Does anyone here suffer from them and if so how do you deal with work?

I have a member of staff that has constant migraines and calling in sick with them. Not being a sufferer myself, i cannot relate to them, so have always been relatively relaxed, however it’s getting to the point where the time off is clearly affecting work.

In your experiences, is it just one of those things as an employer (manager) have to put up with?

In your experiences, is it just one of those things as an employer (manager) have to put up with?

What paying someone to come to work who isn’t? Errrr no.

Full-blown migraines are pretty horrific. I haven’t had one for years fortunately but I used to get the odd one. It would take me about 3 days to be able to speak again, and at least a week to feel 75% normal again. The pain of the headache is indescribable and the nausea is worse than any stomach bug.

If your employee has documented evidence for their condition (GP note that they suffer and / or are receiving treatment) then I would argue that it should be considered alongside other long-term disabilities. If they are having constant migraines then they should be seeing their GP.

Refer them to your occupational health provider if you have one. They are not fun to have and a bad one will render you pretty much useless, but generally they are triggered by something. Figure out what that something is and if it’s work related try and avoid it. If it’s personal then it’s up to them to decide whether or not to give it up or give up their job.

I get them, and my work are very understanding. A single migraine will wipe me out for a week, but luckily I’ll only tend to get one like that per year.

I do end up going through our occupational health and HR people each time though, with them “wanting to know if there is anything they can do”. My usual response is “if you can, then medical science would like to know what it is”.

I think if someone is getting them very regularly, say monthly, then it warrants much further medical examination, and the proof that that produces in order to keep an employer happy and check there isn’t something more serious going on. What km79 said about trigger is very valid and if something at work is a trigger then you can resolve it, if it’s something outside work, then you can work with your employee to help them resolve it.

Migraines and work don’t mix. It’s not like you can just come in a do a bit for the day or muddle through, they pretty much end your day and remove the possible of doing anything but sleeping it off.

I had them a lot when I was younger (and my diet/stress/depression was far worse), and I eventually lost my job (was sacked) as I was declared unfit to do it. They sent me to a private doctor and requested all my medic records (through the private doctor) to get evidence to prove this.

I only get them once or twice a year now, but they are still horrendous things. I always try to work up some of my hours even now, because I’m aware it can be a big inconvenience to my employer.

I think it’s good you’ve given some slack, and not seen them as just a headache (which most non-sufferers see them as), but I guess there has to be a line where someone just isn’t fit enough to be employed… How you decide where that line is, I don’t really know.

As above try and find out what the triggers are. Common ones are dietary related (cheese, chocolate, coffee, etc.), artificial lighting, computer screens, tiredness and/or stress.

I suffer from visual migraines – flashing lights and weird traces in your vision – that make it difficult to drive, use a computer, or do anything really for about an hour or so. I feel really weird and lethargic afterwards too.

I used to suffer weekly (normally 1 to 2 a week) when I was doing an office job that involved being on a computer for most of the day. So it was pretty obvious that my triggers were computer screens and artificial light! My work was pretty ok about it, and if I had one I’d go and sit somewhere quiet for a while, and sometimes they would subside if I caught them early enough.

Turned out the ‘cure’ was a change of jobs. I only get one or two a year now I’m not working in an office!

Migraines are very personal. I used to suffer on a regular basis but much preferred being at work with something to concentrate on than being at home suffering.

Medication helps so your employee should be seeking options from their GP.

I also found that vigorous exercise blocked the pain for a while.

Environmentally, I was sensitive to noise so would try to make sure I was somewhere I could control it.

I used to get VERY bad migranes…. (changes in diet and not for a decade)

I called into work once and told them… (quite a challenge) and turned up next day and went to see my boss…. he then said I had a red eye and didn’t connect this whatsoever with my migrane where I presume he thought I was pulling a fast one…

The red was because the capillaries in my eye had exploded…. the day before they and my nose we bleeding

I explained … yes this is from the migrane and he sort of took a step back (in his chair but you get what I mean)….

