Happy New Year! Making 9 to 5: The Impact of MS on My Working Life is a piece I wrote for the MS Trust’s Way Ahead publication on my working life in these early days of my condition. It can be found here.
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2 comments to Making 9 to 5 |
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Copyright © 2013 Licking the Honey - All Rights Reserved |
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Hi,
I am in a very similar situation to the one you faced. I was diagnosed in December 2010, and was also open with my [public sector] employers from the start. I am now being made redundant but it is not discriminatory as “it’s happening to everyone.” The stress certainly is causing massive problems and am now at the point where I just can’t wait to get out of there and start on the mission of looking for something else where I can have routine and be settled.
I am always very open about my M.S. I made the decision early on that by being secretive about it I was making the implication that there was something to be ashamed of in having it, and that by being open about it I could be raising awareness all the time and with awareness comes understanding. The lack of which in M.S, can cause some of the biggest challenges of all.
I don’t really know the point of this comment, your post just struck so many chords with me, right down to the time of diagnosis, that I couldn’t read it and not say a word!
Sarah.
I recently had meeting with manager and H.R. to which I was invited to bring union representation. I feared that my work was going to be questioned and maybe a disciplinary (I am an NHS nurse). Rather, it would appear, my boss was doing her best to be seen to be doing ‘the right’ thing. The result is the involvement of Access to Work – a taxi to work and home each day. I miss the stroll from bus to work, especially in spring but boss thinks the stroll makes me ‘bad-tempered’ at the start of work. I welcome the taxi home as I’m a little more alive when I get here. What I think will upset boss is AtW’s recommendation of voice activated software so I can make legible notes (but which is a luxury in NHS) and taxis paid for from her budget for journeys between sites.
The top and bottom of it is, I’d rather have just kept muddling along, pretending I’m ok than to get embroiled in all this pseudo caring and political nonsense. I’m damned if I’m going to reduce hours = reduced pay and reduced pension. Being a mental health nurse I can conceivably retire at 55 (in 6 or 7 years). The dilemma that faces me, against a backdrop of denial, is; do I feign uselessness early or do I flog it out til I drop and leave, knackered, with maximum financial benefit?
As I believe Jean-Paul Sartre once said, “In not making a decision, you have made a decision.”