Which bureaucrats?

The ones in the county council who decree when sick notes run from to!!!

After work on Tuesday 3rd June I went to see the doctor because I’d been in so much pain due to my back and hadn’t really coped. The doctor said I should take a week off and see how I was, she wrote me a sick note, signed and dated it. I presumed that the 1 week she signed me for began on the following day, well that was my first day off wasn’t it, apparently it didn’t, the seven days is counted from the date it was signed. I didn’t know this so when I went back to the doctor for another week off, I couldn’t get her on Tuesday, just Monday but silly me thought that the second sick note would run from when the first finished sending me back to work, all being well, on Wednesday 18th.

I just got a call, I actually got quite upset and cried a bit (not like me really). They got my sick note through the post today so I’ll be back to work on Monday 16th, is that right or will I be needing more time off, just so they can organise cover! But I thought … but I’ve got an osteopath appointment … Basically tough, if I can’t change my osteopath appointment to Friday I’ll need to see the doctor again and get another sick note. Simply because I’m not normally off like this I’ve lost out through my ignorance and the ignorance of the doctor I saw. It wasn’t ‘my’ doctor, it’s like finding gold on your doorstep getting an appointment with him, it was a doctor I’d never heard of before. Our surgery has several doctors and I tend to stick to my three favourites who were all unavailable that first visit and I thought it made sense to stick to the same doctor for my second visit. I guess she didn’t know the sick note rules either

If I’m ever off for more than a day or two again I think I’ll remember this lesson … if you see a doctor in the evening get him/her to date the sick note the following day … which surely is against their rules!!!