October 20, 2020

Returning To Work After Cancer Treatment – Explained

Resuming work after surviving cancer is difficult both mentally and physically. To get you back at work in peace, this article will give you helpful tips to consider while joining work after getting treated from the best cancer hospital in Kolkata.

A cancer diagnosis can bring in significant changes in a patient’s overall life- be it personal, social, or at work. These changes bring in drastic mental, financial, and emotional imbalance. For the patients taking a break from the work is essential while complying with the cancer treatment protocols. Following the recovery procedure, issues like social stigma, work-life balance, routine check-up, and medications might also lead to a delay in resuming their work. Even after complete recovery from the best cancer hospital in Kolkata, the anxiety leads to multiple questions like will coping up back again be smooth enough? For survivors who plan to resume work, this article will provide important tips to do it productively.

Seek for Medical certification:

The first tip is to inform your oncologist about your plans to re-join work and ask for a medical certificate. This will help inform the co-workers that you are medically fit to get back to work in full force.

Re-aligning the work schedule:

To adjust quickly after the comeback, survivors should talk to their employers about their job role, flexible timings to meet commitment at work and doctor’s appointment, job delegation during urgency, etc. The survivors should continue to request their employers to assign duties that don’t drain their extra energy at the initial stage. Restructuring, re-training, and work-from-home benefits are some help that they can request to adjust well to the workplace.

Documentation of discrimination at work:

There are chances that survivors and support staff may experience huge discrimination in the office that might affect their sentiments. The best way to deal is to document such incidents and share them with the human resource department so that it is thoroughly discussed among the organization. A copy of the survivor’s work evaluation and comments also plays a key role in avoiding discrimination, if any arises.

Equality is right:

To avoid discrimination between other employers and cancer survivor, it is vital to treat everyone equally by giving them equal work opportunities. The cancer survivor should be well-versed with the law and expert advice to safeguard their rights during the breach if any. Along with this, the survivor should take the responsibility to fulfill the work expected from them to support equality.

Cope-up with the stress:

After getting treated from the best cancer hospital in Kolkata, the re-adjustment at the workplace may take extra efforts that may become stressful too. To accomplish it, below are some of the things survivors should take care:

-        Take frequent breaks

-        Permission to work fewer hours

-        Comfortable sitting

-        Get support group at the workplace

-        Permission to delegate task

Be open to accept help from co-workers:

To maintain a long-term professional career after surviving cancer, the survivors need to have an open mind and an accepting attitude to seek help and assistance from co-workers when needed. Interacting with managers, discussing work problems, and speaking to counsellors are some ways to help adjust to the professional world without creating stress.

The above tips are some of the very useful ones that should be considered by cancer survivors while planning to resume work after their treatment. Returning to work after cancer is not a simple decision and these tips will help you sail through easily with pride to be socially accepted.

Also Read: Side-Effects of a Breast Cancer Surgery: Inception, Mitigation, and the Road Ahead