Friday sends water to certain little tiny fish (1 Viewer)

  • Thread starter Thread starter COB
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How are we this morning? I'm working from home then going in at lunchtime, so I can't complain too much (except about the tiny fish of course :emoji_fish:)
 
well I'm doing not too bad now because of a certain little tiny gaffe

I handed in some assignments yesterday so I'm off today. I'm going to a fashion thingy later which I always dread but I'll try to play it cool with my new Dr Martens :disco:
 
Moopy I need some advice. As most of you know I'm a manager (shittest job ever) of 14 people.

Myself and my company have done EVERYTHING POSSIBLE to make staff feel safe during Covid.

We have pretty much every form of ppe possible.

We have 1 member of staff working from home because her husband has stage 5 cancer.

Everyone else is at work. We have a member of staff who has asthma and put herself into sheilding during lockdown. She didn't receive a doctor's letter.

She's been back at work since July. We have her at a branch with 3 other staff members, all who are sheilding. She only comes into contact with one of them (in full PPE). We have put her in her own room and she doesn't have any contact with clients.

Today she has called in sick saying she can't work, she's too scared and she wants to work from home.

She's a full time Receptionist. She cannot work from home.

I'm at the point now with the team, who are all struggling and all being difficult, of saying "if you aren't happy with working, please leave and we will replace you". But obviously I know I can't do that. I have to be supportive.

But I've been so supportive to all of them for months. I check in on them daily. I calm them when they're stressed. I cover their shifts. I give them time off last minute if needed.

I feel like I'm bending over backwards to help them and it's still not good enough.

Any suggestions on how to handle all of this?
 
If she genuinely cannot work from home, then she is absent without leave. However, the question will be asked as to what steps you have taken to create a situations where she could re. diverting phone calls, access to systems re. appointments etc.

If someone is scared to leave the house, there's nothing you can do about that.

All you can do is offer unpaid leave. Someone can't have sick pay when they're not sick. If someone is on unpaid leave, you can at least bring someone in to cover.
 
She genuinely can't work from home and that's not me being difficult. She's a full time Receptionist and we have no way of accomodating it. The other lady that works from home is 20 hours and deals with all the insurance. But otherwise all Reception staff are needed in clinic.

I do understand people are scared. I get that. But I don't see what more we can do to support her at work to make her feel safe.
 
Tisch said:
Can she move roles onto something she can do from home? Is that what she's hinting she'd like to do?
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There is nothing to do from home. We have an admin person but she's been in the job 20 years and even she's working at work.

We are a vet practice. It's not like staff can see pets in their home. We have meds to dispense, clients to check in and deal with, vets to help. Everything we do is in clinic :(
 
God I just googled the title, hes basically accusing California of being complicit in a river flowing.
 
Eurgh got a delayed come comedown, I felt fine yesterday but today I’m utterly BEREFT!
 
Rachey said:
There is nothing to do from home. We have an admin person but she's been in the job 20 years and even she's working at work.

We are a vet practice. It's not like staff can see pets in their home. We have meds to dispense, clients to check in and deal with, vets to help. Everything we do is in clinic :(
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I see, sorry I thought you said you had some people working from home which I assumed were doing different roles.

I have sympathy for her situation but when you're looking for a career you pick the conditions that come with it. People that work on building sites have to work in the rain sometimes, people that work in teaching can't just go on loo/fag breaks whenever they like, and people that work on receptions have to man reception desks. It comes with the territory and if it's not for you, it's down to you to change vocation. Not down to your boss to wave a magic wand and make it better.

What does she actually want? To move the reception desk to her home? To have some sort of phone link directly to her home patients can ring through when they enter the building?
 
Tisch said:
I see, sorry I thought you said you had some people working from home which I assumed were doing different roles.

I have sympathy for her situation but when you're looking for a career you pick the conditions that come with it. People that work on building sites have to work in the rain sometimes, people that work in teaching can't just go on loo/fag breaks whenever they like, and people that work on receptions have to man reception desks. It comes with the territory and if it's not for you, it's down to you to change vocation. Not down to your boss to wave a magic wand and make it better.

What does she actually want? To move the reception desk to her home? To have some sort of phone link directly to her home patients can ring through when they enter the building?
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We do have one person working from home who is dealing with all the insurance claims but shes only part time so it's manageable. And her situation is different.

I think she wants us to basically say "yep work from home...do whatever you like" but it just isn't feasible.

What I find most frustrating is, people are being made redundant all over the country. I'm grateful to have a job. And we have people moaning about having a job !
 
I have to shop semi-fancy trousers today and it's freaking me out. no doubt I'll end up panic buying a pair that turns out to make me look like a sack of potatoes :(
 
Rachey said:
Moopy I need some advice. As most of you know I'm a manager (shittest job ever) of 14 people.

