Some people will do ANYTHING in Work

to get some time off work.

Take one colleague. She is 23 and two years ago often had Mondays off work sick with a severe hangover. This clearly wasn't enough time to herself, so she became pregnant (and to give her her due, she did stop drinking immediately) which gave her the opportunity to take time off for all types of pregnancy related symptoms along with rather more than usual antenatal appointments. Her partner agreed to be the stay at home parent so her plans to return to work full-time were realistic.

She duly left work to have the baby, taking nearly a year's maternity leave, during which time she accrued holiday allowances. When she returned to work it was just for two days a week while she used up all the holiday she'd built up, but didn't need, because she was on maternity leave.

Two weeks after returning to work she announced she was pregnant again. Replay of previous paragraph but with a shorter maternity leave allowance this time. Incidentally, while she was on maternity leave this time, we went through a horrendous restructure at work where the rest of us travelled to hell and back in the process of applying for our own jobs. This lady just got slotted into a position as her (quote from Gov UK site) "right to be offered any suitable alternative job if they're selected for redundancy (even if other colleagues are more suitable for the role)."

She duly returned to work and again within two weeks she made an announcement. No, not pregnant again, but she had somehow contracted "Hand Foot and Mouth Disease" with doctor's instructions to take several weeks off work. Another colleague also had it and took just three days off work...

Finally, she recovered and returned to work. Yet again, within the now-anticipated two weeks, she was off work again. This time, she'd slipped up a ramp and broken her ankle very badly, needing surgery and extended sick time off work. Rumour has it that she was very deep in her cups at the time.

Although I do feel her pain in an "oh, poor thing" kind of way, the cynic in me wonders "What next?" The work environment now is nothing like she knew way back when, so she's going to find it harder and harder to adjust when she does return.