Working and your career during and after cancer treatment

For people being treated for cancer, the treatment process and associated events are a significant part of life. Once your cancer treatment is complete or nearing completion you might consider returning to work, at least part-time to begin with.

Working while receiving treatment

Some people are forced by their circumstances, to work while they are receiving cancer treatment while others prefer to work as they want to keep busy and maintain a sense of normality.
Whether you are able to work during cancer treatment depends on your doctor’s advice and:

• The type of treatment you are getting
• The stage of your cancer
• Your overall health
• The kind of work you do

It is not possible for everyone to work during and after treatment, so talk to your doctor about this as resting is an important part of the healing and treatment process.

What you can do and whether you will need to limit how much you do, will depend on how you feel during treatment. Some people with cancer can still go to work and do their usual everyday tasks while they receive treatment. Others find that they need more rest or just feel too sick to do much. Talk with your employer about your needs at this time.

Gearing up to return to work

According to CANSA, many cancer survivors who think about returning to work often have mixed emotions including relief, trepidation, hope and sometimes awkwardness.

Here are some suggestions from CANSA for softening the transition from being a cancer patient to being a cancer survivor and then an employee - again:

• It is important to test one’s psyche. Just as important as feeling capable of doing the job, is feeling psychologically up to speed. If you are feeling below par, it may be advisable to seek one-on-one counselling from a social worker or a therapist, or to join a support group of other cancer survivors returning to work.
• Evaluate your readiness to work. Do you want to return full-time or part-time? If part-time sounds more feasible, consider what may be needed. Do mornings work better, or afternoons? Take into account any medicine you still use and it’s possible side effects.
• Attend workshops or seminars to refresh your job skills.
• Attend industry events to keep your knowledge up-to-date.
• Focus on the work itself, since it is important to resume routine.

Telling co-workers

You have to explain your situation to your employer if you want them to understand your situation, especially if you need special accommodations. If you do not want to share details about your health with everyone, choose someone in the human resources division, or one of your managers, to confide in. They can then make all the arrangements on your behalf.

How open you are with your co-workers about your cancer is a personal decision. Do not feel pressured to share or explain things. Only you can decide what works best for you and your situation.

People have different ways of dealing with difficult or unfamiliar situations. Many of your co-workers will react to your cancer diagnosis and absences with understanding and support while others may feel uncomfortable around you. Your cancer will be an unpleasant reminder of people’s own mortality which can make them react negatively towards you. Some co-workers may resent that they had to take on extra duties on your treatment days. Others may ask intrusive questions about your health and treatment, or they might avoid you.

You have legal rights

You have the same rights as anyone else in the workplace and should be given equal opportunities, regardless of whether you tell people at work about your cancer. Hiring, promotion, and how you are treated in the workplace should depend entirely on your abilities and qualifications. As long as you are able to fulfil your job duties, you can’t legally be fired for being sick.

Reasonable accommodation at work

An employer must reasonably accommodate an employee with a disability to ensure that they can carry out their expected duties.

Examples of reasonable accommodations include, but are not limited to:

• Providing or modifying equipment or devices (like chairs and desks)
• Restructuring a job
• Offering part-time or modified work schedules
• Reassigning an employee to a vacant position
• Adjusting or modifying tests, training materials or policies
• Providing readers or interpreters
• Making the workplace readily accessible to and usable by people with disabilities

If your workplace has a union, its officials can be good sources of information about illnesses and the workplace.

Returning to work can be a challenging situation. www.cancerandcareers.org is a site dedicated to this subject.

References include

• www.cancer.org
• www.cancerandcareers.org
• www.livestrong.org
• www.cansa.org.za