[NOT OC - REPOST]

So I’ve been at my place of work (very large corporation) for five years now and before I started I have them the lowdown on my disabilities and yes, I will have more sick days than most, but I made clear from before the start and throughout that some days I won’t be well enough to travel to the office but will be well enough to work from home.

Due to the business ops, all staff are provided a laptop which you can plug in at any desk or work remotely on visits or even home!

My managers didn’t trust people to do work from home* and when it inevitably happened a few months in I let them know I am up for doing my work as usual, no problem, but I won’t be able to physically commute to the office today.

just a note that my work was all business admin on a computer so I could perform my duties to the full same standard wherever I was.

My managers told me if I was not well enough to attend site, then I’m clearly not well enough to work so I had to take or sick day or else admit I am well enough to work and therefore well enough to attend site and get in the car now! They were adamant, despite my explanations proving otherwise, that it was all or nothing.

I didn’t want to take a sick day as even though the first x amount were paid (scheme subsidised by the government), you only got so many per year before you didn’t get any pay. But they told me not to work again by phoning me when I logged in anyway just to set my Out Of Office auto-reply on and reschedule a couple meetings (which were happening virtually anyway). So I took the day off, enjoying my rest and feeling much better as the day went on.

So this happens a few times and I keep complaining and even bring it to HR and senior managers but apparently it was my managers’ discretion so wouldn’t help me.

My days added up and sure enough the first 2 years of my employment I lost a few hundred due to too many sick days when I was not actually sick, just unable to physically get to work.

Then COVID happened.

No-one was allowed to attend site. Everyone HAD TO work from home. But due to all my complaining over the last two years I had heaps of evidence in writing from my managers (and essentially backed up my seniors and HR) that I was not allowed to ever work from home. So I didn’t.

They were not happy but I held my ground. My partner was in her third trimester so I was looking forward to having all the extra time to help her and be with the baby. They logged it as ‘sick leave’ despite me stating and even getting a fit note from the doctor confirming I was fully fit and well enough to work.

Pay ran out within a number of weeks. I was pissed but semi-expecting it - didn’t think lockdown would be so ongoing! But without pay it was going to be untenable for me going forward so I had to fight it and what I wanted fixing was my absence not being ‘paid leave’. I gave them the alternative option though that I could work from home and, as my personal health and job circumstances had not changed, they would have to admit they intentially forced me to take sick leave unnecessarily over 2 years - meaning they would have to pay that back instead.

They did not budge so I sued.

They did their best to ignore the suit so I started building up my case formally including a Subject Access Request where they have to give me any documents, or even notes, held on the system that are about me in any way.** This included emails between my managers asking HR how they could fire me and HR apologising that they couldn’t find legal grounds too unless I changed my story at any point - i.e. if I gave up the suit and continued working for them then they would view my lawsuit as fraudulent and terminate my employment. Anyway, this backfired on them as seeing this showed me that I could NEVER drop the case.

I won’t go into the full logistics but when it went in front of a judge their lawyers were embarrassed and before the case was over they offered me a settlement to more than cover my lost wages. Even though I was never doing any of this to make money, but to just be treated fairly and respectfully as an employee, I decided to let the case finish and at the end, without me saying anything they doubled their first settlement offer with the condition that we agreed that we would all move on from the entire ordeal, I was allowed to work from home and after COVID continue to do so at my own, unchallenged, discretion. So I accepted.

TL;DR managers told me I couldn’t work from home ever, tried to change that policy when COVID happened, and because of their own hubris and contradiction, ended up paying me large amount of money so they could amend their policy to what I wanted in the first place.

*Okay, I actually believe it wasn’t trust issues in general but me personally, BECAUSE I am disabled.

**There’s actually an exemption that you don’t have to follow SARs if there is an ongoing legal challenge but luckily for me they didn’t bother checking that!