For anyone else struggling in the workplace with hypothyroidism and multiple symptoms.
I realise I’ve been very lucky, I do worry about being labelled but my only other option would be to reduce my hours which I can’t afford.
I’m a teacher in an FE college, almost full time (0.92). A couple of weeks back I raised a concern with my super lovely Deputy Head that I wasn’t coping too well with workload (weeks behind with marking), exhausted from a run of evening commitments, parents evenings, open evenings etc.
Nothing happened.
I then approached HR to explain I had numerous hospital appointments, blood tests coming up, dealing with unknown health outcomes and was struggling to manage.
HR coached me to approach my line manager with a specific request and the staff wellbeing policy.
This worked, 3 weeks on, one of my tutor groups has been reassigned. It costs them 1 hour of another teacher to cover and I gain about 4-5 hours of admin time a week as a result (because pastoral tutoring is very time consuming). I’m so relieved.
HR asked if there was anything else, I asked it this temporary arrangement could be extended, I was daunted by it being back to normal in January.
Job done - agreed till end of summer term. Thanking my lucky stars. 🦋