Why Punishing Sick Workers Fails Everyone
A System That Punishes, Not Supports
The company I have been working at for the past two years would rather punish people for long-term sickness than try to help prevent it.
A bold claim, but hear me out.
They focus on post-absence improvement plans — which often don’t offer specific, tangible steps to prevent further sickness — capability procedures that mention dismissal in every invitation letter, causing additional anxiety, reasonable adjustments that are never implemented (or are implemented too late), and workplace health benefits that leave a lot to be desired.
There has never been a discussion of support, despite my constant advocacy for my mental health, prior to me being off sick.
If one of your employees tells you they are struggling, believe them and help them before it becomes sick leave.
Being Doubted and Overlooked
In the past 12 months, I have been doubted, not listened to, condescended to, and ostracised. I have begged and pleaded for assistance and adjustments — and each time, the response was: “This is not possible at this time.”
I understand that a company’s needs must be considered, but at no point has a counteroffer been offered. A simple solution like: “We can’t right now, but in this timeframe, this could be arranged” has never been suggested, even though a provision of a timeframe on when I could expect assistance would have made a huge difference, instead of leaving me feeling stuck in a detrimental environment.
I have told this story many times over the last year to friends, peers, and healthcare providers. All of whom respond with the same surprised look on their face at the lack of support I have been offered, outrage at the treatment I have received in meetings, and all of whom have enquired, in one way or another, “Are they trying to lose you?”
Mental Illness is the Leading Cause of Sickness
The leading cause of long-term sickness in the UK is mental illness — and that is a sentence I will continue to repeat.
Despite this, companies often blame workers for not being able to handle day-to-day life, rather than addressing the root causes of the problem.
Understaffing, micromanagement, toxic environments, and high-stress workplaces all contribute to declining mental health — so why aren’t these the things being focused on?
A team that works is a team that functions; if employees are saying they need more people, they mean it. If they are asking about the way things are done currently, it’s because it’s not working. The people who work in low-paid jobs are the ones who know what is needed.
They are there daily, working closely with customers, team members and suppliers, they know what they need to run a smooth day-to-day operation, yet their suggestions and requests are ignored, silenced to make way for the increased profit of running an operation on the bare minimum, and this leads to workers' health suffering.
Living with Mental Illness: A Battery Metaphor
I once saw someone describe living with depression using a phone battery metaphor: at night, we put our phones on charge to reach 100% for the next day. Sleep is supposed to do the same for humans, but when you live with mental illness, 100% is very often never reached.
Get KLWrites’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
Whether it’s waking in the night drenched in sweat from anxiety, getting out of bed at 3 am because OCD insists every door and window isn’t locked and needs to instantly be checked 10 times, or struggling through an evening spent crying, wrapped tightly in a duvet, battling thoughts that tell you you no longer deserve to live. Many people with mental illness rarely wake feeling “fully charged.”
Even when we do, our energy drains much faster than those without mental illness. What may use 3% of a healthy person’s “battery” can drain 20% from us.
Jobs in the emergency services industry, the retail and hospitality industry, and the social and welfare industry are among those with the highest rates of poor mental health among workers.
It has been proven that this is the case because of unsustainable workloads, long hours, poor working conditions and shortness of available staff.
All of this could be changed from the top, but it isn’t. Running a business, even a healthcare business, is about profit.
Workplaces Don’t See the Struggle
Companies rarely see how much harder people with mental illness must fight just to function normally.
When brushing your teeth feels like climbing Everest, why would anyone assume that going to work would be an easy undertaking?
Day-to-day tasks become a monumental effort when you are fighting unseen battles inside your own brain, but because most mental illnesses don’t show any physical symptoms, they can be ignored by those on the outside.
Most companies, especially those with a larger number of employees, have management and HR teams who never witness or participate in the daily running of their business; they’re not on the ground level.
Almost every company I have worked for has its team of management and people support located in their head office, in offices that don’t look out onto the shop floors.
This creates a disconnect from what is happening day to day, how teams are actually functioning and an unawareness of just how difficult customer-based job roles can be.
It is a strategic blind spot, so when we try to tell them of the issues, they can ignore them.
Change Must Start at the Top
Until governments and companies understand mental illness on a deeper level, nothing will change. Sick leave will continue to climb, and people will continue to suffer.
Sick leave is often a last resort for many people; it means a loss of wages, a disconnect from their team, and it removes stability and a safety net, but sometimes, it is the only way for someone to recover and survive another day.
It’s often said that the workforce is crucial — if that’s true, shouldn’t protecting it be a priority?
