What is cancer and what effect does it have on people?
First of all, cancer is a serious and sometimes life-threatening disease, that has a huge impact on the life of the sick person and those around them. On the kanker.nl website run by KWF you can find more information about the different kinds of cancer, treatments and effects. Although people have ever-improving chances of survival thanks to better forms of treatment, and sometimes can live a long time with or after the disease, it is something totally different to a chronic illness. Someone who has cancer but is still getting treatment is still not cured, and will still be worried that the malignant cells may return.
How does cancer affect fitness for work?
Treatments for cancer are often aggressive, demanding and invasive. Radio- or chemotherapy are tough and have major physical and psychological consequences. This might include extreme fatigue, problems with concentration, memory issues, combined with a strong emotional impact. Cancer patients are often ill over a long period and have alternating periods of recovery and reintegration with relapses and treatment. Cancer patients' resilience therefore fluctuates wildly and depends on what phase of treatment they are in.
On the one hand, there may be medical restrictions that may make adjustments necessary in their work. Someone with bladder cancer, for example, will need to regularly leave their workplace to go to a toilet, and someone with intestinal cancer can be off work for a few days at a time due to problems with colic. On the other hand there are mental issues: how can someone pick their work back up again? Are there also financial issues as a result of the cancer? And is there adequate support at work?
Cancer survivor, but still with issues
Even once someone is declared cancer free, their resilience may be less than previously, and will quite likely never return to the previous level. Together with the problems below, these are known as the late effects of cancer:
- problems with concentration;
- tiredness;
- depression issues;
- fear of falling ill again.
The role of work in the life of someone with cancer
Employees who have cancer can be very ill as a result of it for brief or lengthy periods, meaning they are unable to work. In addition, they are going through a maelstrom of emotions. But most cancer patients still say they would prefer to carry on working. That's not as crazy as it sounds. Of course, if the illness drags on for a long time, and there are periods of remission, being able to look forward to a time when they can return to work is an important source of hope.
How you as a manager can support an employee with cancer
As a manager, your role lies in assisting and supporting, and you also have to deal with a number of legal requirements from the Improved Gatekeeper Law. In its Employee Roadmap for cancer you can see the steps along the way and what actions are required from you in each phase. You will find below a number of tips for managing support from their job.
Tips
Enable discussion of cancer
Cancer is an emotionally-charged topic and the precondition to being able to discuss it is a safe culture. If you already have a good relationship with the employee, they will tell you voluntarily what is going on and how they feel. Just by asking about it you offer the employee more security. You show that you are not trying to avoid the subject. Beyond that, it is up to the employee to decide how much they want to share.
Inform colleagues
Colleagues are likely to find it awkward to talk about it in case they say something wrong or hurt someone. But colleagues with cancer often find it horrifying to be elbowed into the victim's role and left alone there. Some cancer patients would like to be able to talk about it.
Ask the employee if you can inform other colleagues and what he/she wants you to tell them. What is the effect of the disease, what can be expected, and what does it all mean for the colleague who is ill? Also then ask the employee if they would like colleagues to ask them questions about the illness. Then share this with colleagues, so that they also have some guidance on how to deal with the situation.
Keep the employee involved.
Of course, if someone is absent for a longer period and it is still unclear what the employee will and will not be able to do, it is tempting to cover for them yourself. Your employee will be helped more by this than by keeping them involved. So ask what your employee thinks they are able to pick up and run with again, and how you can help them. This way you encourage someone to pick up the reins again for themselves, and often someone can get back to work (at least partially) following some changes to the work or small adjustments to their workplace.
Also look for support and assistance yourself
As a manager you can do more to help your employee if you are well-informed yourself. Not just about the legal rights and duties, but about the illness itself and its impact. What does it do to someone to be diagnosed with cancer, what health problems does the illness bring with it, what does is mean in practice for a person's day-to-day life? The more you know, the better you can put yourself in your employee's shoes and the better you are equipped to have a discussion with the employee. Don't hesitate to refer the employee to other professionals who can help.
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