Keep filling the bank

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Chronic illness, unlike acute illness, isn’t static.  It continues to reverberate.

I’ve been writing about Maestro James Levine’s  (my post on grieving)  cancer and the  back injury/surgeries that have kept him from performing.

As it turns out, the man he replaced at the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa, will not be at the podium at Tanglewood this summer due to ongoing issues in recovering from esophageal cancer.

(OMG, Are we the only who see that working with a chronic illness  presents serious problems?)

Both men rank among the very top in the world in a highly competitive field.  But I find one lesson us mere mortals  can take from this:

When you live with chronic illness, one strategic move is to be as good as you can at what you do so you’re not easily replaceable.

These guys  were the best before illness. They had already filled the piggy bank with goodwill.  Their employers can’t wait for them to return to work forever. But they’ve built up a strong investment in sticking by while they try to get better.

Maybe you’re wondering:  But what can I do to be that person an employer does not want to let go — or see leave — when my performance suffers because of debilitating symptoms?

Have you considered  how you can be as good as you can at what you do?  Few of us are world class performers or  even “great” at what we do.  But sometimes our value is not only in what we deliver.

When you’re angry about difficult symptoms,  does it show?  Do you resent that your job is so difficult or what others aren’t doing to make it easier?  How’s that going for you?

On the other hand, have you considered how can you support others, be an even better team player and display your  strong work ethic?  It’s one way to  get the support you need from others when you’re struggling.   Can you be sure that support will be there when you need it?  No.  But you’ve at least got a better shot at it.

Good grief, charley brown.

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Do you live with debilitating chronic illness that has led to significant life changes?  If you’re nodding “yes”,  most likely you’ve felt a strong sense loss. But have you  experienced grief?  I thought about the importance of grieving after reading two articles recently. The first was a news article about James Levine, the  Metropolitan OperaRead More

Trying too hard to be nobody's fool?

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This month’s career collective topic is “foolishness’ and job search/career (it is April 1!).  I won’t offer specific tactics to avoid making a fool of yourself (I’ll leave that up to the other creative bloggers).  But in my coaching practice, I get to see how people fool themselves and I’ll share my thoughts on that.Read More

Can we hope health care "reform" will help the chronically ill?

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Is the  health care reform bill a step toward ensuring that anyone living with chronic illness will  receive  “adequate” medical  treatment? Or is it just more help for the healthy? I don’t have the answer.  But I’m delighted that in the increased attention on the burden that chronic illness places on individuals and society whenRead More

You can lose insurance benefits because you didn't disclose

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Since hanging my shingle as a “chronic illness career coach”, the question I get asked most often is:   “Should I disclose my illness when interviewing for a job?” Naturally, as a coach,  I have more questions than answers.  But there is one guideline I’ve found is worth following: If  symptoms get in the  way ofRead More

Advice you didn't ask for. What's your response?

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Chronic illness, complicated as it is, leaves many searching for a simple answer. Lately, a tantalizing headline has gotten much  press in the social media ‘disease’ community (yes, I’m on  twitter and you can tweet me @WorkWithIllness): “Exercise can Quiet Anxiety that Comes With Illness”. Help me, please.  What’s the news here?   That people whoRead More

Finding opportunity in quicksand

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Being a  career collective blogger gives me a monthly reminder that people living with illness face the same issues as healthy people. This month’s  questions are  (you can find links to my fellow blogger posts  at the end of this article): What do you do when you’re really, really, really discouraged  about your unsuccessful jobRead More

Do you suffer from this syndrome: trying to do too much?

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This weekend, while preparing our taxes, my husband mentioned that he’d been paying a credit card  expense.  It was a small monthly fee and he’d assumed it was a business expense that I’d mistakenly put on our personal charge card.  The unfortunate truth is, it’s not unusual that I make such mistakes. But I didn’tRead More

Are you looking for support at work?

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Living with chronic illness can leave even the toughest person feeling vulnerable.  You just wish that other people could “get it”, don’t you? I know from personal experience how hard this is in a marriage  (How a Marriage Survives When One Person Gets Sick, MORE Magazine) .  And marriage is all about the relationship,  whereRead More

Is it "evident" that flex is key?

