I was told in this informal meeting by my Team Leader that the company I work for wanted to find out how I was doing and find out if there was any additional support I needed. I told him I was working with my GP to get correct levels of meds, and that if they said these had been met but I still felt bad I would get a second opinion (to get the other tests done that people on here say we need to do).
He said he would follow up with an email. See attached, that sentence that says “you’ve accepted we need to see an improvement” really got me. Like I would love to see an improvement. And am doing everything I can to make sure that happens, but I could end up having an episode that stops me being able to work. And now I’m scared about that because it could lead to a formal meeting. It really upset me and I felt it was incredibly thoughtless.
Someone I know who works in HR (not my company’s) said I should respond to this because they may refer back to it, and my TL can say whatever to me verbally but the record shows what’s in that email. Anyone had to write an email like this before and able to give me any pointers?
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Flowerpot108
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You should definitely respond. First of all hypothyroidism is an autoimmune condition that affects every part of your body - from head to toe.
Just because you've been given a prescription and maybe someone who works in your company is fine on levothyroxine, not every single person has the experience of health being restored.
The following link may be helpful. I hope that someone who is au fait with employment law will respond.
I worked in HR for 15 years (sounds like I might be of help) but unfortunately I was forced to give up my career to complications associated with Hashimotos!
I think you need to think carefully about what job you can realistically commit to with a ‘chronic health condition’. Your employer is right to query your absence if it affects your performance and they will no doubt have a standard absence policy that managers would follow.
Ok so thats the bad news out of the way!!
The thing to do is work with your TL and OH and HR and anyone else offering support. If you are good at your job they won’t want to loose you. Bear this in mind.
Work with your TL to work out ways to sustain work performance by making reasonable adjustments, like for example, can you work from home on the days you feel unwell or when you start to feel the fatigue setting in? Can you reduce your hours slightly so you have more rest days? Could you have annualised hours, so that when you’re well you work up your hours to then take time back later on - like flexitime?
How do you get on with your line manager? Is he/she honest open trustworthy? This is the key really.
While thyroid disease isn’t technically a disability under the Act, any chronic illness that is life long and affects everyday life is covered under the Act. So look at the Company Policies in relation to disability etc. Make sure you know the policies inside and out so you know what your company should be offering and how they should be proceeding.
Take up all the help they offer Eg OH EAP etc. OH can be very helpful and see if the company might offer to pay for you to see a good private endo (we can PM you recommendations in your area). If not I would suggest paying the £150 yourself as in my experience it was the best £150 I ever spent in my life!
PM me if you need further assistance. Oh and join the trade union, they will ensure you’re getting support and that the company is following procedures correctly.
Just to amplify what you said about thyroid disease not being a disability, because some people think that there is a list of conditions that automatically make a person disabled.
Any long term physical or mental impairment can be classed as a disability under the Equality Act 2010. What matters is the effect of the impairment not just the fact that a person has an impairment. So, to say that you have hypothyroidism does not automatically make you disabled, but if you cant carry out normal tasks because the thyroid disease saps you of the required energy, for example, you may be classed as disabled for the purposes of the Act.
Section says: 6(1)
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 .
The associated guidance to the Act says, this means that, in general:
• the person must have an impairment that is either physical or mental;
• the impairment must have adverse effects which are substantial;
• the substantial adverse effects must be long-term; and
• the long-term substantial adverse effects must be effects on normal day-to-day activities .
It is not necessary for the cause of the impairment to be established, nor does the impairment have to be the result of an illness.
Whether a person is disabled for the purposes of the Act is generally determined by reference to the effect that an impairment has on that person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.
The guidance gives some examples of impairments that may, if they are severe enough, stop you from carrying out normal day to day tasks:
A disability can arise from a wide range of impairments which can be:
• sensory impairments, such as those affecting sight or hearing;
• impairments with fluctuating or recurring effects such as rheumatoid arthritis, myalgic encephalitis (ME), chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), fibromyalgia, depression and epilepsy;
• progressive, such as motor neurone disease, muscular dystrophy, and forms of dementia;
• auto-immune conditions such as systemic lupus erythematosis (SLE);
I spoke to my Occ Health about my hypothyroidism a couple of years ago.
Because of this, I was allowed to work from home when I was struggling to get out of bed in time to get to work at the start of the working day. I went through a period of working at home on alternate days. This was fine for both me and my employer.
It did mean that I was doing some work in the evenings and at weekends
It also meant that I did my work and I did not fall foul of the sickness policy
It also meant that my private life suffered but it would have suffered anyway - in my case.
Recently I'm feeling better so I come in to work more, the last few weeks I've been in every day.
Really, working from home full time is not for me - well not all week.
Without speaking to Occ Health, it is likely that I would have had more and more time off work, hit the trigger points in the sickness policy and could have faced the possibility of termination if I made it to stage 3 of the Policy.
Stages 1 and 2 involved explaining to the senior managers that I was doing all I could to alleviate the symptoms. Both were sympathetic and resulted in me working from home (as above) and monitoring of my actions to alleviate the symptoms. Monitoring sounds oppressive but in my case it was making sure that the boxes were ticked to stop me from going to Stage 3. And I didn't mind telling them all about thyroid disease in case they have to deal with another employee with it.
They don't want to lose me. I don't want to go. We arrived at a solution that could accommodate us all. Hope you do too.
Fab! That’s heartening to hear. Absolutely telling them everything so they know that I’m really not skiving. Asked my manager to put me in touch with occupational health so fingers crossed!
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Threatening Meeting with 2 gps at my practice yesterday 
Why stay on Levo when changing to T3?
Endo ringing me re results, thinks symptoms not due to thyroid. Please help
I don't know what to ask the doctor - feel so let down
