Emplyment.issues / sick leave

Leonardo2023
Leonardo2023 Online Community Member Posts: 3 Listener
in Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
Have recently been diagnosed with TMJ. It's a disligned jaw disorder that has been caused by a 9mm overbite on my jaw.
This has also caused hearing loss in one ear & pulsatile tinnitus in the other which I have suffered for nearly 5 years. The emergency dentist I saw that gave me the diagnosis, has  referred me to a maxillofacial surgeon but apparently there's a huge delay.

I am in the most pain I've ever been in. I have hardly eaten a thing in the last week, cannot open my mouth enough to brush my back teeth. 
It hurts to talk, yawn, eat, drink and the pain is constant.

I have been off sick since 8th, so 7 working days so far. The trouble I have is, I.work in a really busy call center & I can speak to up to 70 people a day. This is making me really anxious & scared to return as if I am in this much pain now, its going to get much worse very quickly. It's also a very stressful role and we are frequently verbally abused which causes stress which will then make me.grind my teeth more and cause more pain!

I know going forward I'm probably going to have to request some reasonable.adjustments to my role. We have a digital side of the business which should be allocated fairly between myself and my colleagues but for the past year or so, it has just been alocated to one person. Would filling that position within my department & coming off of the phones be a reasonable adjustment to request? This would solve the issues of sick leave as I could probably manage if I was just focussing on the digital side of things & didn't have to deal with endless calls. i know that until something happens and I've been to the referral, I am stuck feeling like this and in the same work predicament. 

Would I need to have an occupatiinal health backing with this request? Or can my GP support this? I don't believe it would be in my emoloyers best interest as I am the highest call taker out of the whole department and without me ipicking up the calls, the stats would dive but at the same.time.I cannot.continue with my job as it is.

Would very much appreciate some help please


Comments

  • chiarieds
    chiarieds Online Community Member Posts: 16,760 Championing
    edited September 2023
    Hi @Leonardo2023 - welcome to the community. The pain you're in sounds awful; have you not been given anything for this? Changing your role at work would be a reasonable adjustment if your employer can do this. My understanding is that an Occupational Health assessment could be worthwhile. There's some info here anout reasonable adjustments that I hope may help: 
  • Leonardo2023
    Leonardo2023 Online Community Member Posts: 3 Listener
    Hi, thanks for responding. I have been prescribed naproxen and codiene atm but they aren't touching the pain amd just making me extremely sleepy.

    I notice on the links provided that it only mentions adjustments for disabled people. I am not registered disabled so will they still apply pls?

  • chiarieds
    chiarieds Online Community Member Posts: 16,760 Championing
    Hi again - there's no disabled register, but you still have a health condition that will affect your work as you've described, so have a talk with your employer to see what they say.
  • Jimm_Alumni
    Jimm_Alumni Scope alumni Posts: 5,717 Championing
    Hi @Leonardo2023, welcome to the community. As chiarieds mentioned, I cannot imagine the pain you are in. Especially if codeine and naproxen aren't even making a dent. 

    You are covered under the Equality Act as having a disability as follows " A person has a disability for the purposes of the Act if he or she has a physical or mental impairment and the impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities"

    There's more specific criteria, long-term for instance means if the total period from first-onset of impairment is at least 12 months. It's about how you're affected and for how long, not what diagnosis you have.

    I would recommend speaking with your employer about an occupational health assessment. Chiarieds has already given links to some very good pages of advice about this. I hope you can get some adjustments to help make work, and thus life, a bit easier while this is on-going.
  • Leonardo2023
    Leonardo2023 Online Community Member Posts: 3 Listener
    edited September 2023
    Thanks everyone for responding.

    So, i contacted HR to explain and request an OH envolvement which they have accepted, so just waiting for contact. 

    In the meantine, as I don't want to be absent and rather be in and doing something, i have asked if i can return and focus on the digital side of the business only, which has been declined! They have said
    id it's best to wait for OH and said that the phones have been very busy so the digital person has been pulled on the phones as so busy this last week. Now I know this is NOT true! I have logged on from home and checked the rota (which is 100% accurate as it basically runs our whole department) the rota states one person, even 2 people at times last week, were on digital! 

    i'm a bit baffled, are they trying to get rid of me?! They are blankly refusing my offer to rerurn to work based on lies!
  • Hannah_Alumni
    Hannah_Alumni Scope alumni Posts: 7,866 Championing
    @Leonardo2023 I'm sorry you feel they are trying to get rid of you. Have you checked their policy? It may be once OH involvement is requested they don't do anything with phased returns? 

    The rota may not have been updated due to human error too. But keep copies of it as evidence and you can ask why when they contact you? Please keep us updated :) 

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