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Coronavirus - how is it/has it affected you?

SocketRocket said:
No, not majority but more prevalent than in the Private Sector. There is no doubt in my mind that if people these days can easily (The phrase is 'swing a sicky' I believe) then many will take advantage of it. It's not unique to the Public sector but is certainly more prevalent there.
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Perhaps the issue is that the private sector doesn’t give its staff the support needed during sick leave by punishing people with lack of pay which is why it can often afford to pay people a higher salary? Maybe, instead of saying that the public sector has it easy in that way, people should lobby for better working conditions in the private sector.
 
Kellfire said:
Perhaps the issue is that the private sector doesn’t give its staff the support needed during sick leave by punishing people with lack of pay which is why it can often afford to pay people a higher salary? Maybe, instead of saying that the public sector has it easy in that way, people should lobby for better working conditions in the private sector.
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A nice sentiment, but the amount of people who would take advantage of such a system would sky rocket I imagine. I've seen it all too often in the factories I visit (most on minimum wage may I add) the old Monday morning blues, always the same people as well.
 
Beezerk said:
A nice sentiment, but the amount of people who would take advantage of such a system would sky rocket I imagine. I've seen it all too often in the factories I visit (most on minimum wage may I add) the old Monday morning blues, always the same people as well.
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No surprise that those being paid the least and presumably with the worse benefits among the staff have the worst sickness records. But then that’s a whole other debate about the pathetic level of the minimum wage in this country.
 
The main reason my wife felt she could not return to work in the NHS after taking her NHS pension was simply what was allowed to happen and not be properly addressed by immediate line management and HR. She did not so much blame immediate Line Management as that was too often very good and caring nurses being given the wrong sort of management responsibilities - more it was HR not stepping in to support the management when issues were evident and doing the difficult stuff was necessary.

My wife just couldn't stomach what she'd see a few doing - inappropriate or misplaced behaviour impacting others in the team and playing the system to their benefit - especially when that playing of the system often impacted her team's ability to provide the level of care and support to the patients that was their responsibility. And as she is still in touch with a couple of friends in the team she was in, she has heard of the same self-serving and selfish behaviour of some through the pandemic continuing.

Small numbers perhaps - but the bad apple...even though the bad apples can be good at their job when they do it...and there's the rub.

Upside for my wife is that she has a new 2-3 day role in the same field but outside of the NHS that she loves - and that has enabled her to provide support to many through the last difficult year.
 
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Some of you need to get òutside and take your frustration out on a little white ball rather than fellow Forummers and bickering.

This thread is supposedly about the personal impact of this virus and thus should not be about arguing a person's individual experiences.
 
Kellfire said:
Perhaps the issue is that the private sector doesn’t give its staff the support needed during sick leave by punishing people with lack of pay which is why it can often afford to pay people a higher salary? Maybe, instead of saying that the public sector has it easy in that way, people should lobby for better working conditions in the private sector.
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Or maybe not
 
Kellfire said:
Perhaps the issue is that the private sector doesn’t give its staff the support needed during sick leave by punishing people with lack of pay which is why it can often afford to pay people a higher salary? Maybe, instead of saying that the public sector has it easy in that way, people should lobby for better working conditions in the private sector.
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Generalizing a bit i see , the firm i work for provide al sorts of support but we still have the odd people milk the systems for their own ends.
This often leads to others having to do extra unsociable shifts , doubles and the like .
During this epidemic the support they have made available was fantastic from flexible working to short time with full pay so not all private companies are
as bad as you make out .I agree some are . Perhaps its the other way round , should we lobby for the public sector to be brought in to the 21st century ?
Before you explode its just a thought to balance your what seems one sided view.
Have you ever worked in the private sector ?
 
oxymoron said:
Generalizing a bit i see , the firm i work for provide al sorts of support but we still have the odd people milk the systems for their own ends.
This often leads to others having to do extra unsociable shifts , doubles and the like .
During this epidemic the support they have made available was fantastic from flexible working to short time with full pay so not all private companies are
as bad as you make out .I agree some are . Perhaps its the other way round , should we lobby for the public sector to be brought in to the 21st century ?
Before you explode its just a thought to balance your what seems one sided view.
Have you ever worked in the private sector ?
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Of course I generalise and made this clear, just as others have done about the public sector which prompted my responses. Did you expect me to list every single public and private sector business and list their specific benefits?

I never said all private sector businesses are “bad”.

