Talking Endometriosis in the Workplace (Part Two)

29 Jul

By Dannielle Stewart and Tracey Stewart, Management 101

Our support coordinator Dannielle and HR/management consultant Tracey Stewart continue discussing this essential topic of chronic illness in the workplace with part two! You can read part one here. In part two we discuss leave entitlements, flexible working arrangements, using your QENDO App as a tool to improve your workplace experience, and how employers can support employees with endometriosis. Dannielle also shares her experience of coping with endometriosis and adenomyosis in the workplace.

What leave entitlements will I have access to?

Tracey breaks down your leave entitlements, and which one might work best for your situation:

Personal Leave Entitlements

Personal leave is one of the 10 minimum employment entitlements that must be provided to employees regardless of their award (based on your industry and position, eg administration or hospitality), registered agreement or employment contract that applies.

You can access personal leave entitlements at any time once you have commenced with an employer; you don’t have to wait until your probation period is over or until you have been employed for 12 months.

Two types of personal leave available.

Sick leave – accessed by an employee who needs time off from work when personally ill or injured; and
Carer’s Leave – accessed by an employee who needs time off to care for an immediate family or household member (eg room mate) who is ill or injured.
- A member of the employee’s immediate family means an employee’s spouse or de facto partner, and a child, parent, grandparent, grandchild or sibling of an employee or their spouse or de facto partner.
Personal leave starts accruing from your first day with a company and accumulates from year to year.
Carer’s leave comes out of your personal leave balance

Paid Personal Leave

Full time employees accrue a total of 10 days per year of paid personal leave (sick and carer’s leave).

Part time employees have access to a pro rata amount of paid personal leave, based on the number of ordinary hours worked.

Leave is paid at the employee’s base rate (excludes loadings, allowances, overtime and penalty rates).

Casual employees don’t get paid sick or carer’s leave, as they are paid a higher hourly rate which includes a casual loading (usually 25%) as compensation for not receiving paid leave entitlements.

Unpaid Carer’s Leave

Employees (including casuals) may take up to 2 days of unpaid carer’s leave for each occasion required.

Permanent employees must have used all of their existing personal leave entitlement first before being granted unpaid carer’s leave.

To be eligible for personal leave entitlements:

Let your employer know ASAP if you will not be able to work due to personal illness or injury or carer’s responsibilities;
Provide a medical certificate or a statutory declaration if requested to do so.
Follow employer instructions regarding completing leave forms and timekeeping records once you return to work.

It’s recommended you be familiar with your company’s policy and procedures regarding absence notification, medical certificate requirements and return to work meetings before you need to access personal leave, as these can differ from company to company. Communicate these policies to your healthcare team so that they can support you with providing appropriate documentation, as well as emotional support depending on their role.

Making a request for flexible work arrangements to accommodate your health

Requests for flexible working arrangements form part of the National Employment Standards (NES). Employees are not entitled to make the request unless they have completed at least 12 months of continuous service with their employer immediately before making the request.

An employee may request a change in their working arrangements from their employer if they require flexibility because they:

are the parent, or have responsibility for the care, of a child who is of school age or younger
are a carer (within the meaning of the Carer Recognition Act 2010)
have a disability or chronic illness that impacts upon their ability to maintain their current working arrangements
are 55 or older
are experiencing violence from a member of their family, or
provide care or support to a member of their immediate family or household, who requires care or support because they are experiencing violence from their family.

Examples of changes in working arrangements may include:

changes in hours of work (e.g. reduction in hours worked, changes to start/finish times),
changes in patterns of work (e.g. working ‘split-shifts’ or job sharing arrangements)
changes in location of work (e.g. working from home or another location).

Requests to your employer for flexible working arrangements have to:

be in writing
explain what changes are being asked for
explain the reasons for the request.

Employers must give employees a written response to the request within 21 days, stating whether they grant or refuse the request. Employers may refuse the request only on reasonable business grounds. If the employer refuses the request, the written response must include the reasons for the refusal. Reasonable grounds for refusal are listed by Fair Work on their website and in most awards. Basically, if your employer won’t grant a request for a flexible working arrangement, they must tell you why, in writing, in line with Fair Work. Refer to the section in Part One “What if My Employer is Behaving Badly”.

How can employers support employees with endometriosis?

