The thought of managing your disability or illness whilst being in full or part time work, can be daughting to anyone. We all know very well that our illness or disability can be a full time job on its own and you may feel panicked at the thought of doing both.
Especially with the recent news the government has announced about getting the sick and disabled back into work if they can has created an absolute uproar within our community. I mean we don’t choose illness or disability to allow us to claim PIP and to sit in the house all day do we?
My personal experience working full time with a illness and disability has been a bit of a rollercoaster but also a huge learning curve as to what is right and wrong. I fall into the category of people who struggle to gain any sort of financial support due to my illness and theres been times where working has felt impossible but I have had no choice but to push on through, I have learnt my limit the hard way.
What is the The Equality Act 2010?
The Equality Act is an act to enforce, protect and promote disability rights within the UK. This Act protects you within Education, Employment and dealing with the police.
It is against the law for you to be discriminated against because of your disability in any of 3 above.
Knowing your rights within employment
When you apply for a new job the employer may ask you some basic questions about your health and my advice is to be absolutely open and honest from the beginning. It will only help you and your employer manage your condition as best as possible.
You can only be asked about your health or disability:
- to help decide if you can carry out a task that is an essential part of the work
- to help find out if you can take part in an interview
- to help decide if the interviewers need to make reasonable adjustments for you in a selection process
- to help monitoring
- if they want to increase the number of disabled people they employ
- if they need to know for the purposes of national security checks
Reasonable Adjustments
Your employer has to attempt to make reasonable adjustments to help make life easier at work and to prevent you being at a disadvantage to others you work with. They may do this by offering you a different shift pattern, making an adjustment to your working hours or by providing you with a special piece of equipment such as a riser for your desk.
Applying for a Job
I have always disclosed my disability to all potential workplaces upon submitting my application. A lot of companies will request that you do this anyways so don’t see this as a potential negative and let it put you off applying. Letting a potential future employer know from the beginning about your illness/disability will more than likely benefit you in the long run but choosing to not disclose it from the beginning could have a negative impact on you and your application.
Review companies that are part of the Disability Confident Scheme: Disability Confident: Guidance For Applicants
Keeping your employer in the loop
Most employers hold a HR folder for each of their employees, it is a good idea to use this if you can to keep copies of any medical diagnosis, test results or appointments. This is not a requirement for you to share with your employer however I feel the more you tell them the better understanding they have which leads to better support. If the HR file is not an option having something like a medical passport would be my next recommendation.
Occupational Health Meetings
A Occupational health meeting is normally requested by your employer when they have a member of staff working for them with a illness/disability and they require a medical professional opinion on how to manage that employee. You may have had surgery or a change in your illness/disability so your employer will request you speak with their OCH department. Again this is not something to be afraid of, it is instead there to discuss any potential adjustments that may be needed for you to be able to carry out your job role. Your employer doesn't have to act on all recommendations provided by the report but the report may help back you up for the adjustments such as a different shift pattern.
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