[Off Topic] I just received this from my HR manager (not a wind up)

[Tom Bombadil]

The HR manager may be attempting to combat a genuine problem, but they're going the wrong way about it. There are effective ways to monitor absence without ranting at all employees. This draconian and no doubt demorilizing e-mail highlights the need for your MD to start looking for a more skilled HR manager - one with some people skills and a little training and experience.

 

[tedebear]

The HR manager may be attempting to combat a genuine problem, but they're going the wrong way about it. There are effective ways to monitor absence without ranting at all employees. This draconian and no doubt demorilizing e-mail highlights the need for your MD to start looking for a more skilled HR manager - one with some people skills and a little training and experience.

I agree - good summary indeed!

 

[Scoffers]

The HR manager may be attempting to combat a genuine problem, but they're going the wrong way about it. There are effective ways to monitor absence without ranting at all employees. This draconian and no doubt demorilizing e-mail highlights the need for your MD to start looking for a more skilled HR manager - one with some people skills and a little training and experience.

Excellent summary, I agree entirely

 

[Titanic]

It must be a pretty small company if the HR Manager wants every sickie to call them personally. In a small company, I think it's a pretty fair statement of how the management team feel and what they expect.

 

[British Bulldog]

What kind of company only gives you 5 days paid sick leave a year?

 

[Adam Virgo's Shirt]

Re the SSP, you will be entitled to SSP on the 4th day of sick leave which is about £70 q week. Unless the company is very small, they won't be able to recover it from HMRC, so in a sense they will pay you sick leave for 26 weeks anyway.

Agree that the bereavement policy is a bit harsh, but perhaps in a situation where a very close relative has died, they may afford it to you anyway on a discretionary basis. I read that as them saying they won't give you anything to avoid the inevitable claims for time off to attend Great Aunt Edna's cousin twice removed's funeral.

The most hilarious thing to happen I reckon, would be someone going sick when they know the HR Manager is in an external meeting at 9am (ie uncontactable), and the MD is on holiday somewhere with a time difference of -5 hours. Thus you would have to ring the MD in the middle of the night to satisfy the procedure. The procedure would proably be amended very shortly afterwards lol!

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Sack all the permanent employees and hire contractors. The problem will disappear overnight.

Dont go in to work = Dont get paid

Oh, hang on, think I may go in work after all

Gross over-simplication - obviously - but there ain't half some skiving baskets out there. Fact.

Oh, and must bea pretty small company - cos that HR person has lost the plot completely and is a GRADE A ARSEHOLE who appears to be on the point of throwing a six-month stress-related sickie

 

[Robot Chicken]

Regarding sick leave, you can usually self-certify yourself off without the need for a doctor's certificate for a period of up to 5 days. If you're off sick for longer than that then the doctor can sign you off.

Does that mean you don't get paid when you've been signed off?

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

A GP will only give you a certificate if a condition is going to last more than a week. The first 7 days of an absence is covered by self certification. Most companies will conduct a return to work interview and if you work in certain jobs you need a doctors certificate to state you are fit/able to return to work (food processing , healthcare etc - if you have flu or sickness & diarrhoea). The Bereavement Leave policy is inconsiderate by forcing an employee to use their annual leave or take unpaid leave if it is all used up , they should give paid leave if it involves a direct family member (partner or next of kin). Why is it the employee responsibility to enter leave and sick absence onto a database and get written/verbal authorisation ? Surely the whole point of HR is Administration and their job is to oversee these functions. If they are controlling this properly in the first place there is no need for an e-mail to point out that certain employees are taking the mick.

 

[blue'n'white]

Personally I think the letter is dreadful
I note that you have removed the names "A Hitler" and "J Stalin" to protect the guilty though and that's very fine and noble but personally I would tell this HR geezer that he's well out of order. Obviously the company has been lax in the first place but they have to look at themselves and address their problems before getting on everybody elses backs. I'd imagine that the morale in the company is currently somewhere below rock bottom because of this. If it's a couple of people who have been taking the mick they should address them individually and not the rest of the company. It's hectoring, rude and down right bullying.
But there again I'm a civil servant and it's well known that we take hundreds of sickies a year anyway so what the hell do I know ?

 

[clapham_gull]

Remarkable that one of the roles of Human Resources is to resolve conflict between staff and yet sends something out like out.

Doesn't matter whether his/her reasons were justified, if the intention was to improve productivity they've royally f*cked up there because as we all know it's very very easy to do the bare minimum.

I've only experienced something similiar when we had some thefts from work, (most probably external) and a letter was sent round that was worded to imply everyone was under suspicion...

.. they never did that again.

 

[Yorkie]

Ned worked for a company in Elland when his Dad died. As he died in Sheffield Northern General at 3am (we were called out to go there) he took that day off work and the day of the funeral. He lost his pay for those two days. 8 months earlier my Dad died in Worthing hospital and as I was the only child and my StepMum is disabled I had to do all the funeral arrangements etc. I took a week off but Ned was with me (there is so much to arrange) He lost a full week's pay. We were lucky in that a relative helped us out financially at that time.
Engineering factories very rarely have any sick pay at all. At this company where he works now he had to work for two years before getting any sick allowance (he is asthmatic and sometimes just have to have time off) Statutory sick pay was the only money paid out, which was £58 a week.

