Last monday (23/3/) I went back to work after having two weeks off with that dreadful virus.

That was o.k. but it was then that we had the bad news that Geoffs brother had died and his funeral was that wednesday (1/4) .

Now please let me explain what happens at Asda when you are off sick, even if it's for one day.

When you return to work you have what they call " A return to work" which simply means you go into an office with your manager and they ask why you were off work, did you see a doctor, is the reason you were off work,work related?

They also have this policy that if you have more than 3% of time of sick you then go for "counselling" which is exactly the same as the "Return to work" Except that everything you say is written down and you sign for it.

No-one knows who decided on this 3% or how they got to that number. You ask them till your blue in the face, but they really don't know who, what or why.

So, on Friday the 6/3 was when I rang in sick, that was the start of the two weeks off.


On Monday 8/3 I rang work again and I told them I would not be in and please give me a few days to get over this sickness.
On wednesday I rang in sick again just to tell them how I was and said I would ring them again on monday.
That was fine.
So, on Monday, 16/3 I rang in sick yet again and told them I would see my doctor, this I did. He gave me anti-biotics and said I had a virus. (!!) Yes, that is what I thought. (LOL)

On wednesday, 18/3 I rang Asda and told them I would not be in till monday, as I was so bad.
Monday, 23/3 I returned to work, with my my sick note and went to the checkouts to work.
An hour later D asked me to go to the office for my return to work.
Now, D is a new manager of the checkouts and she is fine, if a little heavy handed.
My Return to work went o.k. with the usual questions, what was wrong, did you see a doctor? those sort of questions. The only thing that bothered me was that we had another manager A with us and he was writing everything I said down. Now, I don't mind that because I have nothing to hide but it was only a return to work, not a "counselling" return to work.
That should have come later.
I explained everything to them about how I had phoned in sick on the friday and monday, seen the doctor, everything I have explained to you.
At the end of the session, she thanked me and said I could go.
I stood up and thanked her, and then I stopped.
"Should I not sign those papers?" I asked.
"Oh, yes. " said D
A passed me the papers and told me to read them and if I agree to what had been written, could I sign them. This I did.
A had made a couple of mistakes when writing it all down, which is fair enough when you are writing down what people are saying, although I did it slowly and kept stopping so he could catch up.
"Should I sign the mistakes that A had made?" I asked, knowing that the answer was yes.
"Oh yes." said D
Then she informed me that it would be going to a "disciplinary hearing"
Which is exactly the same as "return to work" and "counselling" only I have to wait for a letter to tell me when that will be held.
O.K.
Bear with me please, as I explain what happened when I went to the funeral.
As I said Barry, geoff's brother had passed away while I was off sick, so when I went to work on the monday 23/3 D was there but R was not (another manager on checkouts) as he was working afternoons.
So, I told D about the funeral,which was the next wednesday 1/4 and that was fine.
No more was said.
R came into work on the friday morning 27/3 and out of respect I told him about the funeral.
Again that was fine.

So, I worked monday, tuesday is my day off, and on wednesday we went to the funeral.

Thursday I go back to work and everybody, but everybody was asking me where I was the day before.
"I went to my brother-in-laws funeral." I said.
All went quiet and then I was told that nobody knew where I was and they had even phoned me at home. But, we had changed our phone no. and nobody had our new one.
I couldn't believe it. D had even said she did not know where I was!
"Both D and R knew where I was going " I told them.
They all looked at each other and asked about the phone no.
"I gave that to R about 3 months ago." I said "When we changed it."
"O.K. Annette, don't worry,we'll sort it out.." They said. "They" being other managers who couldn't work out where I had gone to on wednesday.
Anyway, I didn't see D thursday or friday as thursday was her day off and friday she was working late.
R came up to me on thursday and asked me if I have a phone no.
"Yes, " I said , looking at him.
He smiled.
I knew then that he had forgotten all about my new phone no when I gave it to him.
"What about yesterday?" I asked.
"Oh, Annette, don't worry about that, it's all taken care of." He said.
So, I know now what had happened.
D had just forgotten about it and R not being there wednesday morning could not tell them where I was.
Great isn't it, when your managers forget!!!

GGGRRRRR.
No more has been said about the funeral and I will let you know what happens with the sick business. I'm sure the sickness was done in the wrong procedure, so I'll let you know how it goes.