Have you ever felt concerned about losing your job du... - NRAS
Have you ever felt concerned about losing your job due to your RA?
Please select all that apply:
Frequently been used as an attempt to get rid of me. I have to work twice as hard to be considered half as good as my colleagues.
Have been ok but my manager who fully understands me and my RD have just resigned so not sure how it will be in 3 months with a new manager. So watch this space.
Left my job in 2007 as I could no longer carry out my duties due to the effects of RA on my hands. I wasnt sacked and it was my own choice because i just couldnt cope anymore.
Received a medical retirement 12 months after going off sick with what turned out to be RD.
Sounds like me! xx
Same here medical retirement when I was 27
Already lost it but they did their best to try an keep me on as it was a physical job
In the past i did before i got made redundant then i haven't worked since. New company took over and wouldn't give me the hours i wanted and so they made me redundant and i think my being so ill didn't help me.x
After years of praise for my work in a higher grade I find myself targeted for poor performance and worry everyday hoe they will try and twist every situation to demonstrate my lack of competence eg not providing training and then telling me I should be up to speed with everything, excluding me from team discussions and then telling me I'm not in touch with the wider picture, overloading me with tasks and then being critical for not completing everything...…..It has raised my stress levels, lowered my confidence and made my final years at work awful.
That’s awful for you x
That's one of the worst things I've ever heard!
Not in my current job but previously.
Sadly, I was a nurse and was made to retire due to ill health. Basically the effect of RA. Added to everything both my tendons in my thumbs ruptured meaning my hands were useless for a while. On the up side, I probably shouldn’t have been working.
Already have. Medically retired in 2014
I recently had ra issues and had eye ops,all connected with autoimmune disease, my self employment became difficult, now company not offering anything.its very difficult balancing everything, but HEALTH comes first,
Got my dream job but only lasted 2 months as just so much pain and fatigue. I chose to leave 😡😡
Constantly worry I won't be able to work and it will be my health that will stop me. Hopefully my reputation will keep me in my job along with an understanding employer.
Health and well-being are so important and it is important for employers to respect people and the issues that they may bring to their work place, but more important are the qualities that they bring!!
I only have three more years until retirement
I pray I can make it. I am a teacher, I love those kids so much but lately I have been catching every cootie they bring in. I have been sick nonstop since Halloween
I have missed a lot of school and I worry about it constantly. Not just for me but for my students
I have had RA now for over 40 years and am now very retired. However, when I was diagnosed and working, I really felt scared to say anything about it because I imagined I wouldn't be able to do my job because I was a graphic designer working with traditional pens and brushes. There was no computers in our studio. I did have some very thoughtful and considerate directors who allowed me time off for appointments. It was a very worrying time and something that many employers need to make allowances for. There needs to be more publicity for RA as opposed to a public generalisation of arthritis.
My daughter has lost two due to it.
I'm lucky, as work at a County Council, although I did have it even when I started there at 19, and told them that.. but they have been great. Really supportive over my nrly 30yrs there, with 17 operations and numerous other absences.
Lost my job 4 years ago when redundancies for my post and applied for a new job which was essentially my old job but my introduction to the 'neutral' person on the interview panel was by my boss who said-this is Diana who has recently returned on a staged return due to long term sickness!! Needless to say I did not get the job!
I had to give up my work too over 12 years ago now !!It has left me with a basic pension which I had not planned it caused so many other problems too .
Am self-employed, which helps a lots, but even then I'm occassionally struggling to keep up with contracts and requests. Access to Work pays for an assistant but i know that I will eventually have to give even self-employment up, medication just isn't touching my flare-ups ad i'm on biologics!
I did lose my job due to RA or was chosen for redundancy
I would have lost my job due to various disabilities. I did eventually get ill-health retirement but to be honest I was really pleased to leave a job that I had originally loved (helping people wth disabilities). My employer, DWP (😱) were focussing more & more on sanctions & less on actually helping people. Luckily, I was gone just before Universal Credit rolled out. The answer is ‘no’, I wasn’t concerned about losing my job but sick of the hypocrisy of my department and sick of what it was doing to people with health problems & disabilities. 🤬
Sorry to rant! Have a lovely Christmas & New Year everyone. Let’s hope 2019 sees things improve. Love & hugs to you all.
Nic (Temple of Doom) xxx
Medically retired at 32, after working as a secretary since 18 in the same job
I was pushed out of a professional job and made to take medical retirement, my job description changed to include impossible physical requirements that made accommodations impossible. This was in California where one was employed "at will" and there were no legal protections. The positive side was that I had a rheumatologist who helped me get disabilty, both private and public, payments, and who also helped me work as long as possible with the support of medications. The hardest part was retiring, not with a feeling that my health required it, but rather with the sense that I was humiliated by my employer.