I don’t think he’d really believed me… or considered how debilitating migrane can be….

As a guide I’d rate a broken/dislocated limb at 6/10 in pain and a migrane up to 11/10 ….

Cheers all. No occupational health here, it’s a relatively small company ~40 pax.

The migraines generally appear to happen prior to being in the work environment, but not always so it;s hard for me to second guess if it’s a work place issue that needs resolving first, or something to be dealt with from a personal perspective (diet as mentioned – the employee is a big coffee drinker).

Coffee was one of things I’d take to bring mine under control, sweet stuff such as chocolate and a can of coke was a go to if I wanted to try to kill one when I got a warning one was due. For me tiredness and lack of food trigger mine, changing or rather forcing a new sleep pattern helped. Biggest overall though was starting omeprazole seems diggesting food is pretty good for you.

They’re awful, horrible things but not a recognised disability so they don’t have to treat the same. You can only do the nice employer thing for so long before you have to take action. It could be work stress, it could be personal, it could food intolerance or anything else. Ultimately though not coming into work costs the company.

These may well be nasty genuine migraines, but the word migraine is sometimes used wrongly.

Not every headache is a migraine, and ones which occur “constantly” often aren’t. There are nasty things which occur in real bursts – like cluster headaches, but also other things, Tension Type Headache and Medication misuse headache about which one might be less sympathetic.

I would be getting your HR team to use an Occupational Health provider company to look into this

Guessing if they are that regular they will have a doctors line or atleast contact with a doctor.

Migraines are utterly brutal though, I’ve had about 3 or 4 proper migraines in my life, mostly in my late teens early 20s. They make you completely unable to function.

I don’t get them anymore, but I do still get the visual migraines, followed, very occasionally, by a very slight headache that I can usually control via brufen and sleep(sleep is they only real thing that clears it up properly though).

I actually got this late last night, could barely see for about 45 minutes, I very occasionally get them at work, like every couple of years or so, when I do I just need to take an hour out till it resolves it’s self. (can’t work a computer if you can’t see it!)

There doesn’t seem to be any obvious trigger for me that I can tell.

Thankfully that’s where I am these days and I no longer get proper migraines. I wouldn’t wish them on my worst enemy.

If they are having proper migraines, it’s something I think you should be sympathetic to. Mind you, I think you also need to establish whether they are just bullshiting you or not. many people go on about migraines and I’d be willing to bet they’ve never had one in their life.

I used to suffer on a regular basis but much preferred being at work with something to concentrate on than being at home suffering.

That’s no migraine I recognise. When I used to get them I wanted a sensory deprivation chamber where I could lie quietly weeping to myself.

I went through a period of getting maybe one or two a month, transpired that it was almost entirely work related (lots of stress and 4 hours sleep a night). Since leaving that job maybe fifteen years ago I’ve had… three I think.

If it were me as an employer, I’d want to be sure to rule out any chance of it being work causing / exacerbating the situation. I’d also be encouraging them to see a doctor, there are various medications that can help as well as lifestyle changes. Imigran Recovery was very effective for me (the only thing I found that was, though).

That’s no migraine I recognise. When I used to get them I wanted a sensory deprivation chamber where I could lie quietly weeping to myself.

Depending on the severity I could work but would have to ask my colleague to drive or control it with cocodamol, food and cafiene. It still felt like I was in a barrel with people smashing the sides with planks of wood and a light like the sun in my face. A full on one I’d have to curl into a ball under the duvet trying to block out any sensory trigger.

My wife gets them bad, but can take a short day or work from home around it, but she is owed hundreds of hours so her boss has no issue. Takes her 2-3 days to get over them.

A colleague has them, went through occupational health as she was hitting all the absence report triggers, and she was “given” extra migraine sick days before the reporting kicked in each year.

She didn’t help herself by coming out of the meeting and talking about the extra “days off” she had got and when she might be able to use them.

(diet as mentioned – the employee is a big coffee drinker).

