I am off sick or about to return to work

If you are off work with stress or a mental health condition, keeping in touch with work may feel like the last thing you want to do. However, evidence suggests that regular contact with work during sickness absence is one of the best ways of aiding the return. Such contact should be focused on your wellbeing. It is an opportunity for you to update your manager on your health and your manager to update you on any developments at work, including general and social aspects.

The nature and frequency of the contact would be for you and your manager to agree on together and may change as the absence progresses. For example, it may start with weekly text or email contact, before progressing to telephone contact, before in-person meetings. The latter may involve meeting-up in neutral venues initially, away from campus, before meeting in the office.

Where you feel unable to keep in direct contact with your manager, you can identify someone to do this on your behalf or ask for another contact.

Resources

Managing Absence Code of Practice – for managers and staff

Short term absences

Long term absences

HR Partners & Advisors

Keep your manager updated during your regular catch-ups. Relevant information would include your GP’s opinion on your fitness to return and any specific support and/or adjustments they suggest. This will help your manager to prepare for your return.

Start to explore any work-related concerns with your manager, or a suitable other, prior to the return to work. The Workplace Pressures Risk Assessment tool (individual version) provides a suitable structure for this.

Your manager may suggest a management referral to Occupational Health for specific advice. The HR Advisor team facilitate the referral for the manager, but it is essential that you are also involved. You have the opportunity to offer you own perspective on the referral document under “Employee’s comments”.

It is common to experience a reduction in stamina and self-confidence after a long period of sickness absence. Prior to the return, health-permitting, it can be helpful to gradually build activities, including gentle exercise, social contact with others, and mentally stimulating activities. These may help to increase physical and mental capcity and aid the return to work

Resources

Management referral to Occupational Health  

Workplace Pressures Risk Assessment tool

A phased return to work would normally be recommended when the absence has been 4 weeks or more. Phased returns can also be helpful after shorter absences, particularly when there are residual symptoms such as tiredness or reduced concentration. Indeed, a similar type of arrangement can be offered even without sickness absence, if it would help the employee to remain at work.

The basic principles of a phased return include:

• normally limited to 4-6 weeks and involve reduced working hours and modified activities (the precise arrangements should be discussed and agreed between the employee and their manager)
• some supernumerary time is helpful in week one of return
• it is normally preferable to start back on the least challenging aspects of the role, before resuming the more demanding activities
• the employee and manager should meet at least weekly, to ensure that the phased return is progressing well and that the employee is coping at each stage before an increase in hours and activities
• HR and OH can provide more specific advice if required.

Your manager can advise you on this, or seek advice from the HR Advisor team if necessary. Generally, hours not worked would normally be recorded as sick leave and taken from your sick pay provision. Where there is insufficient sick pay provision remaining, you may be able to use some annual leave entitlement to support the phased return. This should be discussed and agreed with your line-manager.

Resources

Managing Absence Code of Practice – for managers and staff

University sick pay provision

Amari works for a student support team and has been off work for 3 months due to recurrence of depressive illness. At first, they didn’t feel able to maintain contact with their manager, but their partner kept in touch on their behalf and sent in the GP certificates. Since Amari has started to feel better, they have emailed their manager on a couple of occasions, the most recent saying that their GP is now supporting a return to work on phased arrangements. Amari visited work at a quiet time and met some close colleagues. They then met with their manager and agreed that a referral to Occupational Health would be helpful to make sure that all workplace health needs were being considered. Amari and their manager also took the opportunity to discuss their phased return arrangements.

Amari was still getting tired easily and feeling anxious, so they agreed that they would return on alternate half days during week one of return – Monday, Wednesday and Friday – and remain supernumerary that week, catching up with workplace developments, meeting colleagues and going through emails. Amari and their manager planned to catch-up briefly each day to check how things had gone, then meet at the end of the week to plan the following week.

The first week went well and they planned to increase hours to five half days in the second week and for Amari to resume some basic administrative aspects of their role. Amari also felt able to respond to some low-key student queries submitted by email.

By the third week, Amari felt able to take direct telephone queries, but became very anxious when a student became upset with them for not resolving their problem. Amari and their manager talked through the situation immediately afterwards, which was reassuring for Amari, but they agreed that they should keep to email queries that week, which they felt they had more control over.

By week four, Amari was working 6 hours a day, and managing a combination of email and telephone queries, but at a slower pace. They were taking regular short breaks, which helped them to maintain concentration. They felt ready to resume their normal hours the following week, but between Amari and their manager, agreed that it would probably take another few weeks for them to fully regain confidence and resume their full range of duties. They agreed that they would continue to meet weekly over that period.