I had be signed off for a month with depression, i went back on tuesday. Im really struggling, i keep crying at work and taking time out in the toilets to get myself together. Ive just been sent home early today as ive been so upset.
They are really supportive and im fortunate enough that i know the manager, shes an old family friend. She had a chat with me when i got signed off, she was lovely. Im going to talk to her when she gets back off holiday.
I wanted to get back to work so i can keep busy ang thought would be better for me, but im finding it really hard and am getting the opposite effect.
Im not sure wether to go back to the doctor and try and get another month off. My department manager said he thought i had come back a bit early, and im beginning to think that too. Im just so scared of loosing my job or ending up back on benefits. Ive been trying so hard to overcome stuff, really trying but its not working :(
Im fed up with crying all the time and feeling so rubbish. I keep trying to do things i enjoy and surrounding myself with good friends and family but it just doesnt shift how im feeling, the underlying sadness is still there.
Ive been prescribed citalopram alongside my olanzapine, but it made me feel a bit fluey so i stopped taking it, hoping that i could battle through it without the need for more drugs, but im tempted to take it again and hope that the fluey feeling was just the initial side effects. I had taken 2 days worth, is the fluey feeling like chills and stuff temporary does anybody know?
Has anybody else gone back to work after being off sick, but found it was too soon? Or did you found it helped?
Have you discussed the possibility of a phased return - ie doing part time to begin with and gradually building up?
Did you get a 'fit note' from your GP, recommending any reasonable adjustments to support you back in work?
Is phased return paid as full time? I'm guessing not though, if it was then that would be good and i'd ask about it but if it's not then i can't afford to do it. I need every penny at the moment for rent and bills.
No my doctor said i didn't need a fir for work note, he thought going back to work would be beneficial, and to be honest, that's what i thought but i'm really struggling. I'm going to see the doctor on Monday i think, the same doctor who signed me off, she's easier to talk to than the other one i see.
I don't know what else work can do, other than let me have 5 minutes to myself when i need it, but 5 minutes quickly turns into an hour. I just dunno what to do, i feel stuck. :(
I'm going to try the meds again and see if the side effects go away, hopefully they will.
Phased return is often paid part sick, part proper pay.
Ie. if you have 6 months of six leave, you could 12 months half sick pay, half real pay instead, if you see what I mean.
It doesn't matter where you come from; it matters where you go.
No-one gets remembered for the things they didn't do.
We won't all be here this time next year,
so while you can take a picture of us.
We're definitely going to hell,
but we'll have all the best stories to tell.
We get paid full time wages on a phased return. You could try access to work and see what support they could offer and if your work has an occupational health department you could see them as well.
Depends where you work. I work in the NHS and I will be going back to work as a phased return and I will be on full pay even though I will only be in 2 shifts a week.
You would have to ask the occy health department.
I think it really sounds like you do need another month off if I am honest with you.
I am currently off for depression I have taken 3months off so far. It is a long time but it has given me plenty of time to make sure that I am completely well enough for work.
1 month is not a very long time to get over depression. X
The average,
well-adjusted adult
gets up at 7.30am feeling just plain terrible.
Call me Kate.
I have dyslexia so please excuse my poor spelling and sometimes poor understanding.
Thankyou, i am going to look into it, sounds pretty good. I'm just worried what the other people at work will think though, we're all finding it tough doing 5 nights a week, i don't want to be ruled out as having special treatment ya know? It's really awkward.
I work at Sainsbury's. The HR manager though is a bitch, i was told by the guy who interviewed me that she didn't want me to get the job because of my history of depression, he had to beg her to give me a chance. Don't want her to be like "told ya so" My manager is lovely though, she's very supportive and she said i can talk to her anytime, so i might just take her up on that.
Maybe she needs to know that 1 in 4 people endure depression at one time in their lives. Or something like that. Often we can be the best employees in all sorts of ways. And her attitude sounds like blatant discrimination. We can't help it when we have episodes of illness, and we deserve support like anyone else with an illness that can be disabling.
It is discrimination, and to be HR manager is a joke. I told my department manager the other day and he was disgusted of what she had said.
I work very hard, always turn up to work on time...I am very lucky atm as the managers have been understanding and supportive, which i know is not very common. It's just the HR manager i want nothing to do with, not after what she said about me.
HR departments are really meant to be the 'benchmark' for anti-discrimination. *spits feathers* [A phrase an old friend of mine used, which fits well here].. I'm not surprised that you want to avoid her.
Maybe you could contact Mind's legal department, or their info line [they do also have email] for advice?
No i don't think so, just HR so I do try to avoid her like the plague.
At the moment the store manager has been lovely. She's an old family friend, and has had depression herself. She came out to see me outside of work and told me i'm not to worry about work, my job is safe and i'm to take time off to get myself better. That was a month ago, i haven't really spoken much to her since because she's been on holiday. I still worry about loosing my job though, i get's its natural to fear that, especially in todays climate.
So as far as things go, at the moment i can talk to the boss. She is so nice, but i'm very aware that they are trying to run a business and that me taking time out to go to the toilets and cry isn't good for them, and long term will not be good for me. So although i've got support, i'm just worried how long it will last, because depression and depressive related illnesses don't go away over night and can take a long time to get through.
to be honest if i were you i would keep a record of everything that this hr manager does, just in case you need to take it further in future. Keep a note of what she says, whoever is present and how it makes you feel. I've experienced this and working with someone so utterly unpleasant worsened my depression to such an extent that i didn't work for a long time.
I did a search and it appears sainsburys do have access to occupational health.
(The 1/4 statistic according to the world health organisation relates to how many people will have any mental health related or neurological issue in their lifetime rather than just limited to depression.)
They've cut office hours down, they used to have permanent office staff, but have instead cut them down so they have more staff on the shop floor. There is still a HR manager, but not actually a department if that makes sense, so i'm stuck on the shop floor.
Really? I didn't know that. Just googled it but didn't find much directly from Sainsbury's itself.
I'm back in work again tonight and at the moment feelin' quite fragile...again.
