http://uk.news.yahoo.com/shark-wrestler-sacked-sick-leave-191305545.html#msbdxGz

Doh

ah yes its quite good that one read it on BBC this morning , off on stress , advised to take a holiday to unwind by his GP and he saved some kids while he was doing it.

then gets sacked for following GP’s advice ? last time i looked being stressed didnt affect my throwing of a shark ? had he been off sick with a bad back then a long haul flight and throwing a shark probably is a dismissal offence

Hmm…

Saw this one too. His wife has been sacked too as she was also off sick with stress at the same time.

While I can kind of sympathise with the employer who as it turns out is a charity and has had two employees on extended sick leave, they do still have a duty of care to their employees and if they are medically signed of and the prescription is take a holiday I can’t see how they can be sacked.

A tribunal would probably take them to the cleaners.

His GP advised him to go on holiday, stress can be a serious thing, I see him doing no harm here.

Stress you say?

Should have had them tested

That’s absolutely nuts. I was off for a while with work-related stress last year, and damn right I went on holiday! It did me more good than any amount of sitting at home feeling miserable, which is what some employers seem to want you to do. I was also on doctor’s orders to ride my bike more, which was fab.

I’m assuming the story will end with a very short court case. Why you would want to pick a fight with a man whose idea of a relaxing holiday is to kick a shark in the balls I don’t know.

A two month holiday?

This is a bit contentious as they had been off for 8 months in all. That’s a long time to be off sick with stress isn’t it?

Some of the comments at the bottom of the yahoo page are strange?

He works for a childrens charity and saves children from possible attack. Yet ‘the only course of action we can consider is dismissal’???? brilliant kids charity they are, why couldnt they just have used PR spin to raise funds for the charity rather than cover themselves in brown stuff?

joolsburger – Member

This is a bit contentious as they had been off for 8 months in all. That’s a long time to be off sick with stress isn’t it?

It’s a long time to be off with anything, but it doesn’t become contentious- presumably his contract specified sick periods etc.

I’m guessing there may be more to it…

If seems a simple case, but he was on Radio 2 at lunch, and its not – at least not how he says it.

Seems strange that they supposedly got a letter in the post sacking them while they were away – no hearing or anything, that would normally mean an automatically unfair dismissal.

which leads me to suspect that there may be a lot more to the story than we’ve heard.

I think the key will be whether or not the doctor agrees to his version of events, saying the patient was advised to take a holiday by them.

I’m guessing there may be more to it…

Nonsense, we have 110% of the facts.

johndoh – Member

I think the key will be whether or not the doctor agrees to his version of events, saying the patient was advised to take a holiday by them.

And whether his employer was aware that he was well enough to spend 2 months on holiday and agreed to it? If I had been in that situation I would make sure that my employer was aware that I wasn’t in the UK.

What about the shark stress levels after said wrestling event, poor thing.

Listened to this on Daily Mail FM (Vine) at lunchtime. There’s definitely more to it in that the relationship between them and the trustees of the charity was strained. Not sure if it’s relevant but him and his Mrs had built the charity from the ground up over 10 years so he was more than just an ’employee’ (blood/sweat/tears) even if that is technically all they were.

What I struggle with is the outraged nutjob public seem to think sick leave for stress is the same as for physical disability in that you’re required to sit at home watching Kyle.

The other thing that troubles me is the shark episode in that an instinctive life-saving reaction (he was no muppet) should in some way be trumped by a degree of temporary or permanent physical or mental (if that’s what stress is) disability. The bloke was clear that even if he’d had one leg he’d have impulsively got involved – the shark would potentially have had less to go at.

Like all things there’s two sides to the story but he certainly put his case across well and I could’ve listened to him for far longer than Vine gave him but he’s contracted to give the nutjobs their say…

why couldnt they just have used PR spin to raise funds for the charity rather than cover themselves in brown stuff?

This.

Ready made hero. Charity cares for employees – more important than anything else. Whilst recovering from the stress of building such a fab charity, was still thinking of kids. Proud to have him working for us.

It’s not rocket surgery FFS.

And whether his employer was aware that he was well enough to spend 2 months on holiday and agreed to it? If I had been in that situation I would make sure that my employer was aware that I wasn’t in the UK.

Agreed.

johndoh – Member

I think the key will be whether or not the doctor agrees to his version of events, saying the patient was advised to take a holiday by them.

That’s pretty standard advice though- exercise, rest, relax, do things you like doing, get away from the problem, etc etc.

Pure speculation this, but after 8 months there’s a pretty good chance that one or both parties had given up on returning to the role he left. After about 2 months, I knew I wasn’t going back unless things changed drastically, so the rest of the time was spent a) establishing that wasn’t going to happen and then b) looking for different work in the company. And if that hadn’t worked out, it would have just been c) wait til the end of the contractual sick leave.

So… My assumption, is that the charity didn’t want to wait that long, and thought they had an opportunity to cut it short.

scuttler – Member

The other thing that troubles me is the shark episode in that an instinctive life-saving reaction (he was no muppet) should in some way be trumped by a degree of temporary or permanent physical or mental (if that’s what stress is) disability. The bloke was clear that even if he’d had one leg he’d have impulsively got involved – the shark would potentially have had less to go at.

Can anyone show me where he saved somebody’s life?

From watching the clip, nobody’s life was at risk. Everyone was on the beach watching the shark, apart from the ‘heroes’ who seemed to want to bug the shark unnecessarily.

I haven’t seen any evidence that childrens’ lives were at risk unless there is more footage that I haven’t seen.

My first thought when seeing the clip originally was that it was a slow news day and that the media really were over-reacting.

There’s a badge for shark wrestling and everything

Why should someone with stress get sacked for going on holiday? If anyone needs a break, it’s someone with problems.

Wrong thread…

Why should someone with stress get sacked for going on holiday? If anyone needs a break, it’s someone with problems.

Unless, of course, both he and his wife went off ‘on stress’ n order to be able to go on holiday for 2 months.

trustees statement from the charity’s website (their date, not mine)

March 31, 2013

Mr Paul Marshallsea was dismissed for a variety of issues relating to the period leading up to the commencement of his sickness absence in April 2012. None of the issues related to his recent holiday in Australia.

That must be why they mentioned the holiday and shark-wrestling in their communications.

Like others have mentioned probably not the whole story being reported here.

Our sickness policy doesnt preclude you from going on holiday if you are on long term sick, say for a stress related illness, but you are expected to inform your mangaer first. And not by way of appearing on an Austrlian news channel!

Still, 8 months for stress isnt unusual in this day and age. However, like most things there will be genuine cases and also those that flaunt the system.