In my experience there are generally two types of sickness absences:
1. Those who are genuinely unwell, perhaps they have an underlying health condition that they haven’t disclosed and they need help to figure out how to manage that at work
2. Those who are using sickness absence as a ‘smoke screen’ to hide another issue, either at work or in their personal life
If we have worked together before, you will know that there is a sensitive and supportive process to manage the first type of sickness absence and you will be aware that you will need help from HR to address this. For this reason it is not appropriate for me to detail the process for managing genuine sickness absence in this FAQ.
The second kind of sickness absence is actually the most common in my experience.
With The Conversation, module 4 ‘every day conversations’ you will learn how to identify this and discover if the solution is within your control. In module 4 there is a lesson dedicated to sensitive conversations, which I have tried and tested with many long term absentees. Once you have identified the underlying cause of absenteeism, in our monthly one to ones, I will support you and guide you through the most appropriate process to resolve the problem.