How much info to provide to employer? | Arthritis Information

I work for a very small company (6 people) and my boss is HR manager, among other things. She knows I have joint pain/fatigue and noticed how my fingers are swollen, and I told her one of my blood tests came back high and I'm seeing a new RD tomorrow. Now I'm kind of regretting providing so much info, and wondering what I should tell her after my appt. tomorrow and if/when I get a firm dx from the doc. I'm worried that if it turns out I have something like RA, Lupus, etc., that I will eventually lose my job because a) she will be afraid I will start missing too much work and b) she will be afraid all my tests, treatment, meds, etc. will cause our health insurance premiums to go up. Anyone have any thoughts or experience with this?

Thanks in advance and best wishes,

Andrea

You cannot be fired because of that information. I have lately told my employers and they have received it well. But it is up to you! You cannot lose your job though!! I know it is a hard place to be. But I didn't tell at first and when I came in one day limping really bad my coworker kind of had a extreme reaction because he thought I had been in a car accident and totally freaked out. After that I explained to him what it was and he was a lot better. Not to mention he knew that some days I would need a little more help doing our work some days and he became very helpful. Now not everyone will be like that, but you need to give people a chance. Explain it in nice terms not the extreme ones, they need to be prepared. Just let her know that you are not changing as a person and you will still work as hard, some days you may just be a little slower at getting the same task done. Best of luck! Don't worry though, its ok. Hard and uncomfortable to explain I know. Good luck!

I work for a company much like yours- 6 people in the office and about 15 out in the manufacturing plant.

My onset literally happened overnight and within a week I was totally temporarily disabled. I went out on medical leave for almost 3 months. They were very concerned for me and very supporative. My boss emailed me almost daily. My assistant covered my work with the help of my boss. I was very lucky.

The only bad part was because we are so small they were not required to pay for my medical benefits while I was out so I had a big COBRA payment. We are business venture owned by 3 partners and when asked the managing partner allowed me to be re-imbursed.

I have a good reputation with them as being a very productive employee that gives 110% and was with them since the beginning of the venture so that helped.

I would play it by ear of how much to tell. You really can't predict how the disease will affect you. I was in awful shape and now I'm great.

Good luck to you not only with dealing with your employer but also with your health.

Andrea, unfortunately the reality is that you can be fired, even if it is illegal, but then the burden would be up to you to prove that is why in court. I understand your fear, but I agree that most people, even employers, react better when they know what is going on and have some solid information. I used to work for a small company and I know it is hard to have any secrets.

When I started at my current job 5 years ago (in a larger company), I didn't make a big deal about my fibro until I started having problems. When the RA came along, I was very upfront with them. I wanted them to understand why I was having trouble with certain things or was out sick, and they were great in their support. Now that I am on disability (temporary, I'm still hoping), I call my boss each month after my rheumy appt to let him know what's going on. I think it's one of the reasons they've kept me, even though they are no longer obligated to do so legally.

The decision is yours though, and you should only tell what you are comfortable with. I know the feeling of having said too much and then not knowing how to get back my privacy. If that's what you want to do, don't mention the RD appt until asked, and then say something vague like "the doctor is checking it out, but there's nothing to worry about". Hopefully they would get the hint.

Only the people I feel need to know about my health issues know about my health issues. Rarely has it come into play with my work. Truth is; I work harder and more hours than our average employees here and my boss certainly notices that I rarely take a day off let alone call in sick. At times I think I work harder than other perfectly healthy folks here.

I guess a lot is going to depend on what sort of job you do. I manage an office and do office/desk work type things. It's not physical although very tiring at times. No one needs to know how difficult it is for me to drag my self out of bed on some mornings two or three hours before I need to be here. No one needs to know anything unless you want them to. I personally am a person that is perfectly fine explaining a limp one week as "Arthritis". I have never really felt the need to explain the question "Why are you limping?" any other way.

Your health insurance will not increase. No more than anyone elses anyway. I don't know if your employer pays 100% or not; but I pay it for our office and it's increased every year since I've been working here. Not just for me....but for everyone.

I don't know where you are physically. RA strikes us all at different levels at different times. You may have a more difficult times with things than I have and I guess in a different set of circumstances I may have done things differently. For me; I already had RA when I was hired and I certainly didn't want to mention it at that time.

Hope all goes well at your appointment.

I wouldn't worry terribly much, but as I get older have two ways of playing things. One is to let them know as little as possible--it's mostly none of their business anyway if you can show up and do your job. The other is to be brutally honest if you haven't been hired yet. If they get cold feet in the hiring process, you are better off and it puts them on the spot to see if they are really interested in you. A good employer will go out of his way to hire someone motivated to work despite their limitations.

The problem I see today is that a lot of employers are getting slammed by health insurance and trying to run on smaller workforce. If your medical expenses raise the cost of insurance when they come up for annual renewal and/or you take more time off for illness, it puts some stress on your coworkers and employer. None of this is your fault and it should be no big deal, but it is a consideration. One of my former employers put some chronically ill and disabled workers out while blowing smoke about it.

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