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A reporter was interviewing me about chronic illness and working.  She was very surprised when I said, “The single most important factor that helps a chronically illl person continue to work is to work in a flexible environment.” She asked me what “evidence” I have to support this.   (Have you noticed how popular that wordRead More

Does working help you be healthier?

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Living  with chronic illness isn’t easy, under the best of circumstances. And working can seem like it makes it tougher. But the alternative is usually worse. It was a dear friend’s 60th birthday party.  And, once again, my body was in revolt. I was feverish, tired,  nauseous —  with  numb feet and awful balance  (multipleRead More

Are you feeling that hang-dog look?

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Holidays and a New Year.  It can  be a time of reflection – if you’re not too busy just getting by. Or maybe, the problem is you don’t know what to reflect on?   It’s all so overwhelming. You might start here.  Ask yourself, “What can I do for myself, right now so I canRead More

Avoid this minefield: Drive Your Bus

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This month’s Career Collective topic is: Specific tips to help job seekers ramp up their efforts for the holiday season and the new year. At the end of this post, check out the collective wisdom of the career bloggers in the collective. Are you living with chronic illness and looking at the holiday season withRead More

Cooking lessons my mother didn't teach me

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Deep in Thanksgiving cooking and I’m trying to modify  the smashed sweet  potatoes with apples recipe for 20.   Wondering how I’ll fit it in the oven with the 26 lb turkey, mushroom/sausage stuffing, brussel sprouts with carmelized onions and almonds,  and popovers? At the same time,  I’ve got my laptop in the kitchen and I’mRead More

Chronic Illness and Working from Home – Is it Your Cuppa' Tea?

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You live with a chronic illness – waxing/waning pain, fatigue, impairment – and you’re determined to keep working.  But just living in your body makes each day a challenge.  Leaving your house to go to work each day — the commute, the schedule, the exposure to germs, the face to face when you’re feeling lessRead More

Chronic Illness and self employment. A Day At The Beach?

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Here’s a question I get frequently but you wouldn’t have heard 20 or even 10 years ago:  Is self employment the best option for people living with chronic illness? It seems that most employed people dream of working for themselves.  It certainly sounds  freeing and creative, doesn’t it? No one makes a more compelling caseRead More

Preparedness: It's not just for boy scouts

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This month the “Career Collective” collaborates with Quint’s Job Action Day.  We’re asked to provide workers and job seekers with information, ideas and concrete steps to secure their futures in a changed economy.  As always, I’ll do that with  working with chronic illness in mind. When I graduated with a degree in photojournalism in 1973, Read More

Who needs a flexible workplace?

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What do workers with chronic illness need to thrive in their jobs? When I was asked to speak to an audience of doctors and employers,  I said that FLEXIBILITY RULES. It’s hard for healthy people to realize how important work/life balance is for those with chronic illness   — when  health demands impact a “normal” workRead More

Forget the cookies! Start with vision

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Although I focus on issues that come up working while living with chronic illness, I believe healthy & people with illness face the same  issues.  Just a different emphasis.  As a member of a new community of resume writers and career coaches called the Career Collective, this post is one of many responses to theRead More

Conducting life, work and illness

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What happens if you’re a world class conductor and health problems prevent you from doing your job? James Levine, conductor of the Boston Symphony and the New York Metropolitan Opera is finding that out.   He’s missed opening performances — and an indeterminate number hereafter — for surgery on a herniated disc. And this isn’t theRead More

Working With Impairment Without Disability Can be Possible

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Last week,  I spoke at a conference called, “Impairment Without Disability” at the Mayo Clinic. It was targeted to help physicians and supervisors  understand what they can do to help people with impairments stay at work (SAW) or return to work (RTW). In the world of Occupational Medicine — (the field is actually called theRead More

At Work: What to say and when living with chronic illness

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Take a minute to ask someone, anyone:  “Do you know what the Americans with Disabilities Act is?”   Most likely you’ll hear Yes. Now ask,  “What does the ADA do?” Maybe you’ll hear that  it protects people with disabilities from discrimination.  Funny how many people, with and without disabilities, know about this Act but don’tRead More

