Support from Employers, Colleagues, and Worker’s Compensation Boards
Our participants told us that one of the biggest impacts of long COVID on their lives, has been on their ability to work. Physical weakness, exhaustion after effort (known as post exertional malaise), and an inability to concentrate or look at screens made it difficult for people to do their jobs. Some of the people we spoke with had employers and colleagues who understood their situation and offered personal support and flexible working arrangements to meet their needs. This enabled some people to keep working. Others chose to retire or simply realized they could not continue working even if they wanted to. However, not everyone we spoke with was well supported. Several of our participants felt they were put under pressure to accept a work schedule they could not manage. A few of the people we spoke with qualified for workers’ compensation because they were infected with COVID-19 on the job.
Good support from employers and colleagues
Some participants said they felt well supported by their employers and colleagues. This support could take many forms including paid leave, modified duties, flexible schedules and working arrangements, gradual return to work and providing adaptive equipment. For example, Christine received a “really large computer screen” and a new microphone to help reduce the strain on her eyes and her voice. Cher ultimately gave up working but, before she made that decision, her employer was open to discussing a specially adapted workstation so she could work while lying down. Ruth’s employers “were holding my spot and my work, was super nice … But eventually we had to make that decision as I’m not coming back. There’s no way I can keep up with my workload at all.” Emily was one of the participants who had bankable sick days at work. She said, “I’ve never been sick before, so I had lots of sick time in my bank and I’ve been able to make use of that.”
But, while these forms of support were important, even more so was feeling like people believed them when they said they were unwell even though their symptoms were often strange and unpredictable. Emily was affected early in the pandemic when long COVID was not yet recognized. She explained, “In the beginning I think they didn’t really understand … so I felt less supported … But they’ve been really great, as far as being supportive to me … they’ve just been fantastic about checking in with me regularly to make sure that I’m feeling better and that my schedule is working for me and giving me lots of flexibility.” Clementine’s memory was affected by long COVID. Her managers assured her that she could “ask the same questions over and over again” and that “they would understand it and repeat it or rephrase.” Manali works in medical research. She felt “blessed … that … I don’t have to … convince them, they know what it is.” Jennifer 2 worked as a lawyer for the federal government. She told us, “We probably have one of the strongest protections in terms of employment. I ran out of sick leave obviously with all that COVID and everything, but they let me go on leave without pay immediately, no questions asked … and when I said I needed accommodation, they said, ‘Absolutely, no problem.’”
William is on modified duties and is gradually increasing his hours at work.
Transcript
Work has been really good. I did get it at work so they kind of know that they have to help me out and they have been very helpful. I took off almost three months in recovering which was nice and I was being paid for that which is good. […]
Kristen benefitted from top-up pay and gradual return to work.
Transcript
So, one thing was a gradual return to work. So, they were really good at setting up a schedule for me and really giving me the time. Like, if I couldn’t come in that day, I would just take a sick day and it was totally fine with them. So […]
Carrie 2 appreciates the fact that her colleagues offered very specific forms of support.
Transcript
These are all highly accomplished busy people and they were the ones that, when I kept saying, “OK. Can someone cover this call for me?” They just gathered and said, “No. You’re off the call schedule.” And they have been remarkable at being specific. It’s something I really learned. A […]
Anna says she is supported at work on all levels.
Transcript
Luckily I do have understanding at my work, and that really means a lot to me. On all the levels, from my teammates, from my manager, and from my director … When I produced totally inaccurate analyses and stuff, yeah, they were still understanding, and nice to me, and comforting, […]
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 […]
A lack of accommodation
Several of the people we spoke with said their employers did not offer the kind of support and accommodation they felt they needed. For example, Nicole is a primary school teacher. She explained, “They told me to take breaks. But, as a teacher, it’s kind of impossible in a class of 22 eight-year-olds to just take a break whenever you want. You can’t. So I make sure at recess that I lock the door, turn off the lights and try and have 15 minutes of quiet time … I felt pretty on my own … they weren’t very accommodating.” Katherine wanted to continue working part-time but was forced onto sick leave without pay. She told us, “It was my employer that decided that the reduced work hours were not working for them anymore … and they no longer wanted me to try to keep working … so they forced me onto sick leave without pay … If I hadn’t made that workers’ compensation claim when I did, I might be in serious financial trouble.”
Aislene makes a plea for accommodation.
Transcript
I want people to know that we’re able to accommodate people with disabilities. We saw that at the beginning of the COVID pandemic and how we had to scramble to accommodate thousands upon thousands of people in workplaces and yet they’re, kind of, pulling that back and not offering those […]
Tanya can't understand why her coworkers are able to set their own schedules but her illness can't be accommodated.
