This is a common situation in companies: an employee sends his sick leave to his boss. His office remains empty all day and you inquire about the health status of your colleague or collaborator. Emails accumulate in your absence, information escapes you. The temptation to write to him is great.
Mistake. Social law lawyer Anne-Claire Chambas points out that an employee has “no obligation to respond to an email during his work stoppage, whether from a client, a colleague or his superior.”
Legally, it is not
Is the situation different if your message, as a manager, only aims to know the physical and psychological state of the sick worker? “No,” answers occupational health expert Valentin Commarteau.
“If we are on sick leave it is because [notre état] It has to be, as its name suggests,” summarizes the co-founder of Moha.
On the set of the BFM Business program Avec Vous, Valentin Commarteau reminds us that “we should not respond to our boss or our colleagues since, if we are in a phase of professional exhaustion, we must take action.” balance of our work rhythms, our balance between professional and personal life.”
Asking for news is “counterproductive”
Lawyer Anne-Claire Chambas even advises managers against trying to contact the sick employee, especially when the reason for this justified absence is unknown.
On the part of employees, it is advisable not to check their emails or messages sent by their colleagues. If “the doctor has put us on sick leave, it is really time to cut ties and the file [de travail] I will wait until tomorrow because now I need to take care of my health, otherwise I will explode in mid-flight.” A situation that expert Valentin Commarteau observes “too regularly.”
If checking on your colleagues or a member of your team during a leave is a good feeling, it is neither humanely nor legally advisable to do so.
Source: BFM TV
