Whenever you take a break from your work due to some kind of disease, especially cancer, it can prove to be a little challenge. Cancer is a serious disease and takes a long time before you return to work. Returning to work can cause a feeling of reduced confidence and the competency level. Cancer can take a huge toll on you, mentally and physically. Hence, you need to first prepare yourself mentally and physically to adjust to your work-life balance.
If you are returning to work after a long career break, like cancer and the people back at your office are waiting anxiously for you to join, the transition would be a real challenge. When it comes to suffering from a disease like cancer and you manage to fight it, people at your work often feel empathetic and with a willingness to help so that you are back on your track smoothly. Your disease might have put up a big barrier in your life. But if you have mentally prepared yourself to go back to work, let your cancer specialist and your boss know about your career plans. If you have the best cancer specialist in Lucknow, he or she will inform you about the challenges you might face and what are the things you would need to do to get back on your feet to become a productive member of your society.
Tips to Help Cancer Survivors Manage their Return to Work!
You don’t have to feel uncomfortable or shameful about anything. Take yourself as a fighter who has managed to fight the toughest battle in the world because that will help you boost a lot of confidence. Talk to your oncologist about your plans and seek their advice to make your transition as smooth as possible. Here are some tips that you can follow:-
- Proper Schedule your Work – Everyone at your work, including your boss is aware of the seriousness of the disease. Hence, it’s important to share the information about you coming back to work with your employer. Discuss your job role, your responsibilities, how much time you can devote, breaks for hospital appointments, etc. If you are in a job that requires more physical strength, try yourself to move in a job role that is not taxing on your energy. This is very important because initially, your body would need all the strength to resume work responsibilities. Not only you, but your employer should also be ready to make all the adjustments to help you settle in easily.
- Dealing with Discrimination – People are often empathetic with cancer survivors. However, there are some people who might not be comfortable working with you because of the disease or medications. To avoid any discrimination at work, you should talk about this to your employer and HR personnel about your feelings and how to ward off any perceived discrimination at work. They should rather take a huddle with your department before you join to help other people understand your feelings and in case of any incidents, serious actions would be taken.
- Treat as Equal – Usually, this is not a matter of concern at workplaces where there is no physical strength required. However, it might be an issue for other people because you may be getting a little more leverage than others in terms of responsibilities and work timings. Also, you should be getting all the available opportunities as others working at your level and should not be bogged down just because someone thinks you are not capable enough to handle more responsibilities. But it also completely depends on your performance at work. You also cannot expect a miracle for yourself just because you are a cancer survivor. You must talk about your rights about equality at work beforehand to avoid any troubles later.
- Coping with Stress – Stress is common when you work and is also not good for your health. Hence, you must learn to cope up with stress at the workplace because that is something you won’t be able to avoid when you are at work. Take-up few hours at work, fewer responsibilities, sitting on comfortable chairs, attending support groups, etc to help you deal with stress. In case of any anxieties, try to take deep breaths and re-integrate better at the workplace.
The idea of going back to work should be exciting rather than being horrifying. To make your life as easy as possible at work, try and use these tips. Make sure you are in talking terms with your oncologist on regular basis so that you can share any physical issues. Returning to work after cancer may not always be easy. But, with proper planning, you can always return to your normal life.