 

[blue'n'white]

Ned worked for a company in Elland when his Dad died. As he died in Sheffield Northern General at 3am (we were called out to go there) he took that day off work and the day of the funeral. He lost his pay for those two days. 8 months earlier my Dad died in Worthing hospital and as I was the only child and my StepMum is disabled I had to do all the funeral arrangements etc. I took a week off but Ned was with me (there is so much to arrange) He lost a full week's pay. We were lucky in that a relative helped us out financially at that time.
Engineering factories very rarely have any sick pay at all. At this company where he works now he had to work for two years before getting any sick allowance (he is asthmatic and sometimes just have to have time off) Statutory sick pay was the only money paid out, which was £58 a week.

Hold on "GET a sick allowance"
So the company are basically saying that after you've been here two years you're "entitled" to extra annual leave in the form of sick leave then are they not. Well that's how I read it

 

[Scoffers]

Personally I think the letter is dreadful
I note that you have removed the names "A Hitler" and "J Stalin" to protect the guilty though and that's very fine and noble but personally I would tell this HR geezer that he's well out of order. Obviously the company has been lax in the first place but they have to look at themselves and address their problems before getting on everybody elses backs. I'd imagine that the morale in the company is currently somewhere below rock bottom because of this. If it's a couple of people who have been taking the mick they should address them individually and not the rest of the company. It's hectoring, rude and down right bullying.
But there again I'm a civil servant and it's well known that we take hundreds of sickies a year anyway so what the hell do I know ?

Our HR manager has a history of sending this sort of email with CAPS all over the place, and even Red text in some cases. So much so that for last years secret santa, I "arranged" for me to pick out his name from the hat, and I bought him the "Motivate your employees for Dummies" book. And to further illustrate the point, I printed out his email a couple of times (after carefully removing my name) and used that to wrap his book.

 

[Scoffers]

It must be a pretty small company if the HR Manager wants every sickie to call them personally. In a small company, I think it's a pretty fair statement of how the management team feel and what they expect.

45 people in the London office

 

[blue'n'white]

Our HR manager has a history of sending this sort of email with CAPS all over the place, and even Red text in some cases. So much so that for last years secret santa, I "arranged" for me to pick out his name from the hat, and I bought him the "Motivate your employees for Dummies" book. And to further illustrate the point, I printed out his email a couple of times (after carefully removing my name) and used that to wrap his book.

Nice one !!
I really am surprised nobody's smacked him one. He really sounds like a self important, jumped up little git who needs to get a life.
I must admit that I thought perhaps you'd put the capitals in to emphasise the point but if he sent the letter out like that that makes it twice as bad.
I assume you like your job or you'd be trying to get away from this idiot.

 

[Scoffers]

Nice one !!
I really am surprised nobody's smacked him one. He really sounds like a self important, jumped up little git who needs to get a life.
I must admit that I thought perhaps you'd put the capitals in to emphasise the point but if he sent the letter out like that that makes it twice as bad.
I assume you like your job or you'd be trying to get away from this idiot.

Nope, my original posting was word for word what this chap sent in his email to all 45 of us (except where I took out the company name). This chap is for real.

Yes, I do like my job, and I'm not worried about HR. Our American CEO is coming over to visit next week, and the word of the street is, our favourite little HR manager is going to be given a lesson in manners !

 

[Nibble]

I used to work in job a few years ago where I confronted violence on a regular basis. During one particularly nasty incident I was stabbed in the knee cap with a screwdriver. I had to go to hospital for 4 hours and by the time I had finished being stitched up it was way past my normal hours of work.

The next day I returned to work as my company did not pay sick pay and asked to fill out a claim form for the time I missed at work the previous day. I could hardly walk and my knee was the size of a grapefruit. I was told that there was no point as I would not be getting paid due to the fact that I should have not let the situation get to that level of violence.

I then asked to take some annual leave to let my knee heal. My boss denied me the leave saying that it was too short notice. When I told him that the last four holiday requests had been denied because they could not get cover his reply was, I kid you not "Your whole f***ing job is a holiday".

I told him to stick his job up his arse. The company was then made to pay me a lot of back pay and got a good bollocking. I have since left this nonsense behind.

 

[Scoffers]

I used to work in job a few years ago where I confronted violence on a regular basis. During one particularly nasty incident I was stabbed in the knee cap with a screwdriver. I had to go to hospital for 4 hours and by the time I had finished being stitched up it was way past my normal hours of work.

The next day I returned to work as my company did not pay sick pay and asked to fill out a claim form for the time I missed at work the previous day. I could hardly walk and my knee was the size of a grapefruit. I was told that there was no point as I would not be getting paid due to the fact that I should have not let the situation get to that level of violence.

I then asked to take some annual leave to let my knee heal. My boss denied me the leave saying that it was too short notice. When I told him that the last four holiday requests had been denied because they could not get cover his reply was, I kid you not "Your whole f***ing job is a holiday".

I told him to stick his job up his arse. The company was then made to pay me a lot of back pay and got a good bollocking. I have since left this nonsense behind.

It never ceases to amaze me how some so called Managers seem to be completely incapable of actually effectively managing any given situation. Mostly it's common sense, but they don't teach that at School do they!

 

[Nibble]

It never ceases to amaze me how some so called Managers seem to be completely incapable of actually effectively managing any given situation. Mostly it's common sense, but they don't teach that at School do they!

Absaloutly. I can see where your HR department is coming from but they need to realise they can't just send blanket mails out like this and not expect a significant drop in morale.