@CeeLYNN 

Last reply

CeeLYNN

Work difficulty

Hi there, I have been experiencing some difficulties at work lately. I recently went from working full time (40+hours a week) to part time (30 hours a week). The issue is that my boss schedules me from 6:30am until close (no exact time bc it’s a surgery center) and sometimes I’m there for over 12 hours. My body cannot handle being on my feet that long. I have asked my boss to not schedule me like that. She knows I have MS and I suffer from spasticity and fatigue, but yet works me until I’m about to drop over. My neurologist is sending me a note stating I can’t work over 10 hours in a shift. Does anyone have any advice as to what I should do if it continues? Getting a new job is not an option. My health insurance is excellent where I work, and it covers all my meds and MRIs. Thank you in advanced!
@Adriftinthewood

Being in the UK it's a difficult one to offer up any sensible advice given your situation. If you can't change your job or your hours the only thing I found useful at work was factoring short breaks from what I was doing. For example, if I'm writing a report or reading through spreadsheets full of data, I'll get up from my desk at regular periods (usually after 90 minutes to 2 hours) and move and do something else, like have a toilet break, wash my hands, a bit of photocopying, making a coffee, etc just to switch my focus for a couple of minutes. Quite often they're just micro-breaks but I find with longer breaks it takes more energy to get back into what I was doing than taking micro-breaks, which seem to just give me a quick refresh and refocus. I'm still tired at the end of the day, so will prioritise getting good sleep on days I'm really busy, but the micro-breaks seem to work for me in keeping my performance on a decent level. I don't know if it will work for you, as everyone is different, but it helps me still work full-time. Hopefully though your Employer will be more understanding and you'll be able to develop an at work management plan together. Good luck xx

@AndreaG

@CeeLYNN Check your employment law, see what it says about disabilities. You could also check the MS charity web pages for the US, they normally have lots of advice. I'm tempted to say that your employer should know better but you are dealing with people who clearly don't want to understand your situation. Good luck.