Working with IBS

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The joys of IBS. Holding onto my job at Sainsbury's is proving to be quite difficult. I actually like the job itself, customers are usually polite and my colleagues are lovely. The issue are my absences and the whole procedure surrounding sickness.

Sainsbury's absence policy automatically invokes a disciplinary meeting if you:
  • Have three instances of absences within a year
  • Have absences higher than 3% (worked out by how much you have worked)
It turns out having one absence during your probationary period (three months long) invokes a meeting as this is calculated to go over the 3%.

So realistically I stand no chance against this system and am likely to be called up every-time I have an absence because I have already gone over this percentage.

I was meant to receive a disciplinary meeting after my first absence (missing one shift) because I had already gone over the 3% and was verbally informed of this. However, after many of the managers were off-sick with the coronavirus, this never got sorted. This was unfortunate because I continued to worry, not knowing when I was going to be invited for a meeting. This lead to a second absence.

When returning back to work after having my second absence, I had an extremely invasive return-to-work which asked me detailed questions about my time off-sick. This caused me a lot of anxiety over my job security as my probationary period was almost complete. 

My probationary period was extended an additional month (4 months), because of concerns surrounding my attendance. Unfortunately a month later, although passing my probationary period I was issued with a written warning for my absences - which I deem as unfair but unavoidable according to company policy.

Sadly, I would consider myself good at my job, and my managers share this opinion. However my absences are likely to eventually become the reason to dismiss me. I've already had three in 12 months and my warning gets written off after 12 months. Not having another absence between now and then seems impossible, so I need to start considering other options.

The whole thing is a shame, it feels I'm being told off for something that I can't control. Therefore it has become obvious that I need to search for a role where either I have the ability to work from home or has a more flexible absence policy/allocated sick days. Unfortunately, I had practically the same issue when working at Disney, so I'm really hoping that I can find a company that understands me and my health problems in the future.

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