This is quite an emotive issue for me.
I suffer poor health due to Endometriosis which means parts of the lining of your womb detach and float about until they attach themself to what ever else they can find.
In the last year my health has deteriorated to a stage where I barely have a pain free day and during my monthly (sorry boys) I'm in severe pain for two days and take very strong painkillers which knock me out.
Following a laparoscopy to investigate in early March I am now waiting for a bigger operation to remove Endometriosis from my bowel, my bladder, my womb, my ovary and the scarring from a previous cisarean style op which I had to remove a fibroid.
This has also meant fertility problems and two courses of IVF treatment.
Despite working for a government department for 18 years my employer did not deal with me sympathetically and despite me having to wait for the larger op gave me three months to reduce my sick leave and then started disciplinary proceedings.
Long story short I am lucky enough to have in laws who have given me 15 hours a week web design work for their business and a hubby who can afford to fund me in starting up my own e business and so I was able to resign.
I am a hard worker and built up a good reputation with in the organisation I worked for. People actually requested me because of the standard of work I did.
In order to try and help the situation I reduced my hours from 37 per week to 30 and finally to 22.
We had flexi in the office and it didn't matter which days I worked so I offered to work my days off to cancel out days that I'd taken off sick so that my employer still received a full working week from me but was told that this was giving me special treatment and that it would only be possible for a brief time. I was also told that if I passed out at work I would distress my colleagues so I should not come to work if I was ill and I should go home if I felt ill ... but all this while I was under disciplinary measures to reduce my sick leave.
I should also say that my flexi was always in credit which meant I always had time in hand and had worked extra hours.
The treatment I received from my employer caused so much stress that it actually made the situation worse to the point where I was so worried about making it in to work that I ended up feeling ill regardless of my actual health problem.
I know that sick leave is a serious issue for employers and mean a big drain on resources but what I would say is that because of the bully tactics that my employer used my sick leave actually got worse and instead of a positive result I've left taking 18 years of training and experience with me. The whole thing caused me a lot of distress and things got to the point where I didn't know what to do for the best.
The occupational doctor and my union rep have advised me that I have an excellent case to take to tribunal but having discussed it wth my husband I've decided that I really can't take any more upset and that it will be better to get on with making a new life.
The thing that upsets me most though is that I can list staff in our office who play the system and take their "allowed sick days"
while flying under the radar and get away with it while colleagues with genuine health problems are suffering the treatment I received.
The flip side is that staff daren't be off sick and come to work with all sorts which spreads like wild fire ... I used to be very unsympathetic because I just couldn't afford to catch every day bugs and colds etc
I would dearly love to have perfect health but some times things just don't work out that way.
