Well it wasn't exactly a simple box-ticking exercise
yesterday.
Apparently I have had too many days off sick and now I'm going to start losing pay if I am ill again. Initially HR reckoned that I had taken 27 days sick this year. I looked back through all my e-mails and could only find 20, which of course includes 17 days signed off by the hospital because I broke my arm and couldn't work. HR however are counting an overall 12 month period, so the stomach bug I had last November counts, as does the streaming cold I had in October. I still couldn't get it to 27 days, until I noticed that they'd counted 4 days in January before term started, when I wouldn't have been at work anyway! I got them to discount those days but they aren't prepared to budge on the rest.
What does this mean? Well, basically I can't afford to be ill again until mid January. Or alternatively, I can be ill but I have to come to work and infect everyone else regardless of whether I am suffering with a streaming nose, projectile vomiting or bubonic plague. I'm sure that will make everyone very happy - NOT!!
Told my HoD all this when I got to work this morning and he was not amused. Yesterday he had a meeting with the Head to discuss the past year in Physics, and apparently I came in for a lot of praise for all the stuff that I do for the department above and beyond my job description. So while the Head thinks I'm doing a great job, HR think I'm slacking. Nice!
HoD has told me to start logging all my hours so we can prove the extras that I do, and has also told me that if HR carry on being obnoxious, he'll just go to the Head. It's good to know that someone's got my back. I may grumble about the guy, but I have a really great HoD!
