2023-08-03 15:44:56
Keeping silent about your cancer in order to preserve your career is an understandable reflex, but not necessarily a wise one. (Photo: Motoki Tonn for Unsplash)
DAMNED JOB! is a section where Olivier Schmouker answers your toughest questions [et les plus pertinentes] on the modern business world… and, of course, its failings. An appointment to read tuesdays and the thursdays. Do you want to participate? Send us your question at mauditejob@groupecontex.ca
Q. – “The diagnosis hit me like a hammer blow: I have cancer. I am able to work and intend to be for as long as possible. But I wonder if I should let my employer know. I’m afraid of being discriminated against, consciously or not: pitying looks from colleagues, manager who entrusts my files to others, promotion that passes me by, etc. What to do? Talk about it, or not? – Lysanne
A. – Dear Lysanne, to begin, allow me to send you my best wishes for a speedy recovery. Take good care of yourself, and if work can contribute to it, then yes, continue to flourish in your daily life at work.
Then, an important point: an employee “does not, strictly speaking, have a legal obligation to inform his employer of the existence of cancer,” Jonathan Garneau, a lawyer specializing in labor law, told me. and employment at Langlois Avocats. So you can keep it a secret for as long as you want. This can in no way be blamed on you, if it ever comes to light despite everything.
Now the question is whether there is a professional risk in confiding in others that you have cancer, or not. However, a study recently conducted in France by the Societal Observatory of Cancers brought to light the fact that 21% of those questioned said they had experienced difficulties in pursuing their career after the announcement of their illness.
For example, five years later, only half of them had kept the same job. The others had either preferred to change employer (due in particular to the change in attitude of colleagues, or even the reduction in responsibilities assigned by the immediate manager), or completely lost their job and had to find a new one elsewhere.
In other words, 1 time out of 5, things go wrong for the person who tells the truth to their employer. And 1 out of 2 times this results in a job change.
Should we therefore conclude that it is better to conceal the truth? It’s not that simple.
Disclosure of the disease can become difficult to avoid. For example, if you have to be absent for medical reasons, the employer may require the presentation of a medical note; he will then know the truth. Another example: if the progression of the disease prevents you from carrying out some of your tasks, or at the very least leads you to accomplish them with less efficiency to the point of representing a risk for yourself or for your colleagues, it would be a good idea to notify your employer of your illness. Ditto, if you come to make a claim for disability insurance, the employer will inevitably be informed of the nature of the disability.
That’s not all. Hiding the truth would prevent you from exercising an obligation that the employer has towards any employee with a disability (which includes an illness such as cancer), namely the duty of reasonable accommodation. This concerns measures aiming, among other things, to facilitate absences for treatment, or to lighten certain tasks. This would save you from planning treatments during the holidays (a classic!), organizing medical appointments at lunchtime and giving yourself secret micronaps in a secluded corner of the office. It is that not revealing one’s pathology can turn into a balancing act.
So what to do? To be silent or to tell the truth? My first piece of advice is to discreetly inquire about any previous cases: it may well be that you are not the first to contract this disease, and you will know how it has happened before for others. You will then know if it can be dangerous for you to reveal the truth, or not.
The second is very simple: if it goes badly, in general, for 1 in 5 employees who tell the truth, it also means that it goes relatively well 4 out of 5 times. Statistically speaking, 80% seems perfectly feasible to me. .
You should therefore not be afraid to bet on transparency, if ever your main concern is the evolution of your career. Because the risks are minimal that it serves you. On the contrary, it seems to me, it can be useful to you in many ways, in unexpected and unexpected ways: a colleague you know more or less may get closer to you and end up confiding in you that she has already had cancer, and offer you invaluable support; the HR department can find help you didn’t know existed; your manager, known for his toughness and coldness, can suddenly show tremendous empathy and improve your daily work life; etc
In short, Lysanne, think twice if you plan to weigh yourself down with the burden of secrecy. You already have a weight on your shoulders, so why add another?
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