It made me wonder how many more people are opting or trying to work at home because they experience incontinence episodes while at work. With "work" changing so much since the Covid pandemic, are more people getting the option to work at home and thus are not having to deal quite so much with possible accidents while at work.
I am curious if any of the group here has switched to working at home and has that worked out well. Or are you trying to get your employer to allow you to work from home so you can be close to your bathroom or a change of clothes if necessary?
It might be very helpful for others here to hear about how a change in work environment has worked well ... or not.
Written by
incon1982
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I’ve been working from home post pandemic for the past three years. This year my employer said they are making everybody come back into the office for at least three days a week. I told my manager the main reason I stay home is due to my IBS. This is now started a whole process with HR to be able to work from home. I did not want to admit to my employer that I was having incontinence issues. But to illustrate the seriousness of the situation, I had to open up about my incontinence. At this level, the company has been working with me on this issue.
It seems like there’s a lot of people that Are trying to make excuses to not come back to the office. For me over the last three years, my incontinence has become much more severe. Way more information than I thought I would ever tell my employer.
I do hope they will work with you in a positive way, and that you will be able to keep your job and work from home. It seems that it has been working well for 3 years so I do hope they will see that and not try to force you back.
So I already worked a lot in the home office and on the go before the Corona time and before my continence problem - but my continence problem has now led to me trying to make fewer business trips. Urinary incontinence is hardly a problem - this can also be handled well on the go and in the office, but since I am also faecal incontinent, I have to be pretty careful what I eat and that is sometimes difficult on the way.
Normally, I have the stool problem well under control through my diet and "only" soiling, which is already annoying enough. However, if the stool becomes too thin on the way because I have eaten something wrong, this is quite a problem, which I then try to solve at short notice with loperamide. All this is not optimal and I therefore already had to cancel appointments and was then able to participate via video conference.
Fortunately, this is not a problem with my employer so far and we are well equipped. When I am on site, there are also disabled toilets with a sink so that I can clean myself quickly if it really went wrong.
Yes - in the meantime. However, this also took a while and especially the first year was already quite hard. The incontinence was almost the smaller bad, because I had severe back problems and couldn't walk 50m when it was really bad without my legs hurting so much that I couldn't get any further.
In the meantime, this is halfway OK again with a lot of functional training and physiotherapy - but I still can't perceive the urge to urinate and only have a limited feeling in one leg and feet. In any case - over time you come to and with the problems and find solutions.
I think in Germany we are also a little further than some parts of the USA. Since 2010, all new publicly accessible buildings must have at least one barrier-free toilet with washbasin. In addition, companies with more than 20 employees are also obliged to employ at least 5% severely disabled people and to provide appropriate sanitary facilities. Theoretically, the companies can "free" themselves, but this does not happen, especially in larger companies.
In addition, there are many public barrier-free toilets that can be opened free of charge with a euro key, which can be obtained with a corresponding medical certificate (go - disability and chronic bladder and intestinal diseases).
A lot is done - but here too, it is still a big difference whether you work in a small company or a large company.
There is also the trend to get people back to the office, but many companies rely on a mixture of home office and presence. This is also due to the fact that the areas have been used much more efficiently since Corona. Many rented office spaces have been closed and I also no longer have my own office but book meeting rooms and work rooms via a corresponding tool.
I think it remains to be seen whether this is really good in the end, because the desire to actually work on site will not be greater because you have to make an appointment now if you want to meet for a coffee in the kitchen. This does not really make it more communicative - and that was one of the important reasons to work on site - because the exchange with colleagues was just easier and a lot could be arranged much easier over a coffee...
Yes, some of the things you describe are definitely ahead of the US. It is truly deplorable that we don't have public restrooms everywhere that also are designed for both men and women who are handicapped and severely handicapped. Just getting waste bins for incontinence products for men is a big fight in many countries. I wish the people designing restrooms would talk to organizations such as ours so that all the needs are incorporated! And that they are cleaned and also properly lit for safety reasons. We have a long way to go on providing for people's basic needs!
Thank you for your thoughts and explanations. I hope this will be helpful for many others in this group, and also thought provoking.
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