Return to work

[JuneZ]

I had SAH in Nov. 2021. I’ve been taking sick leave for more than 5 months and will have to choose to return to work in May or to lose my job.

 

I’m planning phased return to work, e.g. 10 hours per week, 20 hours per week, … and eventually work full-time. I’m bothered mostly by fatigue, buttocks pain and heel pain, eye pain, and dizziness. I can walk at most 1 mile once in a day. At bad days I have to lay on bed all day. Can you advise if my plan will work? Based on your experience, how many weeks/months should each phase take?

 

 Thanks,

 

June

[jess]

Firstly welcome to btg sorry you need to be here xxx

 

All I can advise is speak with your management team as tesco let me sit down whenever needed but I also have osteoarthritis and fibromyalgia 

 

Still suffer dizziness 20 years later but not as much and its mainly anxiety related 

 

Speak to management about any support they can offer I worked 16hrs and 45 minutes for 19 years but now have a 32 and half hr contract but often do 40plus and love itwith the support of the company 

 

Hope things work out well for you xxx

[Skippy]

Hi there

 

What kind of work do you do?  Your employer should be able to provide you with contact with Occupational Health who will be able to assist and advise your employer as to the best way forward for you and also anything that you may need to perform your role.  Remember that if you now have a disability they have a duty of care to accommodate you accordingly.

[SarahLS]

Hi there,

 

I had my SAH in late 2017 and returned to work on a phased basis 4 months later. I started on 2 hours a day 3 days a week and over the following 8 months managed to build to 6 hours a day 3 days a week I never got beyond this as the fatigue, headaches & cognitive issues all kicked in when trying to do the work I'd done before.

 

After a restructure within the council I was redeployed to a role with set hours but no restrictions on when I had to work them and this worked well for just over a year - well until the pandemic hit. Working from home took some rebalancing- too easy to do too much - but now I can manage to work half days 5 days a week.

 

After hearing horror stories about our work place occupational health team I have nothing but praise for them and definitely recommend getting them fully involved from the start - they had so many good ideas on how to make things work for me. And it really was about helping me get better and not about my employers.

 

Good luck with it all and definitely take it very steadily.

[JuneZ]

16 minutes ago, Skippy said:

Hi there

 

What kind of work do you do?  Your employer should be able to provide you with contact with Occupational Health who will be able to assist and advise your employer as to the best way forward for you and also anything that you may need to perform your role.  Remember that if you now have a disability they have a duty of care to accommodate you accordingly.

I work in IT industry and have to request to work from home. I’ll work with my doctor and Occupational Health staff on my return-to-work schedule. I’m afraid that the mental stress at work might set me back. I tried to push myself hard and resulted in setback almost every month.

[SarahLS]

One thing my occ health helper advised was getting my neurologist to write a letter that clearly explained what had happened & how serious it was and to get it added permanently to my HR file.

This was really useful at the restructure as some people were disbelieving that I'd had a SAH and had long term problems as I was only in hospital one day and hadn't had surgery.

 

One high up person did say that I couldnt have actually had a SAH as I was still alive and that wasn't possible, I was also accused of hiding a mental health condition by lying about what had happened. 

The more evidence and support you can have as you negotiate a return the better...