Dear all
We have an employee returning to work tomorrow after 4 weeks off sick with work related stress. She has less than 12 months service. She was paid in full for the first 10 days as per our policy and SSP for the remainder.
She says she is still not 100% and she was advised that she should be accompanied at her Return to Work meeting and wants a colleague to accompany her. She says she cannot afford to stay off work any longer.
Initially I informed her that it wouldn't be necessary (and there was no need/requirement) for her to be accompanied. But she came back time after time to say she did not feel able to attend the meeting unsupported. I said that I would be there (HR) to do this.
I said that her health and wellbeing were paramount and that if she was not fit enough to return to work she should consider this carefully.
Since she has been off, we have found many instances of work not being completed, errors, mistakes and her projects in a complete mess. Before she went off sick she had a request to leave early declined. Historically she has started late, left early and worked from home a lot - requesting a great deal of flexibility which she was afforded.
We have agreed to allow her to be accompanied tomorrow and we'll investigate why her work is causing her stress. It may be that she had problems and this is why her performance has been poor, or it may be that she is not up to her job which is stressing her out. However tomorrow we will focus on her health and wellbeing.
Her line manager will ask her how she is now feeling to which I'm sure she'll reply that she's still unwell but can't afford to stay off work any longer.
I will say that we can only deal with what we have in front of us. That she is making the decision to return to work and that we'll support her to take on her projects again and can we do anything to alleviate any stress? However, she is very well paid and has a relatively senior job so I'm not sure how much we can adjust. For a short time yes, but longer than a few weeks, not so easy.
We will also ask her to revert to her original contracted hours of 8:30 to 5:00 and work from the office so we can provide her full support and collaboration with her colleagues. I am sure this won't go down well.
Apart from the Return to Work meeting, two of her colleagues will sit with her to review the work on the accounts and the projects, I have advised them to fact find and assess the status of the projects without judgement. But apparently it's a right mess.
Does anyone have any advice, help or tips because I am concerned the meeting, albeit a routine one, may not be that easy.
I would love to hear what you all have to say and what experiences you have had which are similar.
Many thanks all.
Charlotte
