Fatigue can occur as mental and physical exhaustion. Although there are various everyday strategies that make it easier to deal with fatigue in everyday life, side effects of fatigue can also make the precision, accuracy, and speed of our actions difficult. The mood can also be negatively affected. As a result, fatigue can have a massive impact on work performance and ability. In some cases, fatigue limits those affected to such an extent that the job can only be carried out to a limited extent or no longer.
Depending on whether this is only the case for a few weeks or over a long period of time, various support mechanisms apply. What these are and how you can get financial support during this time is explained in this article.

1. Sick leave

If symptoms are so severe that you are unable to do your job for health reasons at the moment, you can call in sick leave to your employer. This gives you time to recover, recharge your batteries and deal proactively with your symptoms. Usually, a certificate of incapacity for work must be submitted by the doctor on the third day of illness, but regulations can be regulated by individual contracts in employment contracts.
From the first day of sick leave from a doctor, the sickness benefit replaces the payment. This is usually paid to you by your employers up to and including the sixth week after the sick leave.
From the seventh week to the 18th month of sick leave, sickness benefit is reduced to 70% of the contributory salary and paid out by health insurance. However, these sickness benefit payments are paid for a maximum of 78 weeks in three years, provided that the incapacity for work extends over this period.

The regulations may differ for self-employed and short-term employees. Health insurance companies can provide clarity here.

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2. Rehabilitation services

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The main goal of rehabilitation or, in short, rehab is to prevent an illness from worsening and restore patients' ability to function in the best possible way. Such measures are usually carried out by a team of different experts (e.g. neurologist, physiotherapist and psychotherapist) and can take place both in outpatient and inpatient settings.

In a work context, there are two types of rehabilitation:

medical rehabilitation

If earning capacity is significantly threatened or has already been reduced, there may be a right to medical rehabilitation services. Whether rehab is possible should be discussed with the attending physician. Disease-associated counseling centers can also help you find the ideal treatment. Medical rehabilitation is either covered by pension insurance or paid by health insurance if rehab serves to avoid the need for care.
In rehab, symptoms and, if possible, causes are treated and patients learn how to best deal with the disease themselves.

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Vocational rehabilitation

Vocational rehabilitation is not medical treatment, but benefits to participate in working life. These are aimed at maintaining earning capacity and/or creating new career prospects. These services can either be provided by specialized clinics (e.g. in parallel with medical rehabilitation), take place at work, or be used in the form of continuing education measures.
Pension insurance companies provide information on whether there is a right to vocational rehabilitation and how a corresponding application can be submitted.

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If you now want to slowly return to working life after a long break, in addition to vocational rehabilitation benefits, there are also legal reintegration measures that you can make use of.

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3. Phased reintegration (Hamburg model)

The Hamburg model is a legally enshrined approach to gradually accompanying people back to work after a break of more than six weeks due to illness. Doctors, patients and employers work together to develop a plan for returning to work. This begins with reduced weekly working hours adapted to the patient's health, which is gradually increased to the initial level before the illness. In addition, vocational rehabilitation services can be used to cover the costs of necessary changes in the workplace, such as technologies adapted to fatigue. The plan is highly individual and usually takes six weeks to six months. During the reintegration period, the patient continues to receive sickness benefit from health insurance or transitional benefits from pension insurance instead of normal wages.

The prerequisite for gradual reintegration is the doctor's determination that the patient is currently unable to complete the full workload, the accepted application for pension or health insurance, and the consent of the employer.

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