Coffee can be one of my triggers. Oddly it’s not about whether I drink excessive amounts or none at all, but it’s to do with swings between the two. If I go from a high intake, for example I’m working late one week and drink a lot, to a low intake, I’ll get a migraine. And vice versa.

I guess none at all would be the answer :-), but it’s like carbs, coffee is just too nice to forego!

I had them regularly in my teens and twenties, but get them a couple of times per year at most now. I was hospitalised with them twice in my teens. Evil, brutal things and I wouldn’t wish them on anyone.

I used to vomit and get nose bleeds with them too. That made trying to take painkillers interesting. Always needed darkness and (for some bizarre reason) to find a “safe” position. Said position was always something convoluted. One arm in the air, face against side of toilet, left leg in shower tray that kind of stuff.

They could last for a couple of days and when they were bad I genuinely wanted to die. Wiped out and lethargic for days afterwards too. The ones I get now are bad, but nowhere near as hideous as they were in my twenties.

As others have said, coffee could be a trigger, directly or possibly via dehydration. And there’s no way I could have worked with a full throttle migraine.

The greatest benefit of growing older I’ve found is that, as happened yesterday, migraines are reduced to temporary eyesight wiggles and a minor headache

I’ve never had them but i know a few who do. It seems that stress, tiredness and certain foods and drinks are triggers. I would be inclined to be more sympathetic if the person in question takes measures to address the above and if not encourage them to take action of they are always stressed/tired/unhealthy and point out that they could have a go as what’s the worst that could happen…

With regards to the law etc. I have no idea.

One arm in the air, face against side of toilet, left leg in shower tray that kind of stuff.

I had that in my 20s too, but it was nothing to do with migraines.

As an employer, you have to be careful. Ultimately, excessive sick leave can warrant disciplinary action under the capability process (you can’t carry out your work if you are off sick). Excessive is in the eye of the beholder – some employers are really tight and others are more generous.

If the migraine:

has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities

then the individual is protected by the Equality Act 2010 and you are required to make reasonable adjustments to accommodate them.

Migraines aren’t fun. I have never suffered, but my Father-in-law used to and I had someone on my team who had them. My wife gets periodic cluster headaches which are related. Compassion is important, but you also have a commercial decision to make.

as always thank you.

Compassion is important, but you also have a commercial decision to make.

POSTED 6 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

this is the problem bit!

Consider it a team effort. As the employer you need to show interest as to how you can accommodate the employee’s condition in terms of the environment they’re working in. That doesn’t mean you have to start making changes to the environment (especially if the triggers haven’t been established) but if you have flickering light sources such as fluorescent lighting or the employee spends a lot of time in front of a monitor you can at least ask is these seem to be triggers elsewhere – if it could just be a case of working in a different room or configuring a monitor differently or changing a few bulbs and its practical to try it – even just to eliminate it – then at least do that.

They need to do their bit though – if diet is a possible trigger, for instance, what are they doing about it? What are they doing to identify or eliminate the likely triggers?

You can only be so helpful – they need to be demonstrating that they are making the effort to manage the condition. Look at all the examples above or people who ‘used’ to be badly effected by them. Time is a bit of a healer and for a lot of people the severity of attacks mellow as they get older – but they’ve taken steps to identify and eliminate the causes and control manage the symptoms.

Maccruiskeen has it.

From an employer point of view – your staff member needs to help themselves and go through the process – they may end up with a noted disability and get some extra leeway before the trigger point kicks in as previously noted.

Also, I have seen numerous times people who haven’t bothered to get any help with conditions, just getting through on sick leave. I know I will get slammed for saying this, but it is surprising how much a cut in sick pay motivates people to get themselves some more help.

My wife suffers from regular, proper, debilitating migraines.

I’m not going to go into the full details, but her HR department tried to run her through a disciplinary process due to the frequency. What they failed to comprehend (despite being told multiple times) was that she was seeing a neurologist, and was taking every possible step she could (including taking holidays for medical appointments relating to them, taking Annual Leave to cover them instead of sick leave in order to not trigger their absence policies, lifestyle changes she was making etc etc).
They also did absolutely nothing to help her – no provisions for working from home, no offers of flexible hours, and cancelled OH meetings multiple times because ‘they didn’t know how they could help her’.

