I spend a lot of my day talking with people who are either employed or are looking to be employed again, quickly. As a coach, my job is to ask good questions and be sympathetic. But, if I hear one more person tell me that she has to keep her job (or take a job) because she (or he) needs the benefits, I’m going to … cry. There’s clearly something crazy about a system in which people feel compelled to hold onto what they’ve got, even if it’s not good, because they can’t afford to take a risk that could endanger their health benefits – – – even if it leads them to stay in environments that are toxic to their health.
A report released today by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Health Research and Educational Trust notes that more large employers who offer health benefits are increasingly trying to manage their employees health through what’s become known as “disease management programs”. Sounds like something that could help those of use with chronic problems. Maybe they’ll reimburse for more services to help us stay healthy. I’m skeptical.Rosalind
ErinM says
I’m in that boat of staying in a toxic environment for benefits. I need the healthcare, so I can’t leave the corporate environment that is driving me insane. Believe me, there’s nothing I’d rather do than to work in a small, private office. But most of them don’t have healthcare. So that’s not a possibility for me at this time. Sad, I know.
Rosalind says
You might think about asking yourself — is it the large organization that is toxic — or this organization or even your supervisor. Have you looked into other organizations that offer good benefits?
Jennifer says
But a lot of times you are trapped and don’t have a lot of options. I have “invisible MS” and work in marketing. On the one hand when I have tried to take on a lesser position I think employers found it incongruous, and told me I was overqualified. And because I took some time out of the career track when I was innitially diagnosed (left an ad agency job at 25 with only 3 years of entry-level experience)I have had difficulties getting back out there. I’ve had a long string of crappy jobs leading to crappier jobs because my resume just doesn’t add up and not being able to take chances.
A regret of mine is a temp-to-perm opportunity in marketing with a great small company that grew into a very lucrative and great to work for company. I left that opportunity for the security of a customer service job at a large telecom. company. If I could have taken the risk back then my career might have been different. I would have been the marketing assistant to their marketing director who seemed very willing to mentor me.
Now at 35 I am in a place where a lot of people look at me and think if I was going to get ahead I should have gotten ahead by now: that I’ve risen to my level of incompetence. They have no idea what has held me back… It’s very hard on the ego…
I’d love to find a new job, but I don’t have a lot of experience to carry me into a comparable position elsewhere (I’ve been trying), and I worry intensely how I will support myself in the future.
I think these supposed disease management programs are frankly a lot of BS with the insurance companies. It’s all about cost containment in my view, and I’m scared of it leading to broad discrimination against the chronically ill. What’s the point of insurance if only healthy people can have it?
Sorry for the long rant, but I bet there are a lot of equally like-minded and scared individuals out there.
Thanks for raising the topic.
Rosalind says
Scared? I speak to people daily who live in fear — not about their illness but that they might not be able to get health care. Fear is a tough thing – it’s about what MIGHT / COULD happen. Not about what is happening. I don’t believe it’s ever to late, and certainly not at 35, to create your career story so it’s different. I did it myself — and seen others do it. But it takes confidence, based on your knowledge of your strengths, and a plan. Rosalind
Drue-Marie says
I am 42 years old. I’m scared of that number, and more afraid of the numbers that will pass sequentially by that number. I am very high functioning for a person with as many mental and physical problems that I have. I am over-qualified by my education to do many jobs, and underqualified for the same jobs because I have a hard time working outside my home.
I was the tenth and last child to parents who decided to have “just one more” to see if another baby would save their marriage. I didn’t, and both of my parents and all of my siblings blamed me for the way they live(d) their lives. My mother had an anxious pregnancy with me, was an anxious mother, and I turned out to have debilitating anxiety, which leaves me debilitatingly depressed.
Yet, I have an enormous amount of self-esteem. That doesn’t give me much, however, in the face of absolutely no self-confidence. First came the anxiety, then came the depression, then the self-help books and therapy, and THEN came college. I was a heavy 26 year old freshman at a large urban state university. I also had a phobia of traveling over bridges under which was flowing water. To conquer my fear, and to get myself into better physical shape, I taught myself how to swim in the university swimming pool. By the end of my first year of swimming, I was invited to swim WITH the school swim team so that I would have greater access to the pool, but I never became fast enough to swim FOR the team. I lost 90 pounds and overcame my fear of bridges sufficiently that I actually became quite a strong ocean swimmer.
Sometimes, however, I feel that I take 1 step forward, and then my whole life comes crashing down on me. I developed carpal tunnel syndrome while in grad school, and was fitted with latex braces that went over my fingers and up to my armpits. And then I developed allergic contact dermatitis to latex.
My first job out of grad school was as an Interim Student Services Director at a small two year junior college. I was offered this job as an appointment, 2 weeks after closing on a very difficult to get condominium 55 miles away. My total contract lasted one year. I did not renew it. Instead, I went to work as a Social Security Benefits Counselor for an AIDS Service Organization. About a year after I started working there, I slipped on a stair in my condo, and severely broke my right ankle. I was out of work for six weeks. After a few more months there, I discovered that my latex allergy had grown from a little skin problem to a full blown Type I anaphylactic latex allergy.
