Are you finding that looking for a job when you live with a chronic illness is daunting, overwhelming, depressing . . .

• “… Enter work gradually and with honesty to your employer about your health needs” .   YES!  If you don’t give yourself time to ramp up because you worry about what “they’ll” think of you,  you’re setting yourself up for failure.  Monitor and watch how work impacts you isn’t necessarily a bad thing.   I think high energy is an over-rated qualities.  Also, if you don’t tell your employer what you need, it’s unlikely you’ll do the job well.  Why set yourself up for failure?

• “… Find something that you feel passionate about so it’s a balance to your health…”   Hmm, passionate.  Let’s face it, few of us get to work at something we feel passionately about. But you can and have to find something that you care about in your job/career, whether it’s what you do, who you’re doing it for or just the folks you see every day.  Otherwise it’s just a job.  And when you’re struggling with chronic illness symptoms, that’s not enough to counterbalance the  struggles.

Rosalind Joffe  aka cicoach.com

Don’t Miss This!    MONDAY, November 3

THE FIRST DAY OF OUR VIRTUAL BOOK TOUR!

Check out the bloggers and their dates!

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We’ll also talk about why it’s a woman’s issue and some of the particular concerns for women in the workforce.

If you’d like to attend and have a chance to say hello and ask questions, too, you can! There’s no charge to attend. Just visit Futures in Motion to register. I’d love to meet some of you who we’ve only been able to write to through our blog.

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Notes

A special thanks to the author of How to Cope with Pain for her fabulous review of
Women, Work and Autoimmune Disease: Keep, Working, Girlfriend!

Anecdote: here’s a great example the incremental value of your network and support team. I’ve met Markell in person. As is rarely the case these days, she actually lives in the same County I do. I first met Rosalind by telephone about 3.5 or so years ago. I’ve been working with my Virtual Assistant (VA), Angee Robertson, for 6 years. Angee introduced me to Rosalind way back when, and it turns out that Angee is also Markell’s VA. Wild, huh? How has your network worked it’s magic for you?

Joan

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When she first contacted me, Jo initially asked me to talk about our book, Women Work and Autoimmune Disease: Keep Working, Girlfriend! But it soon became clear that Jo had questions of her own concerning living with chronic illness.

Jo is a composer, writer, photographer and has accomplished some pretty spectacular things in her life. You have to listen to her music on her site!  Jo also lives with Lyme’s Disease and chronic fatigue syndrome. It’s clear that she’s quite brave and resilient. Although it’s not something she’s comfortable doing, she exposed her fears and battles around this as she “interviewed” me. Because she thought people would benefit from hearing this. Wow.

We spoke at length about the work I do as a career coach (cicoach.com) for people with disabilities because this is something she faces daily.

I had a wonderful time with her. I think you will, too, when you listen.
Rosalind aka cicoach.com

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And you thought that it was just YOUR  paycheck that was suffering!

According to this study, “The rising cost of chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and respiratory illness, are threatening health systems and economic stability around the world.  The rising cost of chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and respiratory illness, are threatening health systems and economic stability around the world.”

The report points to workplace wellness programs as one way to “tackle” the problem. That’s all well and good. Who can argue with the idea of doing some thing  in the face of such need?  But these are too often too simplistic band aids that don’t address the root of the issue.  And these programs don’t show the desired big improvements, these employers will throw up their hands and say, we wasted our money.  Why bother with stuff we can’t fix?

Do you know of any workplace wellness programs that include such things as: expanding services covered to include prevention,  employer practices that encourage rather than discourage people from taking care of their health and a better trained health care provider system about the multiple layers of chronic disease and pain management.   Do you see this happening anywhere?
Rosalind  aka cicoach

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Last February, I posted a survey to find out more about the concerns of people, like you,  living with chronic illness and working (or wanting to work).

This is what I learned.  Of those who responded:

2/3 or 66% worry about staying employed in the future

1/3 or 33% worry about finding employment

1/4 or 25% worry about advancing in their current job

Does that sound like you?

It certainly sound like me.  I’ve been there and so have my clients.

That’s why I’ve created a specialized career coaching program, the  Keep Working with Chronic Illness Workbook,  for people, like you, who either aren’t ready, don’t have the time or maybe lack the money to work with a career coach.  The Keep Working with Chronic Illness Workbook is a system that been designed to complement the book Joan and I wrote, Women Work and Autoimmune Disease, Keep Working, Girlfriend!

And while the book lays out and explores the challenges and opportunities you face – the workbook provides the practical foundation that you can use to build on your talents and strengths.

The Keep Working With Chronic Illness Workbook system is literally packed with the assessments, exercises and programs that I’ve created for my clients over the years. So it’s precisely tailored for people living with chronic illness. This will become your “Go To” guide. And it includes special bonuses (including a downloadable audio version).

Do you wonder…

• What’s the best job for me with unpredictable health?

• How will be keep working if I can’t work the way I used to?

• How will this illness affect what I can do?

• Who would hire me for a new job when I have a chronic illness?

I can honestly say that there is nothing else comparable to The Keep Working with Chronic Illness Workbook home study system — at least not that I’ve seen or heard about. The beauty of this is that you can use it on your schedule, use only those parts you need and work with it when you have the time. Even better – it gives you the tools you need so you don’t have to be afraid any longer.