It was only threats of legal action, and them finally providing a company doctor that told them they needed to be reasonable that they backed down.

My advice would be to ensure that your employee is doing all they can to help themselves, but also that you do everything you can to support them (flexible hours etc) Chronic migraines are classed as chronic conditions so legally you have to be willing to make adaptions for them. However, if they are making no effort to get them resolved, you are doing everything you can, and they are performing under par, then this changes the balance.

(I am not an expert, just repeating what we’ve found out from the other side fo the fence!)

What they failed to comprehend (despite being told multiple times) was that she was seeing a neurologist, and was taking every possible step she could

In the case of the OP if the employee is taking those kinds steps then they’ve not managed to make him comprehend that yet…. But maybe they also haven’t been asked.

I suffer from these.

i tend to get them on weekends or the end of the afternoon so it impacts less work…but have had to take many days sick.

i am lucky in that my emplyer is sympathetic to the condition. I have tried endless different methods and approches. i find currently that accupuncture is the most effective.

Bud i am followed by a neurologue but dont know what this means with regards to the employer legally.

Some good things said above, but also migraines are very personal and whilst i have several triggers that i obvously avoid, i do get migraines randomly without warning and thos freak me out totally as how do i as a normal human being even consider ‘preventing’ this?

diet
eyes
teeth
accu
hypnosis
chinese medecine in general
doctor (useless really in comaprison to the others)
sleep
stress

etc etc

i dont want to have to get old for them to pass!

maccruiskeen – Member
What they failed to comprehend (despite being told multiple times) was that she was seeing a neurologist, and was taking every possible step she could
In the case of the OP if the employee is taking those kinds steps then they’ve not managed to make him comprehend that yet…. But maybe they also haven’t been asked.

tis a fair point. At this time no as i’ve been quite relaxed about it all, it’s just started to get more noticeable, hence the questions. I’m loathed to come down hard on stuff like this, as former owners went to the book in providing minimum sick leave (i.e. none) and it did no good for the morale of the company and often meant people working sick and giving pretty poor performance. That said, if the performance drops below what can be termed as acceptable, then harder decisions need to be made.

Colleagues being sick also with little action by empyer damages the morale of those who are rarely absent.

It would seem they are recognised under the equalities act something I realise but reasonable adjustmens means reasonable for both parties.

another fair point @drac, these things do get noticed. It doesn’t help I’ve just been told said person was on a piss up yesterday and now has a migraine today – completely un-connected of course..

Oh dear.

Sui – Member
another fair point @drac, these things do get noticed. It doesn’t help I’ve just been told said person was on a piss up yesterday and now has a migraine today – completely un-connected of course..

Theoretically, that could be legit, as tiredness and dehydration are known triggers as someone else has pointed out though.

But even as a sufferer, ones like that are always ones I’m keenly aware of how they look to others. I went though a short phase of getting a migraine a few hours after swimming. As I swim before work, this would manifest early afternoon as result in the afternoon off, and in the worst cases the following day too. Turned out my goggles were too tight… But I was very aware that it simply looked like I was knackered after training and wanted an afternoon off.

Theoretically, that could be legit, as tiredness and dehydration are known triggers as someone else has pointed out though.

But easily avoidable.

Absolutely.

I get migraines pretty much weekly, sometimes a couple times a week. Had them since my early teens. Went through all the different medication and treatments, just learned to live with them over the years. I get two different types, ones triggered by environment (noise, light, heat, movement/flickering etc) and ones triggered by exercise (heart rate going above 90% of max will usually trigger one).

The environmental ones are the worst and more difficult to control, driving in the dark will usually get me if roads are busy as the headlights from cars is bad, so during winter I tend to leave work early to avoid and work from home last couple hours of the day. When thigs get noisey I just move on somewhere else or wear ear plugs, things moving around in my peripheral vision for an extended period of time is a problem I actively avoid.