Latex is in so many products, foods, and plants that it is staggering to the uninitiated. I am so allergic to balloons, latex gloves, bananas, and poinsettias that I go straight into anaphylactic shock upon breathing in any of the proteins within these products. Working outside my home is next to impossible.
Between my doctor, a certified swimming pool technician, and the journals I kept while learning how to swim, we discovered that my prolonged swimming in chlorinated water made me more susceptible to developing sensitivity to latex, which coats the pool. I had literally been soaking in a toxin daily for a total of seven years. My life crushed down around me.
Although I’ve gone on to become the owner and president of my own company providing job development services for my state’s Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, I’m not in the same place I was 10 years ago. Between the damage done to my ankle, and the asthma I live with due to increasing sensitivities to other chemicals, I have regained (with interest) all the weight I had lost.
I do NOT want to minimize other people’s invisible disabilities, but I would ask that more people learn about environmental allergies. Think of the things that many people with other invisible disabilities can do, and then consider this: I am anaphylactically allergic to RUBBER BANDS, pencil erasers, band aids, bananas, poinsettias, parking garages, some forms of chewing gum, and PUMPING MY OWN GAS. I have to plan, extensively, in advance, if I have to attend a seminar that is located more than 1/2 hour from my domestic partner’s place of work. I don’t qualify for SSDI because of my education and work history. I don’t qualify for Categorically or Medically Needy Medical Assistance because I make about $50 per year more than the limits. I haven’t had health insurance since 2004. And at the end of the holiday season this past year, I spent 5 weeks flat on my back with pneumonia from over-exposure to latex from a company that abated as much latex as they could from the work place.
I am at such a loss–I can’t look at catalogs to mail order gifts for my family and friends. I’m allergic to the inks with which they are printed. I can’t go into book repositories of any kind, because of latex-coated paper. I cannot do any grocery shopping because I’m allergic to the produce department, shrink wrap, and many forms of packaging. Halloween is a holiday enjoyed at home–many costumes include latex face masks or accessories. From mid-October to after Valentine’s Day, I spend most of my time in my home–the outside world is too dangerous. I get panic attacks every time I have to leave the house alone. I have a GPS system and two cell phones, and I still vomit at the thought of leaving home alone.
My step children suffer because of my allergies. Because of the condo rules, they cannot go to the swimming pool without either me or my partner–my partner doesn’t swim. We can’t have french fries–I’m allergic to potatoes. And, what 11 year old boy wants to miss out on the bubble gum blowing contest that he can’t practice for since I’m allergic to his chewing gum. I’m allergic to the bands my step-daughter wears in her hair. I’m allergic to the band aids she puts on the paper cuts she now gets from college. I’m allergic to the door and window seals on my car. I’m allergic to the pedals, and have to have them coated with silicone a couple of times a year.
And yet, on a hot, humid summer day, when I exercise my right to park in a space reserved for people with disabilities, people shout out at me to lose some weight. Well, I did, and the very means by which I lost that weight poisoned my body to the point where I have to use an inhaler and carry an epipen every where I go.
Thank you for letting me tell my story. There is much more to tell. At my doctor’s recommendation, I have had tattooed just over my heart, a caduceus with the words “Type I Latex Allergy” That way, the next time I go snorkeling, and have another accident, the EMT’s MAY not make my situation worse by putting a rubber air mask over my mouth and nose.
Julie says
First, hugs to you Drue-Marie. I don’t know of your personal pain…no one really can without experiencing it first hand, however I do know of pain when I read it…so here is my all allergen free cyber-hug. I wish that I could do more.
You brought up an interesting point…handicapped parking spot hate stares. I am in my early thirties, petite, and also suffer from FMS and CFIDS along with an additional assortment of other illnesses. I won’t hit all of the details, but parking in the HD spots is essential to me being able to do much of anything outside of the house. Boy do people get upset with me! All they see is a size 2 blond getting out of a car and walking into the store. I have gotten much hate for parking in those spots. On bad days, it is hard to take with the grain of salt.
Gentle hugs and good sleep,
Julie
Rosalind says
Invisible illness can leave us feeling so isolated and even angry. Invisible and “unbelievable” illness is even more difficult. How do we shut out the world that questions who we are and our experience? We have to work continually on our own peace and balance or it’s easy to lose sight of who we really are. Not just this illness.
Ladawn Rodregez says
Thanks for the posting. My spouse and i have constantly seen that the majority of people are eager to lose weight since they wish to appear slim as well as attractive. Nevertheless, they do not continually realize that there are other benefits for losing weight also. Doctors declare that obese people are afflicted with a variety of illnesses that can be directly attributed to their own excess weight. Thankfully that people who definitely are overweight and suffering from numerous diseases can help to eliminate the severity of their illnesses by means of losing weight. You possibly can see a slow but noted improvement in health when even a bit of a amount of fat reduction is achieved.