Another Constable

Having finally succomed to illness for the first time in my police career, I feel it about time to report on one thing that many coppers won’t do, and that’s go off work sick.

We have “deselection criteria” for every single role within the police these days, be it promotions, sideways moves or even applying for your own job at the end of a temporary stint. One of the main deselection criteria when applying for a new role is sickness days taken. Have too many days off sick, and basically you’ll never get that transfer you want, or that promotion you seek. Some see this as a good thing - only dedicated staff earn the right to be promoted, right? The “Bob Geldoff’s” of the world (those that don’t like Monday’s) never get on. It does focus the mind somewhat when you wake up and “just can’t be arsed” rather than being properly sick.

But, there are a couple of problems with this system. Firstly, it’s really hard to be looked upon for your merits as you don’t even make the paper sift. Secondly, even if you do scrape just under the bar to be in the paper sift, you’re seen as a “health risk” because you have so much time off. However, my main problem with this is that it forces people to come into work when they are ill, and more importantly, contagious. It’s not unusual to be in a place that is more akin to a doctor’s surgery waiting room than a police station. Coughing and spluttering everywhere, people not performing at their best (and in a 24/7 role on the streets that’s surely one way to put your colleagues at risk too). It’s more important for your career to be cavalier towards the health of your colleagues (and yourself) and turn up for work, than to stay at home recuperating (and thereby ensuring you don’t give your mates the lurgy too).

Another option is to take up some of your annual leave entitlement. This is a very common occurrence, but at this time of year, you tend to find most people have used up the vast majority of their leave, and have precious little to squander to stay in bed kept company by hot Lemsips and a box of tissues. I’ve got no leave left, so I’ve had to take it as sickness. Luckily it’s my first stint of illness - we get permitted something like 3 separate sickness occasions over 3 years, or 15 days providing it is over less than 3 periods of sickness - some nonsense like that. So, it was with a heavy heart I had to agree to be posted as “off sick”. Especially now that it has dragged on for 7 days - getting on for half of my “entitlement” for 3 whole years. I see my career shortening before my very eyes.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 19th, 2007 at 7:40 pm and is filed under Police Matters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.