Exercise induced migraines only last about half the time (12-18hrs) so I just time my exercise so I will be in bed for the worst part of the migraine if/when it comes. I probably have only taken 2 or 3 sick days in the past 10 years or so due to them, but I have a flexible enough role I can manage my own working time around my needs.

Food additives were the main triggers in my youth, certain colouring, flavourings etc used to knock me out for days. Don’t know if thats still the case these days as I tend to eat naturally and avoid such things out of habit.

One thing I know is that migraines are debilitating to the point where I wouldn’t even be able to use a phone to call in sick when they are at their worst. Dark room, lie down with head on the softest pillow I can find in a fetal position and don’t move, talk or anything else till it’s gone. They also make me the grumpiest/angriest person (barely) alive, and even a very pleasant enquiry as to how I’m feeling will result in a request to **** off!

Knowing my triggers and how to manage them, I wouldn’t expect many absences to be tolerated at work. Going for a high intensity ride in the morning pre work, listening to loud music through headphones, testing the stobe function of my tactical torch at night etc would be pretty stupid. I can’t see how it’s likely one could reach working age without learning their triggers so you really need to have a talk with this person to understand what is causing them and work out a plan of action, either that or to see if they are taking the piss.

Not every headache is a migraine, and ones which occur “constantly” often aren’t. There are nasty things which occur in real bursts – like cluster headaches, but also other things, Tension Type Headache and Medication misuse headache about which one might be less sympathetic.

That’s a rather cynical view and not quite correct. Chronic migraine is a real condition and very debilitating. It can be caused by medication overuse and most migraine experts don’t refer to it as ‘medication misuse headache’. It can develop in people who have frequent migraines and who take painkillers frequently because they 1. Have been poorly advised by their doctors and 2. Want to work and have a life, and not be at home in pain.
Meds overuse headache can be treated with a detox from all painkillers but in severe cases, help from a doctor is needed. They certainly don’t need a lack of sympathy!!
The National Migraine Centre website has a lot of very reliable information on migraine.

I used to suffer on a regular basis but much preferred being at work with something to concentrate on than being at home suffering.
That’s no migraine I recognise. When I used to get them I wanted a sensory deprivation chamber where I could lie quietly weeping to myself.

There are two main types of migraine, the sort most here describe is hugely debilitating, one of my g/f’s suffered from them, mainly stress triggered, and she had to go to bed, totally darkened room, vomiting, the works.
I get the other main type, aura migraine, where I get a blurred area in the centre of my vision, which then starts to go sparkly, and grows into a ‘C’ shape that expands until it disappears out of my visual area, this is followed by a pretty heavy headache, but if I take ibuprofen as soon as possible it knocks the edges off the headache.
I’ve got used to them, I’ve always got painkillers with me for the arthritis in my knee, and the only time the visual effects cause issues is when I’m driving, which is my job, but even then it’s fairly rare; stress was, I think, the usual trigger, and I don’t get anywhere near as stressed as I used to.
I did, and still do, wake up with the first signs of a migraine, and my diet is varied, so I can’t really pin the trigger down to anything specific, other than getting stressed over something.

I used to suffer on a regular basis but much preferred being at work with something to concentrate on than being at home suffering.

That’s no migraine I recognise. When I used to get them I wanted a sensory deprivation chamber where I could lie quietly weeping to myself.[/quote]Tried that. It didn’t make things any better. Being able to focus on something – anything – other than the pain and sickness works better for me. Yes, I still need some sort of Analgesic. Yes, I have to fight the nausea. Yes, I often feel like bashing my head off a wall if only it would stop the pain. Headphones can be a great help too but I don’t become light sensitive and my vision isn’t affected. I’ve had the jagged vision thing a few times but it passes in a couple of minutes and doesn’t result in the other symptoms.

My point is that we are all different and the same solutions and coping strategies do not apply to us all. It’s useful to be aware of them all.