Hello and welcome to Believe in ME with Rhona Barton. This episode is the third of a short series for Organisations. The aim is to help educate leaders, managers and HR teams about ME & Long Covid. Please feel free to share this series with your organisation.
You can head to www.rhonabarton.co.uk/media for more information about me and my story.
Don’t forget that you can review, share & subscribe to the podcast via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Ok, let’s jump straight in!
Last week we spoke about Supporting People with ME/Long Covid who are already in work. This week, we’re thinking about how we can Support People with ME/Long Covid who are currently off sick.
As I mentioned last week, I’m not here to remind you of your legal responsibilities as you or your HR team will deal with that. I’m here to give you some guidance around the more practical side of things.
With that in mind, let’s consider how the person with ME/Long Covid might be feeling right now.
As ME/Long Covid are fluctuating illnesses, symptoms can vary day-to-day as well as over longer periods. This can make it difficult to maintain a consistent level of working which can be frustrating and challenging for the individual, as well as the employer.
I’m sure you can imagine that this frustration may also lead to worry for the individual with regards to when they will be able to return to work or even if they will have a job to go back to.
They may also be worrying about how supportive their employer will be. Some working environments are supportive, others are not, and this can weigh heavily on the mind of the person living with ME/Long Covid.
This can add extra stress which, in turn, can exacerbate their symptoms.
On top of this, they may also be feeling like they have let their family down as they are not currently working or contributing to the upkeep of the household. They may have worries around any childcare needs, concerns around how they will manage the day-to-day housekeeping and cleaning let alone how they will then add in a full day of work. This can quickly snowball to concerns around finances and how they will be able to deal with other events and celebrations. All of this can go through their mind in a matter of seconds and, again add stress to the mix of already busy emotions.
These are very reasonable thoughts to be having. Especially when it feels like your whole world has just been turned upside down through no fault of your own. Whilst it’s not for their employer to solve all these queries, it’s important for employers to realise the thinking behind the pressure that an individual may be feeling to get back to work.
So, what’s your process right now for people who are off sick and how you communicate with them?
It’s inevitable – everybody gets sick! None of us enjoy it. Most people, when they are sick, will contact their employer to advise they are unwell and need to take the day off. They may need more than 1 day off and I’m sure none of us would like somebody to come back to work too early and risk spreading the bug around the organisation.
Occasional illness is normal and I’m sure, as an employer, this has been anticipated by your organisation. There will be a standard absence policy in place and some form of absence tracker to help spot any trends or even abuse of sick leave privileges.
After 7 days off work, the employee is likely to be asked to provide a fit note and may even require a return-to-work meeting.
Following the initial notification to work to explain they are unwell, there may have been a second call to confirm that longer than 1 day is needed and then perhaps, nothing much else? Your level of communication will vary depending on the size of your organisation and the nature of the illness.
However, maintaining contact with absent employees can help to build stronger working relationships whilst also giving the organisation a better idea of when they will be able to return to work.
Balancing concern for your employee with your desire to help them return to work can be tricking as you don’t want to come across as intrusive or overbearing but open communication is key to ensuring that your employee feels valued and encouraged to return to work.
In last week’s episode I spoke about having the first conversation with people with ME/Long Covid who are currently in work. Feel free to relisten to that episode!
Having a conversation for the first time when your employee is currently off sick with ME/Long Covid will be a little different.
This is likely to be via telephone or perhaps a video calling programme such as Zoom or MS Teams.
You will want to start by arranging a suitable date and time to have this chat and can do this during your initial discussion. You will want to agree a timescale for this call so that both you and the person with ME/Long Covid can set aside the required time in diaries.
During this call or video chat you will want to find out some specific information and some questions that you may wish to consider could be:
· Tell me about your ME/Long Covid
· How are you impacted on a day-to-day basis?
· How do you manage your condition at home?
When having this conversation, please show that you are listening to the person with ME/Long Covid. Keep in mind that they may have cognitive difficulties and struggle over some words so please don’t rush them to speak.
Please lay out a clear communications plan with the individual so that they can plan your calls in to their baseline activities. This will also allow them to collate their thoughts and prepare a summary of how things are going in advance of the calls rather than trying to pull this together at the time. If there is something specific that you would like to cover with them on a call, please try to give them notice so that, again, they can do some preparation or ask for help from others if required.
Clear planning, communication and reviewing progress are all vital to supporting and guiding people with ME/Long Covid whilst they are off sick. Both they and you will be aiming to get back into the workplace and the reassurance of regular communications, will go a long way to helping to settle any concerns that the individual may have about their job.
Let’s think about some key take aways from this episode:
1. People with ME/Long Covid will be going through a myriad of emotions and will have several concerns or worries in mind.
2. They may need help navigating the company policies and procedures in relation to being off sick to help reduce some of these concerns.
3. It would be helpful for them to know what the plan is in terms of communications and the processes around being off sick.
4. Knowing that their employer is willing to listen and be part of their support team as they try to get back to work, will help to boost their confidence in their working relationship with you and their value to the organisation.
That’s it for today everybody. As I’ve mentioned, this episode is the part of a short series for Organisations. The aim is to help educate leaders, managers and HR teams about ME & Long Covid. Please feel free to share this series with your organisation.
You can head to www.rhonabarton.co.uk/media for more information about me and my story.
Thank you for listening. Don’t forget that you can review, share & subscribe to the podcast via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.