Disability Narratives
Advice for colleagues and managers
Video clip: Even when everything that could be done, was being done, Susannah found she could still have bad days.
I think, yeah. I think one thing for managers is being aware that it's not [sigh], it's not a - there's not necessarily a quick fix. And I think that was a surprise for, for certainly my initial manager, who was kind of - for a couple of months was like "So, are you better yet?" And I was like, "No." Like, "Are you better yet?" "No." And it wasn't until I saw occupational health, and occupational health were quite blunt, and they were like "Yes, this is the situation. Yes, she's seeing - you know - the right consultants. And yes, her consultants and her doctors are doing all the right things. And this could be, you know - Yes, they're trying all the right things, yes they're doing all the right things. They will almost certainly find a solution. It could take months. It could take more than a year. Don't expect miracles. And however long it takes, it's not going to be weeks - you know - it's going to be a minimum of months. And even once they find a solution, it's going to be edgy. And it might - you know - she might go backwards, she might go - you know."
And I think that was really helpful. Because I think particularly my manager - I think HR probably was a bit more 'yeah, these things take time', but I think it was possibly the first time my manager had had to deal with somebody with a kind of like – this is long term. And she was expecting it to be like you go to the doctor and they give you a pill, you get better. And it took her a while to kind of - And I think it was probably quite helpful for her to have something from an official person saying "No, this is - you know - Everything that can be done is being done. But, you know, could take a while. And, and things can better and worse, even though everything that can be done is being done. It can go forwards and backwards."