Don't wait to make those career plans

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Are you  living with a chronic illness and under 40? If you’re saying, YES, regardless of how debilitating or not your symptoms are, now it the time to take stock of your  future in the workplace. Don’t wait until your hand is forced and you have no choice. I know  because that’s what I did. Read More

When Chronic Illness and Marriage Collide

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The first sign that I didn’t have a healthy body came in my mid 20’s. I developed  numbness in my fingers.  My boyfriend, Jake, a medical student, was  there  when I went for a myelogram, a very uncomfortable test.  A few months later, when I developed the  first of hundreds of urinary infections, he pickedRead More

Thanks, Remdog, for talking about depression

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I’m delighted.  Last week, beloved Boston Red Sox commentator,  Jerry (“Remdog”) Remy spoke “on air” about living with chronic illness. Explaining to Boston fans that lung cancer (treated last fall) was tough,  he said it’s depression that’s keeping him from working since April. What followed was a frank a description about what it’s like toRead More

Avoiding the minefields when your resume has employment gaps

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Resumes look different than when my parents were job hunting – – or for that matter, when I was first in the game.  For most of the 20th century,  a person took a job expecting to die in that job. But sometime in the early 1990’s,  job security  and employee loyalty were pushed aside inRead More

Job Interviews and Illness Disclosure

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FYI  – If you tried to “comment” recently and couldn’t, that’s fixed now! Two chronic issues for people with chronic illness who are  job interviewing  are: disclosure and employment gaps. In this post, I’ll discuss disclosure.   I’ll cover employment gaps next time. Disclosure centers on 3 big questions: Should I say it? What  shouldRead More

I think I can, I think I can.

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“If you think you can, you’re right. If you think you can’t, you’re right, too.”  Henry Ford. Career and chronic illness. Not exactly 2 things that go together, like peanut butter and jelly? In fact,  it’s my experience that most people who learn that they’re living with a chronic illness figure that career can noRead More

A New Way — living with RA

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This week, a unique website, New Way RA,  goes live.  It explores in depth how people living with rheumatoid arthritis, RA, can live a healthy and well-rounded life-style while facing the challenges of this disease. New Way RA is an online talk show.  It’s features Deborah Norville interviewing experts on career, fitness, nutrition, personal relationshipsRead More

Are you using twitter for your career changes?

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The good news, confided my client, is that so many people are in the same boat  I’m in – for the first time.  The bad news?  The boat is sinking.  Was he joking? No doubt, one difficult aspect of living with chronic illness, especially if you’re under 50, is that you feel so alone. YouRead More

Can you job hunt, live with illness and stay motivated

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Looking for a job in a depressed economy and  living with a chronic illness that  makes your employment history a bit “sketchy”. Yikes, it doesn’t sound pretty.  But at the moment, that describes many of my clients.  Not surprising, is it?   Ten years ago, a robust, growing economy made it much easier for anyoneRead More

Make living with cancer more than about the loss

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I’m lucky to count among my professional friends, Elizabeth Genovese, M.D. (internal and occupational medicine).  We met several years ago on a committee charged with creating suggestions for improving the  Social Security disability evaluation process. For the past year,  Elizabeth has been living with a rare and difficult to treat cancer. Her belly is terribly Read More

Fibro: Living with disease and the sceptics

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When I read a blog post (Fibromyalgia Negative Press) —  citing a newspaper columnist’s remark about people with Fibro who want to collect a government check and pop pills  (Random Nonsense ) —   I thought:  I’m glad I live with multiple sclerosis! After several weeks of deep pain and fatigue, I’m actually grateful toRead More

Can you protect your job living with a chronic illness?

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Check out the very useful information in The New York Times, Patient Money column, Protecting Your Job When You Live with Chronic Illness by Lesley Alderman. And, yes, there are several quotes from me. On reading this, a client emailed to let me know that she’s  worried that now that I’m famous, I wouldn’t haveRead More