I work full time in an admin role and am always given time off to attend appointments and consideration if I'm having a 'bad' day. My boss and colleagues are very understanding as they appreciate my situation can change daily and they know I would never take advantage of their good will. I previously was in a more physical job which I left of my own accord as I was struggling with the required work. There was no way my employer could have made any reasonable adjustments and I was lucky that my current job came along. That was over five years ago. It is unfortunately a fact that this condition does mean that in both our professional and personal life, changes have to be made and we should take some control of our own destiny and not always expect others to make concessions.
I had quite a stressful job which caused chronic fatigue and pain in hands wrists meant I couldn't function at all
I also had no peer support just complained aboutme in the end I finally went sick then took early retirement.
I found that I often had criticism becasue I looked blooming with health (steroid flush) but could not get my fingers to do some of the jobs that were asked of me.
I moved to a different type of work so that I was no longer expected to do things with my hands and used my brain instead.
Already lost my hospital job.
You would think they'd be more understanding, but they wouldn't allow me to wear a certain time of shoes due to my feet being in pain and swollen.
They demanded I wear closed toe shoes even though I would be sitting at a desk the whole time.
Work for a company and have a manager that looks after me and cares.
I have been on disability insurance for over 3 years now and the insurance company is wanting to cut me off. I still do not have a confirmed diagnosis, it is being called "seronegative inflammatory poly arthropathy" . Insurance company did not know what that was so the Dr called it RA. I am fatigued all day every day. So now he is thinking about calling it chronic fatigue syndrome. Not sure how the insurance company will like that. Oh well, see how it goes.
MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone and a prosperous and healthy new year.
Scott in Vancouver Canada.
Already lost it due to RA,
I chose to leave my part-time job as a medical secretary in 2017 because of RD - my hands and feet were so stiff and immobile in the mornings that I couldn't get up and 'get going' in time for work, nor could I safely drive to work due to dizziness. And the constant, overwhelming fatigue and brain fog didn't help either! We didn't need my salary in order to survive financially, so I handed in my notice.
I did as I had given up teaching to become a foster carer. 4yrs later RD no longer able to work
2010 my office was upstairs. My knees and legs hurt going up and down. I was not offered an office downstairs (did not know at the time they should have helped in that respect. ) I was laughed at because I could not hear properly. I retired but loved my job.
I retired but voted for yes, for even in my last job I would have had trouble.
I worry constantly, trying to fly below the radar putting on brace face n getting by
Had a terrible year this year , health fallen off the shelf, still trying to continue, I hide it well.
But think the baggy eyes n weight loss have given me away.
thanks to steriods they gave me second wind
N now started Benapali , so fingers crossed this is my saviour, it's such a worry for the future but no one knows what the future brings. ill cross that bridge when I come to it.
onwards n upwards xxx
Keep fighting and don't give in. Benepali works but has draw backs as I am sure your doctor has explained. STOP TAKING IT IF YOU ARE ILL AT ALL AS IT DOES LOWER YOUR ABILITY TO FIGHT OFF INFECTION.
I use cannabis oil to dull the pain and it also helps with inflammation. I know it's not conventional but it's got my by for the last 24 years.
Hi
Thanks , for the advice.
I could do with the real cannabis oil .
Got CDB oil doesn't do much
xx
I have recently had to give up my job as an installation engineer. Having worked as this for over 24 years it was a hard decision to make.
Luckily I have secured another position which is not as physically demanding. I have had to disclose my RA but fortunately my new employer has not seen this as an issue.
I wont let this disease win.
So far so good, I am lucky that my employers have been great, and very accommodating, especially when it comes to docs/hospital appointments. However, having said that if we ever came to a position of redundancies again ( this has happened in the last year or so with a greater % of women being made redundant ) then I would be concerned, not only because of the RA but because I am a woman working in a male dominated workplace.
Hi Katie,
I have recently had experience of not losing a job but having to disclose my RA in order to obtain the position which is not very phisical as it's in management rather than installations
I was awarded a contract on the usual understanding that a medical form be filled in.
Upon recieving my medical history I was asked back in for a 3rd interview to discus my condition.
This obviously concearned me a bit but it was so they could do risk assesments and look at their life insurance policy rules and regs along with their pension scheme. It seems to be delaying things.
My start date is 4th of Feb but contract has not been signed yet so I will keep you posted as to what happens.
I am self employed usually and have been for 25 years but due to the job being extremely phisical I have had to retrain and go into management in a similar industry.
I'm not hopeful of keeping mine. My boss is brilliant but the bigger boss and HR have been total bum holes. I know they have no idea what my condition is or how it affects me even though I gave them the handbook for employers.
I left my job due to RA and now training for other work thats less physicaly demanding.
I have lost 2 jobs in the last 6 months. Started new one today 26/03/2019. and had to come home after 3hours. On exertion I start to sweat it drips off me then I either faint or vomit. Don't no if its my meds or the job that I have is too strenuous.
