This topic was closed on 09 March 2019. If you have a problem which is similar to the issues raised in this topic, then please start a new thread and you will get help and support there. If you would like to post up some information which is relevant to this particular topic then please flag the issue up to the site team and the thread will be reopened. - Consumer Action Group

Many thanks for all your support

Hi there follow on to the above, I am returning to work on Monday having been off for some time the company have accommodated me with the changes I requested and was looking forward to getting back to normality but have I done wrong again or is this some sort of witch hunt. I work as a lone worker from a small isolated office in the area that I cover, I arranged with the person who had been covering for me to meet with them this afternoon to get up to speed as to any important matters and to get the office keys. When I arrived I was told that, she was not allowed to talk to me as I was off sick and been told just to leave me some notes and had been told to leave the keys through the letterbox (which I would not have known) and would have been unable to get into work on Monday. I do not believe this has come from my line manager but from another colleague with no authority being "arsey" with me, but it has left me feeling anxious and upset again. I thought it would be good therapy for me and help me ease my way back in next week. I have to go into the main office late on Monday morning to have my formal return to work interview and hand in my return to work Dr's note and I am absolutely dreading it.

Thanks godpikachu for your reply, I did not think it sounded correct but it is just another uncaring and thoughtless action that has left me thinking I will never be able to go back but I have left it to long to do anything about the initial incident that has left me with this illness, it was over a year ago. Many thanks

I am currently off work with work related stress for 4 weeks now, hoping to return in the next two weeks, however today at a departmental meeting my line manager spoke to a colleague of mine and said that it had been brought to her attention that I had been seen out in my car !! I suffer badly with anxiety/panic attacks as a result of a violence at work incident and have hardly been out at all except for doctor or therapist appointments and on odd occasions pushing myself to go out to the shop as I am becoming agrophobic, am I wrong, should I have stayed in the whole time ? By her saying this knowing full well it would get back to me (my colleagues were undecided whether to tell me but felt I should know) I now feel even worse, I got very little support and this has just made things even more stressful for me. As part of their sickness management apparently they have to come and see me but I would find this awful as well and have not as yet responded to this request as I was hoping to feel strong enough to deal with it shortly, I just feel so ill with it all. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks that info was extremely helpful as always

Hi There, A friend has been laid off from work indefinately as the company has no contracts to keep them working and do not know for certain when if at all there will be more work. He has a contract of employment and on PAYE system but have been told they will have to use up their holiday entitlement and then be un-paid, is this acceptable or are they really being made redundant without being able to claim any redundancy (if that makes sense) Would appreciate any advice please.

Hi There Have been on a secondment for nearly a year now and is due to finish in a couple of months, at the end of the secondment I wish to return to my old job, is there any way I can be made to stay in my seconded position. Some one was employed on a temp contract to do my old job and their contract expires the same time as my secondment ends, however I know my manager will really try to keep me in the secondment position but I hate it and would have asked to be taken off it ages ago if that were possible.

The police took the gun away and then told my employer it was a replica that only fired blanks and could cause no damage, they said that there was no way I could have felt residue burning on my cheek because the bullets were blanks and intimated to my manager, who told me all this, that I was probably only looking for compensation. However a probation officer I used to work with in another county told me if he was out on licence, he would only have to have a firework in his pocket to get put back in prison !!! I have since been told off the record that he is a informer to a big firearms case,( from someone who would know) the papers were at the scene when all this was going on, we live in a very sleepy little village and it was like a scene out of the "Bill" but it never got into the papers, yet a neighbour dispute did, call me cynical but I think things may have been hushed up, even my employers legal department had a statement ready.

Hi there thanks for info, the incident was a violence at work incident and I still work there, if interested you can read the old thread on page 37/38, it all seems to be going wrong again which is why I wanted to know if I can still put in a formal grievance.

Please could you advise me the time limits for making a formal grievance after an incident. many thanks

Hi Slick and thanks for the post, afraid not had any councelling as yet, just cannot talk about the incident without sobbing so I felt it better to leave it for a while. I always see the same Dr so that I do not have to go over the incident again as suggested by him.

Quick update on my case, I went to the Dr after the last incident I went through as I felt I could no longer continue as it was so stressful and have been off work for three weeks with one more to go, the Dr has been seeing me regularly and my sick note stated " extreme work related stress (unresolved)". Through my union colleague I have kept my manager informed of how I was progressing and she in return had asked what I needed to be able to come back to work. I have been unable to think straight but have tried to be constructive and one thing I do know is that I never want to have to visit the scheme where this guy lives ever again and that is what I told them, I also said that I wanted it in writing, (it does not really cause any inconvenience to them not to send me there) . I have been told I can have it in writing on a temporary basis and that I will have to go to occupational health for a report before they will confirm on a permanant basis. To be totally honest I think I am kidding myself if I think just by having the above commitment I would be able to carry on, If I go to OT I will have to go through the whole story again and end up in pieces, I will probably leave with them saying I am unfit to carry on at all in my present job, which I am beginning to believe. The demand I have made is very minor in the bigger picture of things and I feel very fair given the circumstances, really I want to leave I do not thing I can carry on but if I leave I am homeless. My head is all over the place and I have to admit although I have spoken to acas I have not yet been to a solicitor, I cannot afford, financially or mentally to become homeless at present, my home is my comfort blanket right now. In all of this I just want it never to have happened I loved my job and was working my way up the ladder and was getting recognised for the huge commitment I gave.

DCA-KING I have pm'd you !!

Thanls Ell-enn for your post and support, your advice reflect my own thoughts, I am going to end up a basket case if I am not careful. My union rep has wanted to take a much stronger approach on the matter but I have held them back until now, enough is enough. One of my biggest problems is I am a real team player and I hate putting more pressure on my colleagues who like me due to lack of staff and a current freeze on employment are already under huge pressures but they all support me to the full. As for the other job, I was told it was a corporate decision to give it to the other person as they have been diagnosed with an illness that now prevents them doing their old job but the best bit is, we all knew this person would not be able to cope with the new job and last week I was asked to jump in and help them and pull it round !!.