What does sick leave have to do with trust you might ask? Well that’s exactly what I asked this week and the response was astounding.
The question was “As a Leader do you think your staff should have to ask you for sick leave and provide reasons?”
The responses were all very much towards the end of yes you should have to notify the employer of sick leave but you shouldn’t have to provide a reason. As it turns out there is no legal requirement for your employer to ask for reasons and the default legal position, especially in the UK, is that you don’t have to tell.
From the Business point of view there has to be continuity. A business might have to get a replacement staff member short term or long term so it is fair to ask for a potential timescale so that business can be conducted.
I was speaking about this question in the People Improving their Leadership Facebook Group for Kuinua Coaching and it occurred to me that I had felt very pressured in the past, when working for an employer, to tell the employer what was wrong with me, they actually asked when I rang in. I found that this took away my dignity and made me feel worse to have to ring in every day and keep on stating why. I think this is important for employees to know that they don’t have to put themselves in this position and that they are within the law to refuse to give further illness information.
As an employer, manager and leader myself I would never dream of asking my staff to tell me why they were off. I might perhaps ask when they would be back. Admittedly I don’t have the constraints of having to allocate overheads to various codes, but it seems to me that business can become so ‘optimised’ that it takes away the human element.
This is something to keep in mind, always see your employed and your team as people not numbers.
So how about you? What would you do?
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