New job - filling in forms for contract

[GirlAfraid23]

Hi everyone,

I'm in a tricky situation. Have been offered a great job in a school, but the local council have just sent me a bunch of forms and one of them asks this:

Can you provide details of the number of days of absence from work over the last two years?

Now, I know I've had a fair few as I was going through bad anxiety at the time but rather than say I was suffering with mental health, I always said I was ill. I know that lots of individual absences can create issues.

Will someone in the know shed some light on this? Can they withdraw my offer?

Also, I can't for the life of me remember how many days I've had and in what capacity. I can only guess! What should I do?

They're only asking for past two years and I know since September 2012 until February 2014, I had 9 days, since then I had about 6/7 so possibly 15 in two and a half years, is that a lot? One of those was an episode of 4 days together due to a chest infection.

[Rennie1989]

For my current job I declared that I had two weeks off due to depression. Occy health rang me to discuss if I needed support and if my depression would affect my work and I answered as necessary. Be honest, they cannot discriminate if you have an illness but they expect that you are doing something about it.

Roughly work out how many days you have had off but if you're worried then write a note saying that it was a rough estimate of give or take a few days, or what ever. I don't think people would know exactly.

It would be an issue if you lied, say that you declared a few days and it happened that you had a month off in total.

[GirlAfraid23]

For my current job I declared that I had two weeks off due to depression. Occy health rang me to discuss if I needed support and if my depression would affect my work and I answered as necessary. Be honest, they cannot discriminate if you have an illness but they expect that you are doing something about it.

Roughly work out how many days you have had off but if you're worried then write a note saying that it was a rough estimate of give or take a few days, or what ever. I don't think people would know exactly.

It would be an issue if you lied, say that you declared a few days and it happened that you had a month off in total.

Well I haven't had a month off in total but I know it was a few days here and there but I can't be sure how many, I think it's around about 10 or 11 for two years, maybe a couple more. Two of those were groupings of 2-3 days at a time. I don't want to jeopardise my chances by looking like I'm lying but how can I remember two years ago?!

[Rennie1989]

Like I just said, write what you know and write a note that it could be slightly wrong. It won't ruin your chances if you're honest.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Thats not much time off. If you had a lot of individual absences then it could ring some alarm bells, especially if they were Monday's & Friday's (hangovers, early party-time, etc).

Not everyone can remember and they will understand that so a note as Rennie says will help. They always have the option of checking as they will ask you to disclose your working history over these periods.

If they contact your old employer(s) did they mark you down as off for anxiety? If they did and you don't declare this you will run the risk of breach of contract by not telling them of any illnessess that they have asked for. However, its always a question of whether an employer makes such checks so a risk to the employee.

Good luck with your new job!