Health & Work
Thought leadership on disclosure, visibility versus capacity, and returning to work.
This site distinguishes lived experience from medical documentation.Deze site onderscheidt geleefde ervaring van medische documentatie.
Open what you need. Leave the rest closed.Open wat je nodig hebt. Laat de rest dicht.
1 Disclosure Deciding what, when, and to whom to disclose about a health condition at work.
What happened
I disclosed the operation date when it became relevant to a career opportunity. Later, return-to-work and absence systems required more formal disclosure of capacity.
What I know now
Useful professional disclosure is functional: what is happening, what it changes, what I need, and when the situation will be reviewed.
Public-safe wording
My disclosure principle is simple: share enough to establish capacity and need, not enough to make the workplace the owner of your medical story.
2 Visibility vs Capacity The gap between how present you look and what you can actually do.
What happened
I repeatedly looked better than my capacity. Occupational health said I looked fit before issuing a written not-fit-for-work recommendation. Years later, I could still sit at a laptop looking professional while medically unwell.
What I know now
Visible composure is poor clinical data.
Public-safe wording
Looking well and having capacity are not the same measurement.
3 Performance Systems How performance and availability get measured, and what that misses.
What happened
Systems were built around availability, deadlines, attendance, and binary status, while illness was variable. Calendars could still mark meetings as required during medically difficult days.
What I know now
Performance systems can accidentally reward concealment because private health cost can still look like high performance.
Public-safe wording
The problem is not high standards. It is treating uninterrupted availability as proof of commitment.
4 Return to Work What a good return-to-work process looks like, and what a bad one costs.
What happened
After August 2019 surgery, occupational health applied a six-week no-work period and formally recorded not fit for work.
What I know now
Motivation and readiness are not interchangeable. A humane return includes staged capacity, clear restrictions, review points, and freedom to say when a plan is too fast.
Public-safe wording
I wanted my professional identity back before my body had finished negotiating the surgery.
5 Ambition Holding onto career ambition while managing a chronic condition.
What happened
I continued pursuing a permanent professional role while preparing for major cancer surgery.
What I know now
The strategic decision was not abandoning ambition, but allowing treatment to coexist with it.
Public-safe wording
Treatment changed my timetable. I refused to let it erase my horizon.
6 Technology Burden The administrative and cognitive load of managing illness alongside a demanding job.
What happened
Critical health moments repeatedly landed inside ordinary work schedules: diagnosis during commute to a business meeting, surgery during an active career opportunity, and later lymphoedema treatment competing with meeting calendars.
What I know now
Treatment is not a hobby that belongs in unused calendar space.
Public-safe wording
The hardest scheduling conflict was not meeting versus appointment. It was the belief that treatment should fit around everything else.