5 years into Long COVID here. I was on competitive grad scheme/promotion track and kept pushing but after 3 years, I had to reduce hours (3 days - Mon, Wed, Fri really helps to rest between) and then took a lower level role as I couldn’t work at that level’s pace anymore. Started with 2.5 hours, every other day, increasing by 30mins each week. I would have liked to go slower for a more sustainable increase but I ran out of sick leave to cover non-working hours so essentially worked for free for two months to continue gradually building up.
I permanently work from home- there is no way I could do an in-office day/s (I am mostly bed bound and always housebound). If you can, have small, regular breaks. For me, lying down is key- does your office have a prayer room or equivalent you can rest in? I’ve also had to set boundaries like no back to back meetings- after being upright for a 30min call, I need to be horizontal for at least 30mins (I use my laptop while laid on my side- easy once you get used to it)
If you can reduce your hours now, I would recommend as I didn’t know the dangers of pushing through until it was too late. After 2 years, I’m only now slowly getting a steadier baseline now (change of team to an understanding manager and no urgent deadlines was a game changer). It takes a slow and steady approach over a much longer period than anticipated, but I can now see a light at the end of the tunnel (I’ll never be able to go full time but I might be able to maintain my baseline and work 0.6FTE until I retire as long as I don’t get covid again).
Best of luck with working, it becomes your entire life as you can’t do anything else, but hopefully with you being so early into LC you can make a real impact by making changes earlier rather than later.