I haven't told work

[Hamseven]

In march 22 and may 23 I had to have breast surgery and cancer treatment. I had time if for surgery but either throughout. I made a good recovery.
I also have a lung condition (similar to COPD) and struggled with breathing every day. I'm on numerous medications and inhalers and get repeated chest infections. I have blue badge for this as it is debilitating.
I'm also now being investigated for lots iron which won't increase with medication. And gastroesophagal reflux. Which combined may suggest Crohn's or coeliac disease so having tests for that.
I'm also waiting for scans on my womb etc due to extremely heaving ongoing bleeding.
I'm just exhausted. I am a headteacher. I work full time. I've never told my team and don't really plan too but I'm absolutely drained. I love my job.

Why haven't you told anyone? Maybe you should say to the rest of upur SMT. Its a lot to keep to yourselfxx

*Your
They could help lighten the load at work.

Oh goodness you are carrying such a heavy load alone! I agree with the PPs, it would help to lighten the load if you were to share at least some of that.

There's many reasons I've not told them. I don't want them to feel extra pressure. I don't want their pity. I don't want to be told to go off work. I don't. I don't want to look weak.

I'm a chair of governors. Staff well-being is part of my remit.

My time is regularly spent ensuring that staff workload is reasonable, that staff are well supported etc.

I would want to know (not in detail) about such major health issues as part of my duty of care.

But what would you do?

Meet with you. Check your workload. Discuss opportunities for this to be shared/additional support bought in.

Your role is so vital that you going off sick would seriously impact the rest of the school. Thus it's important that governors be given the opportunity to have contingency plans in place, based on actual likelihood of it happening.

If you were my head teacher, I would feel awful that you thought you had to do this all alone.
Switch it up, what if this was one of your teachers? Another member of SLT? What would you provide for them. You are a human, you need to care for yourself too and you need to lead by example about mental health, self care and supporting a team.

I'm a Deputy Head. My role is to support my Head. I would want to know to help. Not details just very difficult time. It's not weak, it's strong to ask for help.

I'm a governor too and am shocked by this, how can your governors support you if they don't know any of this? does it really never come up in contingency planning? It sounds as if your first aiders should be aware of your respiratory illness too in case you need treatment during the day. In my workplace we know who has asthma, diabetes etc. I'm in awe of the fact that you manage to work full time in such a full-on job with all these health conditions, don't get me wrong, but really do think it would be a good idea to share the load a bit more.