Living with chronic illness means living with the unpredictable — on so many fronts. My client emailed me with a distress signal: her boss told her that she had to come into work more frequently than she’d been doing.

Six months earlier, she’d negotiated working from home two days a week – and she could choose which days depending on her schedule and her needs. When she asked for this, she told her supervisor that she has multiple sclerosis and that she was finding the long days with the commute increasing hard. She thought that avoiding the commute would help.

A lot went into this “negotiation” as you can see.

1. She disclosed her illness,
   
2. She admitted feeling tired and not working as well as she had.
   
3. She asked for an “accommodation”.

She was delighted when her boss readily agreed. He told her that she’d delivered such high value over the past ten years, he would do just about anything to keep her.

So, why is her boss backing off from his original agreement?  Well, the organization was recently bought and all systems are being reevaluated … including flex policies. So much for the promise, “Our people are most important and your jobs are safe!”

Her boss told her she can work from home (under “cover”, he said) one day every other week. That’s not going to help with her unpredictable symptoms and overall fatigue. My client can’t and doesn’t want to quit this job.
What frightens her most?   She’s afraid that she’s going to go back to the mental games she used to play before she had the flexibility of just staying at home if she didn’t feel well.

I sent her a model  I’d created.  It’s in our book, Women, Work and Autoimmune Disease: Keep Working, Girlfriend!, in the chapter, Success in the Workplace.   I suggested to her – as I do to you – that these questions can help  make decisions like these easier.

Evaluating Symptoms That Could Get “In The Way” of Doing What Is “Expected” of You

First, either in a spreadsheet or in prose, describe your baseline experience of your health.

Then list your most common symptoms and how you think they impact your ability to do tasks.

At those times when symptoms seem to get worse,  Ask Yourself:

• What is different today from my baseline experience?
• How specifically does this change affect me?
• How does this affect my ability to do my job?
• Can I overlook these symptoms and still get the job done?
• If I do overlook these symptoms , how will this impact how I feel, now and in the near future?
• If I don’t do what is “expected” of me, will I feel better?

Thank you to those of you who responded to our request for Amazon reviews. We sent them galleys – and hopefully our reviewers will be posting on the pre-order page in Amazon.com Women, Work and Autoimmune Disease: Keep Working Girlfriend ! – in the discussion section.

Who knew when we decided to write a book that we’d have to learn so much about “publicity” on the web?

Rosalind aka cicoach.com

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