Challenges for Survivors: Returning to Work

An article that appeared in the November issue of the European Journal of Cancer Care was about a problem that I've been worrying about for some time.

This article, entitled, "Employers need to tackle culture of ignorance around breast cancer survivors who work," reported that many supervisors are totally unaware of the long-term side effects of breast-cancer treatment, and that these employers are therefore still clueless as to why survivors aren't able to just slip seamlessly back into their jobs after finishing their treatment.

Some Bosses Haven't a Clue

As a result, these bosses are surprised and irritated when a woman who has "completed her treatment," and is now back at work,

• is still complaining of fatigue (from radiation and chemo)
• is still not always able to get the budget reconciled (due to chemo brain)
• is sometimes extremely anxious (about the possibility that the disease will return--or that she will lose her job)
• just don't seem to feel "herself" anymore

Bad Economic Timing, Too

To make matters worse, these workplace dramas are unfortunately unfolding during economically troubled times, when fiscal insecurity is making many survivors extremely anxious to return to work as quickly as possible, hold on to their near-priceless job, and promptly take over the same brutal workload they had before.

I have to say at this point: Just because a woman got breast cancer doesn't mean that her mortgage isn't still due, or that her kids don't need dinner on the table.

Some Survivors Denied Promotion

Some women even told the study's authors that bosses had denied them opportunities for promotion because they (the bosses) assumed the cancer would return and so they didn't want to risk the company's bottom line.

We Better Get Wise in a Hurry

One in three women--and, believe it or not, one in two men!--are now expected to develop some type of cancer in their lifetime. (Are you listening, directors and executives and administrators all across the globe?) And all of these patients who survive and who choose to return to work after treatment are obviously going to need more and better support in the workplace than they are getting at present.

This means support not only in the form of protection and patronage by knowledgeable and sympathetic supervisors, but also written into official employment directives and occupational health policies created by companies for them specifically. Why, we might even need some new statutes aimed at protecting the rights of the myriad survivors-to-be who will be coming back to work after treatment.

Managers and owners everywhere will have to catch up with these truths and gain the insight and the additional education they'll need to appreciate the issues that face so many cancer survivors. Once reeducated, the bosses can then join with health care professionals to form a community intent on saving and maintaining our work force.

I'd Like to Help

Personally, I hope to make a difference in this area myself. I would like to help employers become as informed about the short- and long-term needs of cancer survivors as health care providers are now. This will mean

• teaching employers greater awareness of the long-term side effects of treatment that can often alter the survivor's job performance
• creating new ways to allow survivors to continue working and to stay involved with their office comrades while they are going through treatment
• addressing the psychosocial issues that many survivors share after treatment ends
• perhaps identifying new tasks or roles that a particular survivor might be best suited to do when treatment has been completed