“I have never understood why, when everyone on the planet is one accident or medical condition away from disability, many people seem to lack any empathy, and do not attempt to understand how it must feel”.
These are the words from a recent top news story on the BBC news, spoken by blind man Sean Dilley after another instance when he was refused service at a restaurant because of his guide dog, although this is against the law.
He believes that there is “increasing hostility towards disabled people”, and certainly our research for this article on disability at work concludes that we still have a long way to go in truly accepting and adjusting the workplace for colleagues with disabilities and longterm conditions.
Having set the scene and interviewed several people who work in Health & Wellbeing and who have disabilities previously here, this feature will concentrate on the practical action employers can take to make the workplace a welcoming place for all.
Let Occupational Health play a leading role
One of the fundamental problems getting people with disabilities back into work, and retaining them, to emerge in this feature is the fact that non-clinical professionals often make assumptions about a colleague’s illness.
This is where professionals with clinical training could help enormously.
“OH are doctors, so they are neutral and always focus on what is wrong with you, and what you need, they aren’t under pressure to side with the line manager’s view; they side with the medical view,” says Health and Wellbeing consultant Sarah Gashier, who lives and works alongside kidney failure. “As well as physical accommodations like ergonomic furniture, they can also advocate for desired behaviour, such as compassion from managers.”
In her case, OH recommended in its report that Gashier “has regular meetings with a supportive manager and is supplied with flexibility, autonomy, compassion and empathy to optimise her ability to manage her health conditions in the workplace”.
“OH is impartial to what is going on in an organisation,” says Gashier. “So they should be taking more of a lead. I felt they were very supportive, whereas the problem with HR is that they are there to protect the organisation, not the employees.”
Don’t make assumptions
This follows on from the last point. People working with disabilities have told us how upsetting and uncompassionate it is to have colleagues make assumptions that they must “be well” because they “look well”, especially if they have lost weight. Others tell stories where line managers get involved with medication, and share opinions on this.
The individual and their medical care givers are the experts on the disability or illness that they live with; unless you are a medical clinician with knowledge of the individual’s case, you are not and your assumption based on how they look, or seem, is not valid. It can also be very damaging.
Trust your employees; don’t micromanage
Mistrust ruins relationships. Spotify knows the power of trust in its employees, which is why it has recently run a campaign with the strapline: ‘Our employees are not children. Spotify will continue working remotely’.
As well as trusting employees with disabilities when it comes to their illness, and how it impacts them, employers will get the best out of them if they trust that they will manage their workload and if they treat them like adults.
Micromanagement and distrust lead to resentment and, sometimes, tribunals, as in the case of Gashier:
“When I requested to leave the office early on our mandatory office day to attend my evening dialysis appointment—since the office was an hour away from the dialysis centre—my manager insisted that I make up the hours the next day while working from home. This kind of micromanagement undermines trust.”
Make the reasonable adjustments
Sounds simple, right? It should be but we are hearing that some employers aren’t even making the bare minimum reasonable adjustments for their employees.
It is arguably relatively easy to make technical, practical adjustments such as getting the right equipment or technology to assist someone.
However, it’s important to remember the mental/emotional adjustments that might be helpful, too, like allowing someone to have a supportive colleague present in a meeting when discussing their disability.
These small adjustments can often have a big impact in terms of setting meetings up for success and making the affected colleague feel truly heard and valued.
Watch your words
“Language is really important,” says Dr Judith Grant, Workplace Wellbeing Strategist and Director of The Wellbeing Exchange. She gives the example of the word “recovery”:
“For someone with a chronic, or long term health condition, the concept of recovery may not resonate. The question may not be ‘have you recovered?’ but rather ‘how are you feeling today?’ Relapsing, remitting health conditions may involve periods where the condition flares up and periods where it is more settled, but it is always there.”
As she says, for many, recovery isn’t a “linear, clear cut concept”.
A good way to avoid using jarring language is to write up a document like a Health Passport or reasonable adjustment passport, says Dr Grant, explaining that the employee can detail how they prefer to talk about their condition or disability.
“I’ve seen ‘return to work’ meetings called ‘welcome back’ meetings, too, and I think that’s a much more positive way of framing them,” says Dr Grant.
Many companies already have an ERG to represent employees with disabilities and longterm health conditions. Companies can then tap into these networks to sense check, for example, language and ideas, and elicits suggestions.
Be flexible
Many employers have rigid ‘return to work’ processes and, as Dr Grant says, “it’s important to recognise that recovery is not always linear”, so flexibility is key, as is listening to the employee and co-creating their return to work together.
Occupational Health can make this process of returning to work much smoother by ensuring meetings are set up ahead of the employee coming back to work.
Also, employers can take a flexible attitude towards how the work is done, as long as it is done and completed to the necessary standard.
“Often there is a perception of how a job should be done based on the way it has always been done. But is this the case?” says Dr Grant, who advises asking:
Could there be a job share?
Could hours be adjusted to make it more accessible?
Does the location have to be fixed?
Are all the tasks associated with the role necessary, can aspects be adjusted to enable an employee to thrive?
“So often we focus on what people can’t do, but what can they do? We shouldn’t be constrained by traditional views of what a working week ‘should‘ look like,” she says.
Employers without an inhouse or dedicated OH department can access free resources for guidance on returning to work like those from CIPD, ACAS and Affinity Health.
Strip toxic stress from the process
Many workers with disabilities complain that the processes to get into work, return to work or apply for adjustments at work, create stress in themselves, often making their conditions worse.
This is especially true when the employee is trying to access services when feeling mentally or physically unwell. Added to this, the link between mental health challenges as a result of having a disability in the first place is also clear, fuelled by things like social stigma, isolation, chronic pain, feelings of grief/loss at having the condition, etc.
Further, intersectionality plays a role as negative mental health effects can be made worse by other factors such as ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation.
To strip out unnecessary stress, look at the admin time you are asking employees to spend accessing your services. Dr Grant suggests asking: are your processes easy to understand? Can you ease some of the burden?
Address the cult of overwork
With such focus in our society on productivity, there’s a perception that rest and rehabilitation is wasted time and, as Dr Grant says, that “illness equals wellness”.
“I’ve heard leaders boasting about how they had never had a day’s sickness in their lives. Or how they ‘power through’ as if rest and recuperation are giving in and there is fault or blame involved in having a health condition or illness,” she says.
The problem with these kinds of comments is that they encourage people to make assumptions, based on their own experiences or their perception of other people’s experiences, rather than listening to the individual’s account of what it’s like for them.
Beware burnout and over-compensation
It’s a common phenomenon for those with disabilities (as well as those with neurodivergency, as covered here) to feel like they have to go above and beyond other employees.
“You do feel like you have to prove yourself, and give that little bit extra, which is really exhausting, especially as with many conditions comes fatigue,” says Gashier.
Employers need to be on the look out for signs of this happening and take early intervention.
Help colleagues with disabilities tell their stories
We often talk about the power of stories because, time and time again, interviewees tell us that storytelling is the most effective way to increase understanding and empathy, and lead to cultural and behavioural change.
Gashier wanted to tell her story of living and working with kidney failure to her colleagues on World Kidney Day but her request was declined on the grounds it made the Head of Communications feel “uncomfortable”, with her line manager agreeing.
As we’ve also talked about before (such as here) one of the things about working in Workplace Wellbeing which is essential is becoming comfortable being uncomfortable. Starting conversations about new and taboo topics can be challenging but, ultimately, might be the most rewarding action you can take to change attitudes.