Yes I have worked in the private sector, once for a pharmaceutical company and once for an American insurance company. The American company offered excellent staff benefits and support but relatively low wages for the industry.
 
I started work in the mid 70's. A public sector business. Pulling a 6 month sicky on full pay was around then and wasn't applicable to any particular age group. In '92 I switched to another public sector company, and experienced the same. It was rare but it happened. In '98 I switched to the private sector. Pulling a sicky still happened but only as far as the company limit allowed.

Age had no bearing on who pulled a sicky, only attitude of mind.
 
Hobbit said:
I started work in the mid 70's. A public sector business. Pulling a 6 month sicky on full pay was around then and wasn't applicable to any particular age group. In '92 I switched to another public sector company, and experienced the same. It was rare but it happened. In '98 I switched to the private sector. Pulling a sicky still happened but only as far as the company limit allowed.

Age had no bearing on who pulled a sicky, only attitude of mind.
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I think something important to remember is that “pulling a sicky” isn’t necessarily the wrong thing to do if you’re sick. It’s a travesty that some people don’t take time off work when they’re sick because they can’t afford to take time unpaid or fear losing their job.
 
Kellfire said:
I think something important to remember is that “pulling a sicky” isn’t necessarily the wrong thing to do if you’re sick. It’s a travesty that some people don’t take time off work when they’re sick because they can’t afford to take time unpaid or fear losing their job.
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In my experience, actually being sick is called "being off sick" and being absent whilst claiming to be sick is "pulling a sicky" i.e. Friday, not well enough to come to work but miraculous recovery to be in the pub that night. Seen that loads, and having worked for both Private and Public sector clients, not restricted to either.

My opinion on the public v private "sickness" view is that, in my experience, public sector bodies have a much more lax policy on managing absence (in one case, no absence policy was documented). They actually provide less support to those off sick in many of these cases as no one really gives a rats ass why someone is off as it won't really be managed anyway. In two years with my last public sector client I never saw a single return to work discussion take place.

Private sectors also tend to be profit driven and therefore they "feel" or "notice" the impact to productivity more and therefore manage it tighter to reduce the impact to that productivity and, ultimately profitability. Public sector has no such drivers as so loss of productivity doesn't mean much, in addition, many public sector bodies are monopolies and have no competition (HMLR, HMRC, DVLA etc) and so again, productivity hasn't been a main driver in the clients I have worked with.

My personal situation is I don't work, I don't get paid, regardless of the reason. With the exception of a month off when I was in an accident a few yeas ago, I have had no "sickies" in over 10 years. I can't really afford to, yet HMRC want to class me as an "employee" (whole other rant).
 
Kellfire said:
I think something important to remember is that “pulling a sicky” isn’t necessarily the wrong thing to do if you’re sick. It’s a travesty that some people don’t take time off work when they’re sick because they can’t afford to take time unpaid or fear losing their job.
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You are not pulling a sicky if you are ill. Which neatly brings us back to where this began :D. If you feel rough after your jab then you can genuinely be off work sick.
 
Kellfire said:
I think something important to remember is that “pulling a sicky” isn’t necessarily the wrong thing to do if you’re sick. It’s a travesty that some people don’t take time off work when they’re sick because they can’t afford to take time unpaid or fear losing their job.
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Unless the interpretation has changed, "pulling a sicky" isn't done when you're sick. Being off ill is genuine, but pulling a sicky is taking sick leave when you're not ill.

As for the debate around paid sick leave, maybe another thread is required... after all, this is a thread about Covid.
 
My company (of 13+ys) is very tight on us logging sickness days off. And they monitor it and always do a very quick return to work 'interview/check' by telephone - whether it's 1 day off or 10. But in my experience they are very supportive around longer periods off sick or absence signed off by GP. But if I was to be off sick a day here - a day there - on a fairly regular basis - or more extended periods off for the same reason - they'd be seeking an explanation and a plan from me and/or my GP as to how to get over it.

Interesting observation I heard was that in future more of us might be more inclined to sign-off work sick if we have cold/flu symptoms as we have become MUCH more aware of spreading viruses. And so less of the 'I'll just battle through and go into work - they need me' attitude.
 
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larmen said:
I am getting conflicting information.

Does rule of 6 include children (under 5)? In England.
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Yep, all children are counted in the rule of 6 (assuming it's more than 2 families), if it's just two families then there are no limits on the numbers. Only time that children under 5 are not counted are formally organised parent and child groups.
 
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