work... managers... seeming lack of understanding!

[Ally]

So.
Work...... pppppfffffff....

I work for a large multi-national corporation and my office is based in Scotland.
Approx a year and a half ago, I moved to England and began working remotely with visits back to the office approx every 2 months.
When I left, I stopped being on-call (we provide computer support 24x7 worldwide)

The on-call part of the job is not mandatory and when I started, I was only on temporary as one f the regular guys was off sick (it was later discovered that he had terminal stomach cancer and has since passed away)
The Christmas before I moved, I told them that I was wanting to stop with the on-call side of the job but they did nothing to find a replacement.

In the time that I have been away, my manger has been slowly pushing the issue about me going back on call.
I have explained about my depression and mental states and he told me that his wife has gone through sever post-natal depression to the point that she had some sort of electroshock treatment.
As a result of this, I thought that he would understand but no, he is still pushing the issue.

After my recent breakdown, I spoke with HR and explained what I have been going through an they have said that they will speak with him about the on-call and hopefully get him to back off.

My very real concern is that he will say that I need to come back to Scotland and start coming into the office every day.
This would be pure spite as far as I am concerned. One of the other guys came off the on-call on medical grounds (high blood pressure) and so I don't see where the difference is as I have a perfectly valid medical reason.

If my manager starts to push with this, then the next step forward would be for me to go off sick which is something I don't want to do as i would leave the rest of my team in the lurch. They have been very understanding, and I don't like to let people down.

Maybe I am getting ahead of myself and should wait until the HR team speak with him.
But I can't help the feeling that I am going to be back into a corner and that is really not helping my chemical imbalance at the moment!

I dunno what to do
(sorry about the long post again!)

[Zaf]

I would definitely try to wait till the HR team has spoken your manager,  I know its not easy when you probably have all sorts of scenarios going through your mind wondering whats going to happen but if you can possibly do it then it will help your state of mind.  Perhaps if you dont hear from the HR team in a set number of days (whatever seems reasonable to you) then contact them again.

If your manager continues to push the on-call side of things I would suggest having a very close look at your contract of employment (or get someone else to do it for you) and check exactly what is in the document.  You dont have to do any work thats not in it and if someone makes things difficult for you then you should be able to do something about it legally (not what you want of course if you're feeling depressed)

[Ally]

Hi Zaf.
There is nothing in my contract that states I have to do the on-call support.
but, but the same token, there is nothing in my contract that states that I am allowed to work from home in a semi-permanent basis.

I know that I will have to wait for HR, but it's the waiting that is the problem.
They have said that they would contact me, but I don't know how long I can take the waiting!

I would prefer to get things sorted now so that I know what is in store for me in the months to come

Difficult times 

Ally

[Zaf]

Ally

I'm assuming that your HR people know about your health issues?  As such if anyone makes things difficult for you I'm fairly sure the firm can be held repsonsible for discrimination, forgive me if I missed it but how long have you been working from home now?

I would think that a fortnight at most is enough for HR to have tackled it,  in fact I'd be inclined to phone up after a week and (if they know about your depression) tactfully ask if anything has been resolved as its making you anxious and more depressed not knowing.

Z xx

[Ally]

Yeah, I spoke to HR when I came back from the doc after my last meltdown a few weeks ago and explained the situation to them

I have been working from home for about a year and a half now. and working for the company for almost 12 years (will be 12 years if Feb next year)

I'll stick with it now and try to relax over the weekend.

Thanks for your support.
It's nice to know that I a not alone and people are willing to fight in my corner for me

A.
xx

[Zaf]

Its really difficult to put things like that out of your mind but if you possibly can its the best thing for your health.

There are a lot of employment laws relating what you can and cant do if someone is ill and if things get tough I'd strongly suggest you get in touch with the CAB or your union if you're in one.

Z xx

[Ally]

unfortunatly I'm not in a union.... yet!

I was going to go and speak with the CAB to try and get some advice from a legal standpoint
Given that I have been suffering from depression for as long as I can remember, even tho it was only offically diagnosed 5(ish) years ago I do believe that they should be doing something to help me and not try to make things worse for me.

As you probably already know, the ADs can make your drowsy, and I don't want to be in the position where I have to decide to either not take my ADs for a week or risk not waking when the pager goes off!

It is also, in my belief, morally wrong to put someone in that position.

A.
xx

[Zaf]

I'm not 100% sure but you may need to have been in a union a set period of time before they will give you help with such things so if you are thinking of joining it may well be a good idea to look into it sooner or later.  I'm sure the CAB will give you advice but a union will fight your case if it gets that far.

I think you need to put that point strongly to your HR people and possibly your manager too,  I would also advise you to keep copies of everything sent to you and you send to them etc just in case you need it.

I know that sounds alarmist but its often the case of being wise after the event,  I can see this from both sides of the coin so to speak as I used to be in a union and I'm now an employer!

[SleepyCat]

Normally the union will support you even with things that happened before you were a member. It might be a good idea to join a union now. Or there is always ACAS.

I don't think you should even consider stopping your medication for any length of time. If you are likely to sleep through the pager then I think this is a very strong argument that you are simply unsuitable for on-call work.

[Ally]

So, I've (finally) had some feedback where the company are saying that there is no concerns over my performance.
It looks like I have had to go to these extremes to get my management chain to listen!

Why do some people make things so difficult.

Still... onwards and upwards. It's the weekend so will try to chill out a bit over the weekend

A.

[Zaf]

At least you've heard something positive before the weekend, I guess it makes you angry though?

[Ally]

More frustrated than angry... but sometimes it is difficult to separate the 2 emotions when management is putting me in this position.

I'm sure that it is only a matter of time before the request happens again!

[lbruk]

I had major issues at my work with my depression. I was a manager myself and if i am honest i had no training in what to look for in terns of mental illnesses. When i started suffering over a year ago - depression was the last thing i thought it was because i had always regarded it as not a real illness, well i guess it showed me!
unfortunately it comes down to you educating your manager, which is an awful thing, my company forced me out and are now pleading "well if you didnt know you were depressed, how were we supposed to know" line.

"hopefully" with the Wellbeing Charter being about now - maybe knowledge of these types of illnesses will increase and people with depression/anxiety etc actually get treated in the way they shoud be.

I hope your HR department will get your manager to back off, as he should..