According to the WEGO health activist site, March is "Health Disclosure Month":
To tell or not to tell – that is the question. If you’re living with a chronic condition, have health symptoms, or are undergoing treatment of any sort – disclosing that information to others has been a topic that’s crossed your mind. Who do I tell and how much do I say? When is the right time to bring this up? Is this TMI? Will this change how people think of me? Will talking about my condition influence my work life, love life, and family life? How can I share what I’m going through with people I care about without worrying them? How do I ask for what I need?I'd love to hear how y'all feel about letting the cat out of the bag regarding your health.
2 comments:
My "employers" (my PhD supervisors) know what's going on with me health-wise as I'd had excessive reactions to allergies for a while and it was preoccupying me, and thus affecting my research and also my moods during meetings.
I have three supervisors - one's really easy to talk to so he forced himself into being kept aware. The other was my main supervisor and I felt weird that a co-supervisor knew more about me than the main supervisor. I also spent a morning in tears in the main supervisor's office after a meeting with the rheumo where the Sjogren's was diagnosed, but also had a chat where I'd need ongoing tests for the next two years to see if SLE also presents itself, and also became aware I'd need a knee arthroscopy... it was a bit much in one meeting with the rheumotologist and I didn't want the nine PhDs who I share an office with asking why I was upset.
The third supervisor was only told last week (a few months after) as I felt weird that the other two knew but he didn't! Also, my main supervisor's going on sabbatical and the easy to talk to one is based on another campus... so I have a feeling the third one may need to step up the supervising later in the year!
My family/friends know. But no one at work.
I have the feelin (I can be wrong) that if the managers knew, they would not gave me new files, or interrsing files to work on, and that I would not "get up the ladder" the same way as others co-workers.
My Sjogren is "private", it's my private life and until it become a problem to do correctly my work, I will not talk about it at work.
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