Seek out information about endometriosis and educate yourself about the disease with reputable information from sites like QENDO and Safe Work Australia
Raise general awareness of endometriosis within the workplace by holding a morning tea or inservice, displaying literature on staff notice boards, adding endo/adeno as a health & wellbeing topic to your health and safety or staff meetings, or creating a folder on your internal intranet with resources for all employees and managers. Make the topic stigma free in your workplace.
Start a conversation with your employee to learn how endo affects them personally and how the business can best support the employee to fulfil their workplace requirements. Utilise the employee’s knowledge and resources about how they manage their condition and listen to their concerns. Remember, they may have been living with this condition for many years, they are a source of knowledge and a member of your team, not an agenda item on a meeting list or a problem to deal with.
Educate team leaders on managing employees impacted by chronic disease, provide them with resources and the ability to give feedback when something isn’t working
Implement a general health and wellbeing policy in the workplace that emphasises supporting and considering the health and wellbeing of all employees - people are the heart of an organisation, supporting their mental and physical health promotes the health of your business
Appoint a “workplace wellness champion” or even better an “endo champion”. Employees can go to this person for support, education, and resources to help them if they are struggling at work
Consider and discuss flexible work options, either in the short term to cope with a ‘flare’ or on a longer term basis if required – this may include working from home, reduced working hours, changes to start and finish times, banking Time Off In Lieu hours.
Encourage employees who may not wish to discuss their health and its impact with those in the workplace to utilise the services offered by an external Employee Assistance Program (EAP) if one is available.
Acknowledge a formal medical diagnosis of endometriosis and request an overarching medical statement from the employee’s GP, so a medical certificate is not required for every day of leave and can lead to further strain on the employee, mentally, physically and financially
Make reasonable adjustments to the workplace environment – examples may include providing better access to toilets and rest facilities, appropriate seating and workspace furniture, and allocating a work area location to minimise use of stairs, or temperature extremes.
Make reasonable adjustments to the way work is performed to minimise extended periods of standing, bending, stretching, twisting.

Using the QENDO App to Help Manage Your Symptoms At Work

Use the calendar function to add important work tasks, deadlines, or periods of heightened stress so you can see where in your cycle they sit. Do you have a project due during a predicted bleed? Think about what strategies you can put in place to manage pain, mood, or other symptoms
Stress at work, or pushing yourself mentally or physically to the point of burnout in your role can contribute to flare ups and worsening of symptoms. Use the app to track both symptoms and activities, including work. Look at days where you’ve worked long hours, did you experience a flare up of symptoms in the days after? Does food, mood or lack of exercise play a role? Do you engage in self care activities during those stressful work periods? You can track and analyse all of these using the app, using the report function to generate an overview of a week, month or quarter to better understand how work impacts your symptoms or vice versa
If you find an increase in symptoms, pain or poor coping associated with long hours or physically demanding tasks, consider talking to your manager about changes or support that can help you as listed above- if you feel comfortable with that relationship, and your manager is supportive, you may even find it helpful to share your findings with them.
Share your reports with your healthcare team so that they can help you with management strategies for both work and home, and to help them better understand how your illness affects your work. This will be helpful if you need a GP or specialist to provide medical certificates, recommendations, or other supporting documents for your employer
Share resources with your workplace - if your employer is serious about making their workplace an endo friendly environment and raising awareness for all staff, the resources available via QENDO are a great place to start. Support starts with understanding and compassion, something that can be fostered with accessible education.
Feel more organised and in control of your health through tracking your symptoms and activities. Being proactive in managing your condition and gaining more “good days” can increase productivity, improve mental health and coping skills, and boost general wellbeing.
Build your support network and find like-minded people and a directory of endo-friendly practitioners to help you on your journey. If you don’t feel like you can talk to people within your workplace, seek support and assistance from external professionals and assistance programs.

Dannielle’s Workplace Story

As a registered nurse, I sometimes find it difficult to acknowledge in the workplace that I’m the one with an illness - it’s my job to look after other people. I suffer with endometriosis, adenomyosis and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), which have all affected me in the workplace at one time or another throughout my career as a nurse. I’ve been lucky to have mostly positive experiences dealing with employers. During my graduate year, I needed surgery that would eventually lead to my adenomyosis diagnosis, but getting there involved becoming unexpectedly unwell at work several times and having to talk to my nurse unit manager about my endometriosis. He was a middle aged man who had worked mostly in orthopaedics before management, and so I was less than optimistic when I first went to see him - but alas, his sister in law had endometriosis, and he knew what a strain it could be coping with it, and did all he could to support me. We set some mutually beneficial rules that suited both of us - no opioids at work, calling the educator to support me if I felt unwell mid shift but didn't feel poorly enough to go home, taking half days for appointments so that I didn’t use up all of my sick leave. This support allowed me to finish my graduate program knowing that I was supported and not worrying that I would lose my job! Since moving to the UK I’ve had mixed experiences, but my current team in PACU have been amazing. For the first time in a while my adenomyosis symptoms have been severe enough that I’ve had to take a moment at work to deal with them, but my team have stepped up to help and support me. What’s been particularly refreshing is not having to explain endo and adeno to people, most people I’ve come across already know - even the men! We’re making a difference! I’ve also connected with another employee who also has endo, it’s nice to have someone at work who understands exactly what I’m going through, and we can support each other too. Don’t be afraid to have the conversation, it won’t get talked about if we don’t speak up, and the more endometriosis is normalised, the more support we’ll get in our workplaces.