Transcript
There’s plenty of other people, like of my coworkers, that have always had the ability to basically set their own schedule, and only work a couple of days a week, and so on and so forth. Like, just basically based around their family and their social life, and what they […]
Christine is only allowed to use her sick days midweek even though a Monday or Friday would give her more recovery time.
Transcript
I took every Tuesday off because I went to massage, acupuncture, and reflexology. And I went every Tuesday and I did all my three appointments on one day … And nobody said anything to me because it was a Tuesday. If I had said Monday or Friday, then I would […]
Kristen had to find a new human resources representative when her first one questioned her symptoms.
Transcript
I was dealing with an HR rep that was COVID-focused. Her job was to deal with the COVID pandemic, sort of thing. She seemed very supportive, and she was doing weekly check-ins with me, and then at one of our weekly check-ins she said, “Are you sure you’re just not […]
Jason worries about the stigma associated with chronic illness.
Written testimony
It’s very difficult to talk about. And, it’s something where I’m – yeah, it’s been hard for me to talk about it and reframe work arrangements. I did back in December when I went through like a severe bout of like burnout I should say, I ended up taking some unused vacation time and just like used that for some time off, and like it really stood in for like basically short-term disability. I wasn’t able to do – I had all these things that I wanted to do during those few weeks off but I wasn’t able to do them and I felt very, very bad. I did ask, like before taking this time off, to switch my role responsibilities and that seemed to help in the short term, but with the demands that the company that I work for has, I’m more or less doing the kind of thing that I was doing like going into December, and despite the commitment from the company to be accommodating and allow me to focus on a less stressful activity.
I: And so what made the conversations difficult with your employer?
Well, one, like not being able to talk – like really know how to frame and talk about the health issues that you have for fear of stigma, not being believed. For instance, if someone were to tell their boss that they had like fatigue and brain fog it’s just – it just seems to me to be outside of the norm and something that just would not be taken very seriously. If someone has anxiety and depression, like similar – whether or not your boss reacts well to it or like how seriously they would take it, those kinds of symptoms on their own, like they do impact the person’s perception of you in the future. Those symptoms seem – like they associate those things with your personality and who you are, rather than like an illness that you’re managing.
Katherine's employer wants everyone back in the office.
Transcript
Like, our agency, everyone is forced back into the workplace, even my particular office is even going against the federal recommendation of two days a week in the office, and demanding the entire building come in on one – or sorry, my entire unit come in one day a week. […]
Cathy's boss was angry when she couldn't cope with her job full time.
Transcript
I realized as soon as I started I was in over my head because I was doing four hours per day. But that’s all I could do. Like, I would come home and go to bed. You know? I couldn’t do anything else. I couldn’t go mail a letter, I […]
Support from workers’ compensation boards (WCB)
Several of the people we spoke with qualified for support from the WCB because they had been infected with COVID-19 at work. This included access to private healthcare such as physiotherapy, financial support to offset loss of income, and adaptive equipment.
Lori received multiple forms of support from the WCB.
Transcript
Oh gosh, right from the beginning they gave me a cleaner because I couldn’t do stuff around here. And then I went to physio every week because I cough so much [laughs], so long, back spasms [long pause, crying] so that was really good. And I still have that, I […]
Paulina remembers that some of her colleagues didn't believe she was ill but CNESST (workers' compensation in Quebec) never questioned it.
Transcript
Yeah, it was that. And you know, they think – OK, they obviously didn’t say it in, like, to me right out front. But they implied that I am pretending to be still sick so that I can be on the workers comp, because I’m still on CNESST which is […]
While participants were grateful for WCB support, several noted that it was not always easy making a claim. Jennifer 1 explained that, having received medical attention for only one of her symptoms, “WCB tried to make me go back to work … And I’m like ‘We’ve only dealt with the lungs. We haven’t dealt with all the other issues that I’m dealing with. How can you say that?’” Katherine is relieved to qualify for WCB because her employer has forced her to take unpaid sick leave. But she finds it frustrating that supports, such as physiotherapy, have to be continually re-assessed. For example, her case manager “would only approve … about eight weeks at a time. And then the physiotherapist would have to write a report showing that there has been some small amount of progress and he would do another eight weeks.”
Cathy was given the wrong information about making a claim by her employer and, initially, inappropriately limited support from WCB.
Transcript
I sent an email to my supervisor and said “I think I – I’ve never done this in my life but I think I need to apply for WCB.” And the words were, “ No. No. No. You don’t have to do that. I’ll look after it.” And this kind […]