OH meeting re ill health retirement

slomo

Hi everyone, yesterday morning I had my OH meeting re ill health retirement and now I'm in limbo a bit until the next stage.
The meeting seemed to go well, the OH chap was nice and I'd met him at a previous OH meeting. He asked if things had got worse and as I struggled to say it was different, we suddenly ended up talking about fatigue and memory and concentration etc, which was actually quite refreshing in a way as usually it's the physical side people notice and talk about. The steroids mean that I can move more freely but I still need to be very careful about pacing myself. It was quite nice to talk to someone about the emotional and mental side of things and he sounded as if he'd been reading up a bit on it.
He'll contact my GP and consultant for their views (I get to see their reports before they go to OH for them to make up the report for my work. I'm just hoping it won't take too long.
My sick line runs out in about 10days and I'm counting on my GP renewing it until all this is over. Fingers crossed all goes well.
Hope all you guys are hanging in there OK, luv slomo

dreamdaisy

I count myself very fortunate that I have not had to undergo such a thing but this sounds to me sounds like a more positive appointment than many have had. I hope you hear the outcome soon and that your mind will be put at rest, please let us know how you get on. DD

TheLordFlasheart

Nice to see OH are looking beyond the physical aspects of arthritis, just wish my employer was just as understanding, what with a threat of disciplinary hanging over me still.

bubbles

I do hope the process goes well and has a positive outcome. I remember going through a similar process when I was retired from nursing. Keep us posted and it is good to have someone in a positive manner. xx Aidan

mellman01

I had a dreadful time with my employer, took me 4 years to get pensioned off and I nearly had a nervous breakdown due to the stress, my advice is to not talk to much to your work colleges they can leak info and or get things wrong and spread misinformation innocently or maliciously, problem is some people get really annoyed with those getting something they can't so the less you say the less they can gossip, also do you have a union rep, I was in the Unite union and my rep was brilliant, my line management were the exact opposite, even my OC health nurse wasn't to be trusted, however the company doctor was decent all the way along, that's because he suffered from back pain so had some empathy, most of my work mates however did not.

My advice is to say as little as you can to your work mates however nice they seem, also keep copies of all e mails and communications and keep a diary, if you hear the word capability then be very cautious, it's a catch all piece of legislation HR can sometimes use to fire sick people out the door so be aware of it, that said you seem to be in an OK place I however wasn't hence my advice.

slomo

Thanks to everyone for the comments, I was hoping to be able to post something a lot sooner than this, I do hope no one has been holding their breath waiting for an update!
OH's initial report to work said I wasn't fit for work 'at this time due to the significant impact my underlying condition continues to have on my normal daily functioning and behaviours' which sounds great apart from the ' at this time' phrase. Anyway, he's been in touch with my consultant for information and I know when I saw consultant on 27/10, that he'd had the request but said he hadn't finished the response yet. When I asked my GP on Friday he thought he'd had something but couldn't recall exactly but said was sure he'd responded to everything. To be fair, it's quite possible that OH only contacted the consultant.
When I first spoke to HR the woman said she'd known it take 3 months. Would have liked it sorted by Christmas, if I'd just gone for early retirement it would have been all done by now but I wouldn't have stopped working had it not been for my health. I said this to my GP and he went off on a little rant about the government making everything difficult and says when my sick line runs out just to put in a request for another, so he's being really helpful that way.
I'd asked to see the reports before they went back to OH and my employer but right now I don't really care, I just wish they'd get a move on as I feel a bit in limbo not working but not retired either. Hopefully I'll hear something soon. All the best to everyone