Myself and my company have done EVERYTHING POSSIBLE to make staff feel safe during Covid.

We have pretty much every form of ppe possible.

We have 1 member of staff working from home because her husband has stage 5 cancer.

Everyone else is at work. We have a member of staff who has asthma and put herself into sheilding during lockdown. She didn't receive a doctor's letter.

She's been back at work since July. We have her at a branch with 3 other staff members, all who are sheilding. She only comes into contact with one of them (in full PPE). We have put her in her own room and she doesn't have any contact with clients.

Today she has called in sick saying she can't work, she's too scared and she wants to work from home.

She's a full time Receptionist. She cannot work from home.

I'm at the point now with the team, who are all struggling and all being difficult, of saying "if you aren't happy with working, please leave and we will replace you". But obviously I know I can't do that. I have to be supportive.

But I've been so supportive to all of them for months. I check in on them daily. I calm them when they're stressed. I cover their shifts. I give them time off last minute if needed.

I feel like I'm bending over backwards to help them and it's still not good enough.

Any suggestions on how to handle all of this?
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If she was to be comfortable working in the office, what would the set-up look like, and what would she like to see in place that isn’t already there? Maybe put the onus on her to propose a solution so she feels like she has more control over the situation. I can sympathise with you both, in fairness, so it may be that finding her some emotional support / counselling would be the route to go down if the fear is that overwhelming.
 
Rachey said:
We do have one person working from home who is dealing with all the insurance claims but shes only part time so it's manageable. And her situation is different.

I think she wants us to basically say "yep work from home...do whatever you like" but it just isn't feasible.

What I find most frustrating is, people are being made redundant all over the country. I'm grateful to have a job. And we have people moaning about having a job !
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While I empathise with your position as an employer myself, the 'she should be grateful to have a job' attitude fucking stinks.

If she has genuine mental health issues because of the pandemic, you should be supporting her, not acting like she's a disposable piece of machinery.
 
big ron said:
While I empathise with your position as an employer myself, the 'she should be grateful to have a job' attitude fucking stinks.

If she has genuine mental health issues because of the pandemic, you should be supporting her, not acting like she's a disposable piece of machinery.
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I have supported her SO MUCH. I cannot do any more. I check on her every single day. I have asked her daily what else we can do to support her and put every single measure in place. There is genuinely nothing else I can do.

Our company IS struggling and redundancies will be made. I need staff to realise we are having issues.
 
ButterTart said:
If she was to be comfortable working in the office, what would the set-up look like, and what would she like to see in place that isn’t already there? Maybe put the onus on her to propose a solution so she feels like she has more control over the situation. I can sympathise with you both, in fairness, so it may be that finding her some emotional support / counselling would be the route to go down if the fear is that overwhelming.
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She is already set up in her own office. We have her starting earlier than the other Receptionist so she comes in and sees no one. We have given her her own kettle in her office so she can make drinks. The only thing she has to share is a toilet but that has hand sanitiser etc in it. We have provided aprons, gloves, a mask and visor to keep her protected.

I think she just wants to work from home
 
Sounds like you have done everything you can feasibly do to keep her safe at work. Working from home isn't an option so... Unpaid leave?

Wish I could ask to work from home because I don't feel safe at work (spoiler: I really don't feel safe) but I can't serve kids food from my sofa.
 
Is there an argument that she could get statutory sick pay due to depression and anxiety? Clearly her mental state leaves her unable to work, so maybe getting a doctor involved could help?
 
wendy the goat said:
Sounds like you have done everything you can feasibly do to keep her safe at work. Working from home isn't an option so... Unpaid leave?

Wish I could ask to work from home because I don't feel safe at work (spoiler: I really don't feel safe) but I can't serve kids food from my sofa.
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We can offer unpaid leave but then it leaves us short. Which isnt her problem I know.
 
ZenGiraffe said:
Is there an argument that she could get statutory sick pay due to depression and anxiety? Clearly her mental state leaves her unable to work, so maybe getting a doctor involved could help?
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Maybe. But then every single member of staff can go down the same route and we are left with no one. What confuses me is just yesterday when I checked on her she was telling me how grateful she is to us and how much we've helped her feel safe.
 
Rachey said:
Maybe. But then every single member of staff can go down the same route and we are left with no one. What confuses me is just yesterday when I checked on her she was telling me how grateful she is to us and how much we've helped her feel safe.
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It sounds like there’s a lot going on in her head at the moment, to be honest; it might be worth asking her if she’s spoken to her GP.
You’ve obviously done everything in your power to help her but even then it sounds like coming in to the office is just going to stress her out even more.
 
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