Working with someone with a chronic illness

[thatsalliknowsofar]

If you work with someone with a chronic illness which can affect their work - fatigue, more days off sick, time off for hospital appointments would you be annoyed and feel as if they are a waste of a colleague?

Depends on several circumstances.

If the person already had this illness, and knew about their physical restrictions, yet took say a full time job or shift work for example, then I yes, I would be annoyed that I was picking up their work- when they knew beforehand they couldn't fulfill the role.

If, however, they developed this illness having already been in the post, then I'd sympathise with them, but if it carried on, I'd be annoyed that my manager/HR/occupational health hadn't been involved and an assessment made. Ideally with a temp or other staff to spread their work around.

I'd also had more sympathy and respect when the ill person has a self awareness of how this affects the whole team. I had a colleague in the past who would hide how ill she was and the errors she was making. I can understand this might have been due to pride, denial or financial reasons. BUT- she compromised customer safety and many times other colleagues had to step in to stop a serious accident occurring. I never knew if she would call in sick or I'd be covering her workload- again, and it made my working life stressful too.

I have a chronic auto immune disease which makes me tired. I spend weekends trying to rest up so I can deliver at work the following week. I wfh if I have to speak to the consultant, or schedule in a blood test. My sick leave has been for Covid.

It totally depends.

Are appointments being made during work hours that could be made at other times?
Do you have to pick up her work? How does it impact your productivity/wellbeing?

If it doesn’t impact you then great but I’m guessing it does otherwise I doubt you’d have started this thread.

If you are getting stressed OP you need to discuss staffing levels with your boss.

I wouldn't be annoyed with a colleague in this situation. It would be management's job to ensure they have enough staff to cover the work.

I've been in a situation where I was expected to cover whatever couldn't be done due to someone's variable health before and left the job. It was clear that management thought that my workload had no limit.

Please have a bit more sympathy. Being ill long term is truly awful.

In my job it would have a huge impact on our success and other peoples workload if someone was regularly not able to be on form for most of the time, but for a long standing colleague who is working to the best of their ability, we would all do our best to be as supportive as possible.

How do you decide that they are doing their best?
And do you feel you can judge that?

Whatever it is might be obvious to you, it doesn’t mean it’s obvious to the person who is I’ll.
And it doesn’t that what is ‘obvious to you’ is actually right and the answer to the issue.

Hate to say it but us ibd sufferers actually feel like that every bloody day but we aren't able to claim any benefits so we need to keep hauling ourselves out every day to pay the bills. No need for the gory details though!

I’d be annoyed if it impacted me abd other colleagues. I wouldn’t be picking up their working term as well as my own. If it dd t impact me the no, I wouldn’t be annoyed.

Even the most sympathetic people are human though. They may be extremely sympathetic to their unwell colleague whilst also wishing they worked with someone who was able to be available for a higher percentage of their contracted hours (and could share more of the work).
It can have a knock on effect when those picking up the extra work start going off ill with the stress. Think it’s very easy to oversimplify the process of management sorting it. In niche/specialist/qualified etc roles, it’s not a case or just drafting in an extra pair of hands.

Its a toughie, we have two off/significantly reduced hours with long Covid at the moment. Everybody cares about them but it has had a massive effect on morale and the mental well-being Of those still at work. Not saying that anything should change, inclusivity is everything but people aren’t ‘cunts’ for sometimes wishing things were different and feeling a bit sorry for themselves.

OP’s language is rather inflammatory… hmmmm….

i haven’t been annoyed at a colleague with a chronic illness but I have been annoyed at how the company I worked for handled their absences, they never arranged cover and expected the rest of us to pick up the slack which isn’t too bad for a day or two but over longer periods was a nightmare. Not the colleagues fault though.

@dontgobaconmyheart people are entitled to ‘reasonable allowances’. Getting paid while not being available to do the work you’re being paid for , long-term isn’t reasonable by any stretch of the imagination….

I was that colleague - I was also the hardest working and as such youngest promotion to director.
Partly this was due to the feeling that I didn't want anyone to think of me as lessor due to my CI, partly to prove to myself that I could do everything and partly because I'm damn good at my job even if I have to do it in a slightly different manner to my colleagues.
Some people I worked with were snide about this and made judgemental comments (they tended to be the 9-5ers who never made any effort past the minimum) however my bosses were great and could see past the different approach and could see I was an asset.
I now have my own company and so flexibility is built into my ethos - I know you get more out of people if you look at their strengths rather than getting het up about their weaknesses.

What if I said "working I'm always having to cover for colleagues who have kids - they are a waste of a colleague ". Horrible language, op. The fault arranging cover is with your employer not your colleagues. Find another job.

Speaking as someone who suffers with fatigue I struggle on when I am really tired and in pain, so as not to let people down, there are following days then when I really suffer for pushing myself to hard and am awake most of the night in pain for not pacing myself.
Please try to be empathetic and think how you'd feel if you felt really Ill and had to go to work. This is our life everyday, I would not wish this on anyone.
Pain, tiredness, other problems that go hand in hand with fatigue, I have fibromyalgia too.
Please just be grateful you are well. X

I've got MS and I'm a nurse. I still work full time. My colleagues are fab about it. Apart. From flare ups I have less sickness than almost everyone else!

I might ask if the disabled person was properly supported in work, had applied for Access to work for relevant intervention and was being granted the reasonable adjustments set out in UK law. I would admire them for working, rather than wallowing at home in self pity. I would admire them for trying to be independent and career focused. But then I have 17 medical conditions, some very serious, and including Ehlers Danlos syndrome which makes you very tired every day. This is why I run my own company so I can control who works with me, and for me. If I hired anyone who thought a disabled employee was a 'waste', they would be asked to leave quickly.

I am one of those people with a chronic condition.

I virtually never take time off sick and certainly wouldn’t expect anyone else to pick up my work. (I am made to feel like a nuisance though for asking for reasonable adjustments.)

I am sympathetic to others in the same boat but would get pissed off if I regularly had to cover for them. I would expect something else to be put in place.

I am that colleague. I have never got the impression from anyone (immediate same level colleagues, those higher up the pay scale or management) that they think of me as 'lesser' or a burden. I pull my weight as much as I'm able and take time off as I need to. Occasionally it impacts on others but none have told me to my face that it's an issue and they're none of them that good at acting!
My illness is logged with occupational health as a disability so any discrimination as a result would be illegal. That's not the reason why it doesn't seem to bother my colleagues though - it's because they're not pricks.

@bellinisurge
I’m not the one who said waste of a colleague I am the one it is aimed at 😢

Why do you ask, OP? Are you the ill person being made to feel bad? Or someone with no sympathy or empathy for disabled colleagues who are just trying to make a living?

I've been that disabled colleague, struggling to get to work, struggling at work, embarrassed to be letting the side down, dreading quarterly performance assessments, being made to feel useless and being put on disciplinary procedures for both attendance & performance. It was utter hell in every way and almost destroyed me. If people can't feel anything but resentment for people like me at work, they are heartless and selfish.

Same.

I would be empathetic, but I work in a role where work has to be done in legally defined time frames and some work is urgent and life saving. It cannot wait for someone to return off sick. And other staff would need to stay after hours, take time away from their own work in order for it to be completed.

As a manager, if it were one of my reportees, I would be suggesting we change their job role to one with less case work to reduce the impact on the rest of the team. I'd look at where their skill set lay and look to get work in that area.