May 19, 2017 02:17PM SelinaWilson wrote:

I have heard about this type of thing over and over. You just cannot trust a business to work in your best interest and accommodate you. And I would say that even if they understand or have been through something similar, you still cannot trust their expressed commitments.

Everyone deals with these things differently. Just like Tickety Boo pointed out, there was another person that was fine, granted they had a different job. But there will never be someone that experiences treatment exactly the way you do. Better or worse.

And then there is the capacity for people to forget. For them to lose sight of even their own experience when they are under pressure in the present.

It is extremely rare to find a business that is loyal enough to their employees to accommodate them throughout these difficult times. And even when they try to be accommodating, there is no way to know how long their patience will last.

I would try a solution proposal strategy (which is the only one I have ever heard of working out in these instances... though not for everyone). You can adapt it for your personal case, but it essentially means that you tell them what you need and how it benefits them to give it to you. A mixture of human approach and practical business sense.

It depends on you be an important and irreplaceable member of the team and making your case for why that is. You need to outline what you do, and the work you will need to be alleviated, and how that alleviation makes practical sense. If you cannot trust other workers to pitch in, then you need to propose some sort of temporary hiring.

But I digress. The point is that you need to have solutions. If you give the burden of finding a way around your situation to your employer, it is likely to make them overwhelmed. People should be more understanding. Businesses should treat their employees with care and respect. But that does not seem to be the reality of our world.

Appeal to everyone's self-interests, and they will be interested in helping.

PS. The time I was told this didn't work was when the young woman with breast cancer did not have a firm enough relationship with the company. Her job was not "high-skill", so she had very little ground for a persuasive argument of her irreplaceability... but also the company she worked for had a cold and impersonal culture.

May 23, 2017 10:47PM Tickety_boo wrote:

Thanks for the information. I told my Radiation Oncologist that my department was accommodating me and she said "well they certainly ought to" while I noticed her very subtle eye roll. She is in a department associated with mine so maybe she knows their reputation - they don't treat employees very well.

Thanks for the info, it seems that despite the best of intentions our workplaces ended up being unsupportive. In Edwards 750's case the job by nature wasn't a good one to work during breast cancer treatment.

May 24, 2017 01:47PM muska wrote:

Tickety, I understand very well where you are coming from, however I can put myself in your immediate boss' shoes too: your boss most likely does want to help you, however (s)he cannot hire more staff or disregard corporate cutbacks (your mentioning someone was laid off and part-time hours cut make me think your employer is working on reducing spending.)

I hope you find a way out of this situation by using some PTO time and/or FMLA if needed.

Best.