After receiving a cancer diagnosis, decisions about work often become top of the conversation.
If work is an integral part of your identity and something you enjoy doing, you may not want to sacrifice your dreams, goals and aspirations for what your career could hold in the future.
Realistically, the impact of cancer on career development shapes those goals and aspirations. However, in some cases, it doesn’t mean you have to give up your job.
Utilize Your Wheelhouse Benefits
From a cancer scare, to a confirmed diagnosis, to post-treatment, Wheelhouse helps you navigate your cancer journey. We offer support through insurance and treatment advocacy and mental and emotional health professionals who have “been there” with cancer themselves.
These support services increase your productivity at work. We relieve you of the time and energy you would normally spend on deciphering insurance, advocating for specific treatments, and the mental toll of feeling like you’re on your own through this whole process… and free you up to focus on healing and your job.
Using your Wheelhouse benefits as soon as cancer impacts your life can change the trajectory of your journey. The alternative to not receiving essential support could very well be “substandard care, increased costs, a loss of productivity and angst all around” (SHRM).
Wheelhouse, with your written consent, can partner with your HR department to create a strategy that benefits both you and the employer. It can be extremely beneficial to have an expert in cancer present in those discussions!
To Work or Not to Work
Economic reasons may make working a job a necessity. For others, lifestyle changes could accommodate a career change or pause from a full-time position to heal and rediscover who you are after this disease rocked your world.
Leaving your current position and changing to a job that offers a more progressive environment promoting flexibility for your well-being and that aligns with your newfound vision for your life may end up being the right choice.
However, before turning in your two weeks, we encourage you to be empowered and confident to ask for a different position or tasks that align with your health needs and new values.
Ask yourself, “What’s important to me and how could I find and ask for this in my current job?”
As with a lot of situations in life, you never know what could happen unless you ask. If your employer really isn’t accommodating your requests, see what you can learn from the interaction and start considering other avenues that align with your physical, emotional, and mental needs.
And another important note… if changing jobs is the right decision for you, this isn’t a sign of failure on your part. You are doing what you need to do improve your quality of life and develop your career.
Discuss Your Job with your Oncologist
Cancer & Careers recommends letting “your doctor know that it’s important to you to make decisions that are good for your health and your job whenever possible.”
Review possible symptoms from treatment with your doctor and the best times to receive those treatments so you can be productive in your job.
There should be no shame in you using PTO, sick time, or other forms of medical leave in order for you to receive the necessary and recommended treatment from your doctor. Follow their advice – your health should be top priority!
Communicating With Your Supervisor
Telling your employer about your diagnosis can be a complicated, fear-ridden decision. A common concern from an employer is that you will not be able to complete work on deadlines and your overall productivity will suffer as you physically and mentally bear the weight of a cancer diagnosis.
With this in mind, increased communication “can help build a world of reassurance” that you’re being productive and desire to continue excelling at your job” (Cancer & Careers).
There’s a benefit to the employer to respond in this way towards you too, as Forbes writes that “showing employees that they have the support of both the company and the manager in their career advancement can lead to better retention and company growth overall.”
