Re: People going sick.
I was a victim of (to use the words of a Lt Col specialist) a totally unjustified downgrade. I was downgraded for nearly 18 months and in that time I exhausted every avenue to get the upgrade. I am in a job where deployments last on average 4 weeks so with a bit of judicious date massaging I missed out on nothing my fit colleagues were doing. But how annoyed would I have been if I had been out of pocket during this time?
One solution to Mr W's problem is to get everyone down to a bar and fill her and her colleagues with booze, light blue touch paper and retire to a safe distance and let the laws of natual selection run their course.