Stress. Advise please

20122

I wonder if someone can advise me. I'm having difficulties at work. A brief outline is I've worked for a company now for 5 years, I'm very hard working & loyal. I always work hard, have never had a sick day and am very liked by all my customers. A few months ago a supervisor began work for the company and to make a long story short he was impossible to please, all five of my colleagues had the same difficulties with her I had. She recently wrongly accused me of not doing something & when I defended myself I was called into hr and given a very very hard time. Now I have never ever had any difficulties with hr or anyone I have ever worked for. I was with my last company 30 years and never once had a cross word with any superviser or indeed not one sick day in 30 years. Ive been with this company 5 years and have heard through others that the hr lady is not a nice person but as I said I never had any difficulty with her up to now. I went to my gp and told him everything that's been going on in my company the last few months and he said he felt I was stressed and gave me a cert for two weeks. Now I did not ask for this cert and have not ever been sick before but my doctor felt it was something I needed so I took his advise. My company has since contacted me and asked I attend a comAny doctor for a second oponion. I have no problem doing this and saying to the second doctor what I told my own doctor but I am worried and upset that the company don't appear to believe me. Also I feel they are trying to push me out and make it difficult for me to continue working for them- this is a series of small events too long winded to explain here that lead me to think this. I feel really down about this and as I am close to retiring Im saddened that the end of my working days would end on such a bad note.

I wonder has anyone any advise for me? If I attend the company doctor and honestly express myself could the company say I'm not fit for the job? I should say also it's sales I'm in and I know the cOmpany are doing v badly in the current climate but I have Maintained my sales record over the years.
I feel really low & worthless, cOming close to the end of my working life is difficult enough but ending feeling unwanted and a bad worker is really getting me down.

All advise very welcome

Thanking you in advance.

tatli_lokma

sorry to hear of your difficulties, its not a nice situation to be in at all.

First off, check your contract. It could be that it is just procedure that anyone off for more than 7 days is automatically referred to the company doctor. I know some companies do employ this practice. You may be worrying yourself unnecessarily.

I'm afraid the only other advice I can give you is regarding your worry that if the company doctor agrees with the diagnosis could you be deemed unfit for the job.
On this score I would say stop worrying - if it were a different ailment yes, perhaps, but because it is stress, and your GP feels this stress is contributed to by the company, the company could be deemed to be responsible for the stress, and therefore responsible for your illness. It may well be that if the sick cert you gave said it was due to 'stress' that they are asking you to attend a company doctor to cover their own arses.

In advance of meeting the doctor, I would recommend you take the time to sit and write down all the events in a timeline - dates, times, what happened, who was there, what was said etc. I wouldn't go showing this to the doctor, but from the list of events then sit and think through how these events made you feel - anxious, nervous, whatever, and also how it affected your work performance. Have all this in your head before attending the doctor - all too often we tend to downplay our emotional stresses, particularly to a doctor we are not familiar with. The old Irish 'ah I'm grand, not too bad' approach! By sitting and preparing yourself in advance you will be more prepared to be honest with him - and you need to be honest with this doctor to ensure he understands why your GP decided you were in need of 2 weeks off due to stress.

When you do go back to work, keep a diary of every event - small or otherwise.

Its a horrible situation to be in so close to the end of your working life, but unfortunately when things like this happen the only way to deal with them is to have evidence to back it all up.

I hope it all works out for you

mm_surf

20122 wrote: »

I wonder has anyone any advise for me? If I attend the company doctor and honestly express myself could the company say I'm not fit for the job? I should say also it's sales I'm in and I know the cOmpany are doing v badly in the current climate but I have Maintained my sales record over the years.

You did the right thing by going to your doc. Dealing with the stress is your priority.

Regarding the company doc, you have nothing to fear. Stress is stress, they should come to the same conclusion as each other.

Regarding the "can I be deemed unfit for the job"? Technically yes, but it would be the company's fault for stressing you - so in this situation they would have to make you redundant due to ill-health (and be liable for loss of earnings -but that's a legal thing so I won't comment further on that), or take appropriate steps to manage your stress.

You may find that the company doctor will deal with the stress differently than your own doc. GPs can be pretty liberal with the duration of sick certs. Don't be surprised if the company doc recommends a much shorter sick cert or a review after a couple of days.

M.