Support From Employers, Colleagues, and Worker’s Compensation Boards – Chris

 

Chris's employer and colleagues are supportive but he still worries about his professional future.

Transcript

So I’ve been, you know, gradually draining the sick leave bank but once that’s gone, I definitely face the prospect of, you know, not being able to do my job full-time still. So I don’t know what happens then because I’m in this gray area of, you know, not necessarily being completely disabled but being pretty disabled and on some days, I’m completely disabled in terms of my ability to specifically do my work both physically and cognitively …

My manager’s been, you know, very open and wanting to try to make things work, but obviously that I also – you know, he needs to allocate his budget and ensure things still get accomplished, right. So, you know, he’s certainly trying to do as much as he can within reason to give me the accommodations, so working from home for example when most of my colleagues are now back in the office, flexible hours. You know, allowing me to basically decide the day of, what my hours are going to be that day based on my symptoms …

You know, the approach I decided to take was to be open about it and, you know, they’ve been receptive. Like I say, if I’d been maybe more able to conceal the symptoms or the issues, you know, maybe I’d still have been able to go for that promotion or things like that. But I got to the point where I wasn’t able to conceal my inability to do my work and I didn’t want to make it – you know, I obviously didn’t want to come across as just suddenly not doing it or suddenly not performing at the level that I was used to performing at. So, you know, I’ve tried to be very upfront and I’ve appreciated, you know, how receptive he’s been to try to – my manager that is, to try to find accommodation and go through the channels that are available to try to find supports for me.


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