Talking to your employer about cancer

Returning to work after a cancer diagnosis can be a huge part of your recovery. Whether you’re receiving ongoing treatment or are learning to live with any long-term impacts of your illness, figuring out how to talk to your employer about your health is crucial.

You may choose to continue working during and after your treatment, but this isn’t always an option. You might need time off for treatment or follow up appointments. You may also have questions or concerns when applying for or starting a new job.

It’s important that you discuss you're everything with your workplace and find out what options they have in place to support you.

What you decide to do about work after your treatment finishes depends on a few things. You may:

• Stop working for a while until you feel ready to go back
• Work reduced hours or with reasonable adjustments
• Change jobs or careers
• Stop working because of your health
• Stop working to focus on other parts of your life

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After your diagnosis, you're covered and protected by The Equality Act 2010. This means if you have, have had or are caring for someone who has cancer, you’re protected from discrimination in the workplace and wider society. You're not only covered when in employment, but during the recruitment process. Find out more about what this means for you.

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Deciding to return to work

Getting back to work can:

• Increase your self confidence
• Help you get back into a routine
• Create a feeling of normality
• Help you be more financially secure
• Help you feel more like your peers

But you might have concerns about what the reality of this looks like. You might be worried about how you’ll cope with side effects, how you’ll manage your workload and how you’ll feel about being in the workplace. Thinking about how to approach your return in advance can help.

Returning to work with or beyond a cancer diagnosis is a big step. It isn’t for everyone. But knowing what to expect and what your employer must do to help you is helpful as part of the decision making.

If you decide to go back to work, you can create a return-to-work plan to explore working hours, work load, responsibilities and more. This is a flexible approach which helps you decide what your work will look like. You should meet with your manager regularly in case anything needs to change.

Coping with side effects

When you’re living life alongside cancer, you might be living with ongoing side-effects from treatment. It may be that these impact your work. These can include:

• Fatigue (tiredness) for months or years after treatment
• Restricted movement
• Pain
• Eating problems
• Needing to use the toilet more often
• Feeling self-conscious about your appearance
• Emotional and mental difficulties

As part of the Equality Act, your employer should help you by making reasonable adjustments if you feel you need a bit more support.

Reasonable adjustments

Reasonable adjustments is the formal name for some of the things your employer might do to help you settle back into work.

You don’t have to let your employer know you have or have had cancer, but letting them know means they can tackle things that might not be helpful to you and your recovery.

These adjustments can include:

• A phased return to work
• A change in your working hours or working patterns so you can avoid commuting or work in the best way for you
• Time off for appointments
• Altering your job description to reduce the tasks which are difficult for you
• Changing performance targets to allow for sick leave and side effects
• Extra breaks to help you manage fatigue
• Physical aids to help you do your work
• Offering a quiet place to rest if you need it
• Making the toilet as accessible as possible
• Installation of apps or software to make it easier to do your job, such as dictation apps

Reasonable adjustments don’t have a fixed description. If you think the adjustment will help you, is practical, affordable, low impact and doesn’t affect resources, it’s worth chatting to your manager.

Not returning to work

Returning to work after a cancer diagnosis or treatment isn’t for everyone. You may want to focus on treatment, time with your loved ones or on other things that make you happy. This change can bring up a lot of feelings – and that’s OK. Try to let people know how you’re feeling if you’re dealing with a lot of emotions about not going back to work. You might find it helpful to chat to a counsellor or therapist.

‍Check out our resources on work and cancer below

Lifting the Lid on work and cancer

Other helpful sites

Working with Cancer: a social enterprise that supports people affected by cancer to successfully return to work, remain in work or find work. They provide coaching, training and consultancy advice to employees, working carers and employers to help them understand how to manage work and cancer. Their Associates are all cancer survivors, or have been working carers, and are trained professionals with wide-ranging business experience and expertise.

Macmillan Cancer Support: Macmillan aims to help everyone with cancer live life as fully as they can, providing physical, financial and emotional support. They offer loads of advice and guidance around working with cancer.

Astriid: Astriid helps bridge the gap between the Invisible Talent Pool (people who have long-term conditions but who wish to use their skills and experience in work), and the UK skills crisis. The platform matches talented candidates with prospective employers, providing accessible work opportunities for those who are seeking them. In this way, they hope to make the Invisible Talent Pool, Visible.