When she was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in 2003, Kathy Flora was at the top of her game professionally. The human resources pro and career counselor was living in New Hampshire and leading a team of 100 other career counselors for a nationwide HR company and juggling lots of initiatives. Her travel schedule was grueling, but her career was thriving. When she went in for a follow-up ultrasound to a routine mammogram, she told the radiologist, “Look, if this is cancer, I don’t have time for it.” She was so engrossed in her work, she says “I could only think about what [a cancer diagnosis] would mean for my career.”
But it was cancer, and in short order, Flora had to make a series of decisions about to whom she would disclose her diagnosis and just how much information she would volunteer about her situation and the accommodations she might need to keep working through the impending surgery, chemotherapy and radiation treatments.
[See: A Tour of Mammographic Screenings During Your Life.]
She says she “naively” disclosed her health information to her colleagues openly. “We were an HR consulting firm, so you’d think people would be really wonderful about it and understand,” she says, and for the most part her colleagues were “overwhelming” in their support of her. However, she says “there were a couple people, particularly up the chain of command, who made assumptions based on their own misperceptions about cancer and my ability to do my work that caused some difficulty.” She says looking back now, she realizes one superior in particular “was trying to do the best he could for me in his perception, but the implications for my career were dramatic.”
Flora was moved into a different role and actually had to move to a different state to keep her job, which she was determined to do because of the health insurance. Looking back, Flora, who now lives in Bradenton, Florida, says she isn’t sure whether those changes were solely because of her cancer diagnosis or were likely in part related to corporate restructuring that was going to happen anyway. Regardless, about a year after her diagnosis, she was laid off, but she landed on her feet. She’s now retired and volunteers with Cancer and Careers, a nonprofit organization that assists cancer patients with work-related concerns and issues. Her experience as a career counselor who navigated her own breast cancer diagnosis in the workplace makes her well-suited to advise others facing similar dilemmas about keeping their careers on track despite treatment for breast cancer.
Rebecca Nellis, executive director of Cancer and Careers, says the issues that Flora dealt with are common for many cancer patients in the workplace. And perhaps the most critical first question that needs to be addressed by cancer patients who want to continue working is “Am I going to disclose my diagnosis at work?” She says figuring out whether you can continue in your current role and with your current company is an individual calculation that needs to take into account the specific diagnosis and treatment protocol — “What does recovery time off from surgery look like? What kinds of side effects might I have, and are they going to impact my specific job?” Considering these questions and the culture of your organization and discussing it all with your care team is critical to determining what’s realistic in terms of working through treatment and beyond.
[See: Breast Pain? Stop Worrying About Cancer.]
She says it’s also important to consider the emotional impact of work, not just the financial aspects. “So many of us identify ourselves in part with the work we do, so there’s this real component of the job that’s about identity, and that should be part of the equation,” Nellis says. Patients can work through some of these questions with experienced career counselors like Flora by calling Careers and Cancer, which provides counseling and advice for free to 300,000 cancer patients each year. The social worker or patient navigator on your oncology care team may also be a helpful resource in sifting through all the decisions you’ll need to make.
If you do disclose your cancer diagnosis at work, you’ll be protected under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. That means you’ll have some recourse if you experience discrimination as a result of your disclosure. The National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship reports that “under federal law and many state laws, an employer cannot treat you differently from other workers in job-related activities because of your cancer history as long as you are qualified for the job.” The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission provides a list of questions and answers about cancer in the workplace that can help you determine your rights under the law.
Although most employees have recourse to address discrimination if it occurs after a cancer disclosure, like Flora, you may end up having to change roles or contend with other alterations to your job that may not always be welcome. It’s a lot to sort through and consider. “In an ideal situation, we get to someone before they’ve made this first round of decisions so we can pick through what their workplace is like” and determine whether to disclose, and if so, how best to do it, Nellis says.
The good news is that according to a survey of 902 American cancer patients and survivors conducted by Harris Poll for Cancer and Careers in 2017, 85 percent of those surveyed do not regret disclosing their diagnosis at work — support from co-workers and accommodations made by employers were helpful. Additionally, working through treatment was cited as an essential coping mechanism by 65 percent of survey respondents.
[See: 7 Innovations in Cancer Therapy.]
But a word of caution for the digital age: Flora and Nellis both recommend being careful with what you post on social media. “I would keep it off social media,” Flora says, “because you never know if you might need to interview for another job and an employer might see it and make their own assumptions about it.” You can always disclose later, but once the genie is out of the bottle, you can’t take back that information.
And this is the overarching message: It’s your story and you have a right to determine who has access to it. Retaining your privacy and limiting access to your health history is one way to wrestle back some control from cancer. “It’s about making mindful decisions,” Nellis says.
More from U.S. News
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Breast Pain? Stop Worrying About Cancer
A Tour of Mammographic Screenings During Your Life
Should I Tell My Co-Workers About My Breast Cancer Diagnosis? originally appeared on usnews.com
