Protecting Your Job Despite an Illness

June 30, 2009 at 6:42 AM · Filed under Advocacy, Finances, HopeNotes News and tagged: auto immune, autoimmune disease, Chronic, chronic babe, chronic illness work, ci coach, health, illness disease, jenny prokopy, keep working girlfriend, New York City, rosalind joffe, The New York Times Company, women, work

Thanks to Jen at chronicbabe.com who alerted me to this article just recently at the New York Times. It’s always nice to see a large paper like the NYT remember that those of us with a chronic illness are not a small minority niche market, but nearly 1 in 2 Americans.

The article, Protecting Your Job While Coping With a Chronic Illness, dives into personal stories, but also gives some astonishing information and great practical advice.

For example, did you know…

A recent study by the Center for Economics and Policy Research, a Washington research organization, found that among 22 rich nations, the United States was the only one that did not guarantee workers paid time off for illness.

Most other countries provide their workers not only with paid sick days, but also time off for cancer treatments, the study found. German citizens, for example, are allowed five sick days and 44 days for cancer treatment, if needed, in addition to vacation days.

And this article admits…

41 percent offer employees days off — nine, on average — for illness or other reasons, in addition to vacation days, according to a 2007 survey by Mercer, a benefits consulting business based in New York. But when an employee has a serious or chronic illness, like diabetes, major depression or lupus, the rules about time off become murky.

Be sure to go to the web site to get the full story, (if you need to register it is free) as they provide some tips if you are chronically ill and working from our favorite “illness job coach” Rosalind Joffe, of Chronic Illness Coach and author of Women Work and Auto Immunune Disease.

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• Patient Money: Protecting Your Job While Coping With a Chronic Illness (nytimes.com)

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