After a long, hard weekend of drinking and partying, there are plenty of things that you do not need on a Monday morning. Work would feature pretty highly on my list, but not quite as highly as having to listen to a woman, who is more than double your age, harp on about having to wear incontinence pads.
A truly horrific and distressing 20 minutes were spent trying to give the appearance of someone who cared rather than someone who wanted to curl into a ball and cry. At this point, I can imagine many of you are wondering why on earth I would put myself through this. To be honest, I don't know.
Unfortunately for the formerly incontinent woman, who has not long returned to week after nearly 3 weeks off with gastroenteritis, we have stopped 2 weeks worth of her pay after she failed to call in to let us know that she wouldn't be in work for this period. Under our rules, no phone call or sick note = no pay, which is wonderful I personally think.
However, I am facing a tricky dilemma over this one, as the woman in question is claiming that she couldn't get to a phone because of her condition (hence the graphic detail that she went into...). Out of principle I don't want to give her any money back, but I really don't think I could handle any more mental scarring...
Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated...
while your attitude to this disabled employee is fairly offensive i do think that you are correct in applying employer's expectations to sickness notification.
I would advise you to ensure that you do follow up her comments that her disability prevented her from following employer's procedures before dismissing them. While it's unlikely to prove justifiable, you'd better act like a caring employer when discussing the impact a disability has on the working life of an employee
Hi Laurie
Firstly, apologies for any offence I may have caused you. However, I would like to point out that this person (who is a constant thorn in the side of HR) was not suffering from a disability, merely temporary incontinence due to a somewhat prolonged bout of gastroenteritis.
We have ended up paying her as she; a) managed to produce a sick note, and b) I really couldn't have listened to any more details on her loose bowel movements.
Sometimes you've got to look after your own mental well-being...