Dealing with a chronic illness is difficult on a personal level, and can be even more difficult on a professional one, writes MICHAEL KELLY.
MOST OF us have built up a carefully constructed work persona – often that of a relentlessly can-do corporate animal who is hungry for work and thinks lunch is for wimps – and we work hard at protecting that persona by keeping a fairly strict line of demarcation between our personal and professional lives.
A diagnosis of a chronic illness will often compel an employee to share intrinsically and uncomfortably private information with their colleagues. This can add to the stresses of an already stressful time – how will employers and colleagues react?
Will they treat me differently? Will I be stigmatised or appear vulnerable or less capable than I was in the past? Will it affect promotional opportunities?
Hilary Coffey Farrell is human resources manager at the Drug Treatment Centre Board and is acutely aware of how difficult it is to divulge such personal information in a professional environment. Six years ago, she was experiencing a persistent pain in her side and, following a routine examination, was diagnosed with cervical cancer.
“There is that element of vulnerability when the news gets out there first,” she says. “I went from being Hilary the HR manager to Hilary the girl that has cancer. That is difficult to cope with.”
Facing into a difficult treatment regime, she also had to cope with a six-month absence from the workplace.
“To me, my job is a huge part of who I am and I have never been sick a day in my life so it was really difficult to realise that I was going to be out of the loop for months. I couldn’t wait to get back to it afterwards.”
Ultimately, the prolonged absence from work forced her hand when it came to deciding whether and what to tell colleagues about her illness.
“I told my boss and said I didn’t know what it meant yet but that I was going to be gone for a few months. I didn’t tell colleagues all at once. I told people that I had to go for an operation and most people will leave you to your privacy then, although some will push it a little and try to get the gory details.
“Sometimes I told people that I had to have a hysterectomy and I found if you gave people that much information it was usually enough. In essence, you are telling them enough to end the conversation. The alternative is that people start talking to each other about it and that’s how the rumour mill starts.”
Men found her diagnosis particularly uncomfortable to deal with and she says that she may not have given details of her cancer at all at work had her boss been a man.
“Cervical is a very personal type of cancer. It’s like prostate with men. But I think there have been tremendous strides in Ireland, the fact that I am even talking to you now about this I think shows that there is not that stigma there any more.”
Pat Clarke was 46 years old and working in the finance section of Cavan County Council when he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. While he found solace in work, and found it helped keep his mind off his illness, he also decided initially not to tell his colleagues.
“I found the diagnosis difficult to accept myself at the time and the initial symptoms disappeared so I just ignored it. My natural reaction was not to raise it until it became obvious because it’s just a lot easier not to talk about it.
“You worry about people’s reaction – are they going to be full of sympathy or thinking you’re not up to the job?”
About seven or eight months later, Clarke had another episode and says that at that point he had no choice but to broach the subject at work.
“It was physically obvious at that stage that I wasn’t well – I had to use a stick to get around. In hindsight I think it was a positive thing that I had to tell people because it was my choice as opposed to someone else suggesting it. In the end I was glad it was out there in the open – it wasn’t a problem.”
He believes the attitude to chronic illness in a particular workplace tends to be led by specific managers and HR – his own manager was incredibly supportive.
“The bigger obstacles were in my own mind than in reality to be honest. My manager asked me how I felt about returning to work and when I said I’d love to, he said they would work around me whatever way they could. They made the most suitable office available to me.
“I have nothing but praise for how they handled it because I know of someone with MS who was advised to retire when they told their manager which is ridiculous because with MS you go through spells when you’re fine and spells when you’re not. All my preconceptions about how people would react were shattered – everyone was so supportive.”
The stigma attached to an illness in the workplace can be all the more marked when it is mental health related. Padraig Allen is a principal clerk in the Houses of the Oireacthas and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder while he was still in his late teens.
“With bipolar there are the two extremes,” he explains, “the very high and very low – and the sufferer is usually the last person to realise they need help. At the time I was studying and I was doing very well but I became quite psychotic quite quickly. I needed hospitalisation.”
While there is no cure for the illness, with mood-stabilising medication 90 per cent of sufferers can return to normal society, which typically means having to make a decision about divulging the diagnosis (or not) to colleagues. In Allen’s case he decided the best way to handle the stigma was to inform – he gave an interview to the staff magazine in which he talked about his illness.
“The stigma about mental illness is embedded in society. If you had a physical illness like kidney failure, that wouldn’t arise and I didn’t feel I had anything to hide.”
His own experience of telling colleagues about his illness is that the people who mattered cared. “My superiors certainly were always very understanding and that makes it easier to cope with. I would also have lots of friends at work who are aware of it and are very caring.
“That said, in a work environment you have to be able to give 120 per cent. I am 36 years in the public service and for the first half of that time I wasn’t able to go for promotion nor was I considered for promotion. When I became well I achieved a number of promotions. It’s totally different now – modern places of employment are very aware of HR issues.”
According to Hilary Coffey Farrell, HR departments are often the first port of call for an employee divulging a serious illness at work – her advice for HR managers is that they should let the employee lead the situation.
“They should deal with it very much in a counselling sense, always mindful of the sensitivities of the situation. The most important question that you can ask is – what would you like us to do? Be mindful of crossing the line into the person’s privacy. The employee may not want to share the details of their illness or their diagnosis with you at that point.”
The level of support – financial and otherwise – available to employees facing an illness varies greatly from company to company and, far from being a support mechanism, some employers can all too easily make things more difficult for an employee who is still reeling from diagnosis.
Some employers don’t pay people when they are off sick and that can be an added stress. On top of having a serious illness to contend with, having to worry about income is a huge strain on families.
Occupational Health and Employee Assistance Programmes can make life easier for an employee at an immensely difficult time. “In my own case, my doctor was liaising with the doctor here about when I should return to work,” says Farrell. “A lot of employers wouldn’t have occupational health clearly, but most would have a relationship with a doctor that they would use for medicals, so most would have access to that, albeit not in-house.”
The most important thing, she says, is that there is communication between the employee’s doctor and the company.
In general terms, she says, most Irish organisations handle it quite well when an employee is hit with a health crisis.
“When an employee has a serious health issue, I think most organisations rally around. I felt I was really well supported by everyone at work. In fact, I was surprised at how supportive people were.”