didn’t believe that I had MS even though it was on my sicknote. I called ACAS and they informed me that they were legally obliged to make “reasonable adjustments” to my role without loss of pay so I could still work there. Eventually, I was sent for an Occupational Health appointment where the doctor performing the assessment asked me why I was there as everything was in place for me to work comfortably before this AM stepped it. He clarified in his report the legal rammifications of these adjustments, too.
Even though it was hell to go through at the time and at times I was scared to go to work because of this AM and Supervisor, who both received warnings for harassment, I was glad to hear that I was in the right all along. You shouldn’t have to feel like you do in the workplace. I did leave that job in August, partly because of the anxiety I had surrounding the two individuals, and because I found a job with better pay that suited my lifestyle and study more.
I went through a horrible process with my previous job following my diagnosis and period of absence at the end of 2012. My Manager was off on long-term sickness and the Assistant Manager and a Supervisor was taking care of things when I returned to work. His view was that if wasn’t capable of fulfilling my job description as a sales assistant (which I hadn’t done for at least a year beforehand due to health problems) then I was not fit for work. He also didn’t believe that I had MS even though it was on my sicknote. I called ACAS and they informed me that they were legally obliged to make “reasonable adjustments” to my role without loss of pay so I could still work there. Eventually, I was sent for an Occupational Health appointment where the doctor performing the assessment asked me why I was there as everything was in place for me to work comfortably before this AM stepped it. He clarified in his report the legal rammifications of these adjustments, too.
Even though it was hell to go through at the time and at times I was scared to go to work because of this AM and Supervisor, who both received warnings for harassment, I was glad to hear that I was in the right all along. You shouldn’t have to feel like you do in the workplace. I did leave that job in August, partly because of the anxiety I had surrounding the two individuals, and because I found a job with better pay that suited my lifestyle and study more. I hope your situation gets easier soon. It is worth requesting an Occupational Health assessment so you and your managers know where you stand.
It seems to me that there are at least two separate but related issues here. Firstly you have a basic employment contract law issue (the mismatch between the de facto role that you have been doing since 2007 and the (wider) role as defined in the job description). Secondly you have the disability employment law issue of reasonable adjustments and so on. In your shoes, I would be seeking legal advice on both these matters.
It would be nice to think that, legally, your employers don’t have a leg to stand on in terms of what your role is now - surely it is what it has been in practice for 6+ years, regardless of what it says in the JD! - but I might be completely wrong about that, and it may be that your employers are perfectly entitled to regard the JD that forms part of your employment contract as the legal definition of the job you are contracted to do for the money, regardless of what they have required from you in practice so far. I really do not know. If your position on this one does look dicey legally, then your best bet might be to try to ignore that issue altogether and concentrate on the second (the disability aspect) where you are certainly on relatively firm ground. But this all comes round to the same conclusion - you need proper legal advice!
Please get yourself an employment lawyer - the best you can afford. Best to do it sooner rather than later, too.