PSST: To celebrate the publication of our book, the Workbook is being offered at a very special price for a limited time only. Don’t wait! Buy it now so you can get started before summer vacation — or you’ll put it off for yet another season! Got any questions? Email me: Rosalind@cicoach.com.  And if the links above don’t work for you, paste this into your browser to read about it yourself: http://www.cicoach.com/workbookpromo.html

Rosalind     aka cicoach.com

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Honestly?   I focused my company on this group because it’s the “low hanging fruit”.  People who are invested in “career” have invested a lot of effort to get where they are and aren’t giving it up without a “fight”.  I don’t have to convince them of the importance of work.  Nor of the difficulties.

And the book, Women Work and Autoimmune Disease: Keep Working Girlfriend? Why did we write about women with “careers” rather than people who have “jobs”?  The simplest answer is that in my experience people who regard their work as a career are more invested in doing what they have to do to be successful.

FYI – for a perspective on this, read Amy Tenderich’s review of Women Work and Autoimmune Disease: Keep Working Girlfriend! on her May 20 post in  DiabetesMine.com.

And be sure to scroll down to  the email she got from “Funlover”. It’s a sad example of even when you live with a well recognized disease, like Diabetes, and you’re in a nursing school (can you imagine?)  people run into absurd roadblocks in taking care of their health while trying to participate in the “larger world”.  Go figure.

Do you feel like it’s time to start mopping the floors?

Rosalind  aka cicoach.com

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Oh, my.  I must sound like a real grinch complaining about getting this attention.  Check out Revolution Health’s Women’s Health Expo featuring more sites devoted specifically to women on  specific diseases and issues specific to women.

I notice that they don’t have anything about staying healthy while keeping a career while living with chronic illness.  Hmmm.  Do you think that’s one too many things to think about?
Rosalind

P.S. A reader emailed  to tell me our book, Women, Work and Autoimmune Disease:  Keep Working Girlfriend, has the wrong page numbers in the Table of Contents. The publisher is very apologetic (it happened between the galley and the final version) and it will be corrected. I hope this won’t stop you (or lead you to think less of us) -  you can still easily find the chapters should you need to.

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And there was another race in the marathon for President. Wouldn’t it be something if one declared, “I can’t do it anymore. I’m just too tired!” Oh and place your bets here for who will be the first to talk about chronic illness as an issue in this campaign …

In my last post, I mentioned the article about our book (and my business, cicoach.com) in the New York Times Online Business section this week. Hooray for press and attention to these issues. I got lots of email from people who saw the article — and it indicates that we (the chronic illnesser’s) are barely limping along — not even keeping a steady pace?

Here are two :

Hi Rosalind, Since I’m recovering right now from a migraine (and had to miss a meeting at an agency that I’m trying to land a job!), I’m not able to write/expound on other illnesses that affect workplace functioning.
But I will when I’m up to it. I’ve suffered both the migraines, as well as severe depressions and anxiety. I have accomodations at work (e.g. flex time, part-time work) and have also consulted (grants writing). My husband and I have not been able to take the kinds of vacations we’d like that would in fact be therapeutic (e.g. Florida in winter) due to income–I keep saying if I can get a full-time job we’d be able to do this… Anyway, I look forward to adding my thoughts to the blog on this topic.

AND HERE’S ANOTHER ONE:

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I was invited by the Cosmetic Executive Women Foundation to attend a Roundtable with other bloggers who write about health issues, cancer or careers

The CEW Foundation has recognized that cancer affects women’s careers and they’ve established a resource website, cancerandcareers.org that has some of the most complete information that I’ve seen on this issue.

It was awesome to be in a room with other people who are thinking about the issues I think about. The panel discussion included: Carlotta Jacobson, CEO of CEW, breast cancer oncologist, Dr. Ruth Oratz (who was the first physician I’ve heard describe in such detail how a cancer diagnosis can derail a woman’s career) and a legal expert on employment law, Arnie Pedowitz.

Bloggers and panelists discussed a wide range of issues but I thought the most interesting was: what makes chronic illness a “woman’s issue” – or is it?
What do you think: Do women face different issues from men? I think so. How about you?

When it’s ready, I’ll post a video they made so you can hear our conversation – CEW is going to post it on UTube.

Oh – and I got to give out book galleys to the other bloggers for the virtual book tour – coming up soon!

Rosalind aka cicoach.com

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Also, in the “news” here, we’ve got a new page up on our blog about the book. We’ve added an audio clip. I had to buy a high quality microphone and learn how to use Audio Acrobat! (Another tech challenge for me –which Joan already uses for her classes – she’s so tech savvy!). Now you can hear us each read a chapter of the book. We thought you might like that.

And, thanks to the newest member of my team, a fabulous copywriter, Linda Dessau, (You Talk,I Write), the page has new copy and a new design, thanks to the other members of my team (VirtualHelp4U) . I’ve worked long and hard to get good people on my team and I’m so grateful it’s happened just when the book is coming out.

What do you think of all the changes? Do you like the audio selections? Any other suggestions you have for us?

Rosalind aka cicoach.com

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