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Advice needed re adjustments at work

Lotus

I have to attend a meeting with my employers regarding my sickness absence. 

Several of my sickness days were directly due to depression and anxiety and were reported by me as such. However I'm finding it more difficult to cope with working full time - I get very tired, sometimes feel overloaded and get anxious about certain things. This often makes me "run down"  and more liable to get viruses and infections. 

I have decided that I need to reduce my hours significantly, as I feel much better and more able to cope if I have a couple of days holiday during a week, so I want to reduce my hours to part time. 

My GP assessed me using the AQ test a couple of months ago and offered me a referral for an "official"  diagnosis, but was of the opinion that I didn't really need it because I was able to work most of the time. I'm going to consult with him again next week to ask for a referral after this development. 

What I need to know is - what are the options if my firm can't offer me reduced hours? 

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  • Former Member
    Former Member

    Hi Pixiefox,

    It is likely that the company's provision of private health care is their way of providing an occupational health service - i.e. it is their way of complying with the law. The private health will, very likely, cover mental health issues and I would actually expect that a large proportion of their consultations are on mental health issues. The company is under an obligation to monitor health issues (they might actually be responsible for some of the health issues arising) and they could be seen as being negligent if someone had significant health absence and they did nothing about it. I had a couple of consultations with this type of outsourced OH provision and found the professionals (a group of GPs who were doing this work as a sideline to their main GP practice) to be very sympathetic and eager to help get reasonable adjustments in place. There is an important aspect of the equality act that means that you don't actually need a diagnosis to be given some allowance for your condition so they can give you some reasonable adjustments even if you don't have a full diagnosis - it just has to be evident that you would benefit from being treated more appropriately.

    Your doubts about feeling that you might not qualify for a diagnosis are actually a common fear of people who would genuinely benefit from a diagnosis. The fact that you are struggling with work is another sign and I would really encourage you to try and deal with this with the help that you could get from the professionals rather than retreating and avoiding tackling this.

    Your score of 41 (about the same as me) means that you very likely to get a diagnosis if you wanted to go through with it. A diagnosis does not lead to instant resolution of your issues but I feel so much better for knowing what I am and that there are resources to help one with the very real difficulties that the condition gives us.

Reply
  • Former Member
    Former Member

    Hi Pixiefox,

    It is likely that the company's provision of private health care is their way of providing an occupational health service - i.e. it is their way of complying with the law. The private health will, very likely, cover mental health issues and I would actually expect that a large proportion of their consultations are on mental health issues. The company is under an obligation to monitor health issues (they might actually be responsible for some of the health issues arising) and they could be seen as being negligent if someone had significant health absence and they did nothing about it. I had a couple of consultations with this type of outsourced OH provision and found the professionals (a group of GPs who were doing this work as a sideline to their main GP practice) to be very sympathetic and eager to help get reasonable adjustments in place. There is an important aspect of the equality act that means that you don't actually need a diagnosis to be given some allowance for your condition so they can give you some reasonable adjustments even if you don't have a full diagnosis - it just has to be evident that you would benefit from being treated more appropriately.

    Your doubts about feeling that you might not qualify for a diagnosis are actually a common fear of people who would genuinely benefit from a diagnosis. The fact that you are struggling with work is another sign and I would really encourage you to try and deal with this with the help that you could get from the professionals rather than retreating and avoiding tackling this.

    Your score of 41 (about the same as me) means that you very likely to get a diagnosis if you wanted to go through with it. A diagnosis does not lead to instant resolution of your issues but I feel so much better for knowing what I am and that there are resources to help one with the very real difficulties that the condition gives us.

Children
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