Tag Archives: work

Jan 10 2014
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Work and Studying

Plots And Plans

world dominationWhen I was first diagnosed with MS, a trusted health professional asked me, ‘so when will you be giving up work then?’

An outdated concept perhaps, but it got worse.

By the end of the fateful day I disclosed my MS at work, plans were underway to get rid of me as quickly as possible.

Just over a year later, and after not taking the very obvious hints, I was unceremoniously sacked on a dreary Monday morning.

Work and MS. It hasn’t really been a great story for me so far. On the bright side though, my friend has been employing me for over a year now while I look for a new job. The downside is he doesn’t run a cool cafe or bijoux boutique, but a construction company.

I normally work from home doing boring thrilling admin (pyjamas, toast and cat – hope the boss isn’t reading), but sometimes, if I promise to behave, he allows me on site. This week, I was let out to drive a mini dumper truck. Basically sitting down all day, tootling up a lane and back. Not that different from sitting down all day tootling to the kitchen and back, except I had an emergency stop button and the coffee was lousy.

I was given a quick lesson first, ‘this is stop, this is go and this is a steering wheel.’ Yup, got it. Woolly hat on and I was ready to go. To cut a long story short, it’s not that exciting after the first couple of goes. The highlight of my day was waving to a toddler who was peering through the window shouting ‘Bob! It’s Bob the Builder! But mummy, it’s a girl!’

Anyway, as I was tootling along, I realised I really should get a proper job. I’ve tried, I really have. I’m signed up to all the job sites, I scroll through pages and pages of thrilling career opportunities but still there is nothing out there. I’ve moved seamlessly from being restricted by childcare commitments to being restricted by MS.

I know I’m lucky. I couldn’t ask for a better boss, I’ve learned a huge amount and can now read architectural plans like a pro. I even have my own pink drill (honestly). But plans are afoot. I can’t go far in the construction world when I can’t even go up a ladder.

But you know what? I’ll miss the bacon sarnies, the camaraderie and the filthy jokes. What other job can offer all that? Answers on a postcard….

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Oct 24 2013
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The Teenager

Paper Round (And Round)

read all about itIn my day (here we go again), I had a job when I was 14. So when The Teenager turned the same age in August, we had a little chat.

I explained that had he been born 100 years ago, he’d be going down the coal mines as we live in Wales. Luckily for him, that was no longer a viable option, so he’d have to look for something else.

Last summer he set himself up as a car-washer, lugging round a bucket and sponge, knocking on doors. He did quite well until he got bored with windscreens and wheel trims.

So with my rousing speech ringing in his ears (it will give you discipline! it’s character-building! you’ll be earning your own money!), he went to the local newsagents and signed himself up  for a paper round. He also seems to have signed me up too.

He started on Monday, along with probably the most apocalyptic rain to hit in months. I waved him off at 6.30 am (You can do it!), set my mobile ring tone to loud, made a cup of coffee and waited. Sure enough, within nine minutes, there was an anguished phonecall.

‘Come and rescue me, pleeeeeaaaaase. I’m soaking, I can’t see anything for the rain, my papers are wet and I wanna come home.’

I trudged out to the car and searched for him. There he was, a miserable, hunched figure holding a luminous bag bulging with undelivered papers. He’d managed to cram three soggy newspapers through letterboxes then got lost in the maze of back streets. I set the sat nav and we searched through the driving rain for the remaining houses. By the time we got back home, we were both thoroughly fed up.

After we’d dried off, it was time for another chat (lecture). ‘You should have done a recce the day before. You should have planned your route. Responsibility, discipline,  blah, blah, blah.’ We finally came to a tearful agreement. Each day, he would find the next street on his route and I would meet him there, so by the end of the week, he could confidently do the round himself.

I have my reservations how long he’ll last. Just this morning I asked him what he would do when he was in London with his dad one weekend a month. Quick as you like, he replied, ‘well, you’ll do it for me, won’t you?’

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Oct 13 2013
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Work and Studying

MS, DLA And Work….

MS, DLA and WorkLet’s get one thing straight. DLA is not an out-of-work benefit. In fact, it helps many people with MS stay in work.

The Government and media’s growing focus on ‘fairness for taxpayers’ leads many to believe that disabled people are a separate group who contribute nothing to society.

A Freedom of Information request, published in August this year, stated that the number of working age people receiving DLA is 1,839,000, of which the number of those in employment is 386,000 (21%). There are 127,000 people living with MS in the UK with just 50% of them claiming some form of DLA (63,680).

Working with a variable and unpredictable illness is difficult enough in a recession-hit economy and with hardening, right-wing attitudes towards anyone disabled, it’s no wonder the figures for those with MS in employment are so shocking:

  • Fact – more than 75% of those with MS say their condition has impacted their employment and career opportunities.
  • Fact – up to 80% of people with MS stop working within 15 years of the onset of the condition.
  • Fact – up to 44% of people with MS retire early due to their condition (the European average is 35%).
  • Fact – people with MS lose an average of 18 working years.

As DLA is phased out and replaced with PIP, people with MS will be forced to submit to humiliating re-assessments to check that we are indeed still living with a degenerative, incurable illness. Note the word ‘incurable’. Perhaps the Department of Work and Pensions should be renamed the Department of Miracles?

Working with MS means coping with reduced dexterity, cognitive impairment, limitations in mobility and overwhelming fatigue, among many other symptoms. Coupled with some employers lack of knowledge and understanding of MS and it’s easy to see how staying in the workplace can seem like an uphill struggle.

I’m fortunate. After a hideous year of relentless bullying by my previous employer and colleagues which ultimately led to me being sacked for having MS, I now work for someone who has taken time to learn about the condition yet is also aware of the strengths I can bring to my job.

DLA can make a real difference to people – just ask David Cameron, our venerable Prime Minister. The multi-millionaire (and son of millionaires and son-in-law of millionaires) once claimed it too…

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Sep 27 2013
12 Comments
Work and Studying

My Boss, He’s Brave

breakfastMy poor boss, who’s been employing me since I was sacked from my last job for having MS, is a very patient man.

He runs his own construction company, so finding a suitable post for me was never going to be easy.

I’m very good at my job though – I’m brilliant at helping him out (‘you missed a bit, no not there, there’), I don’t mind eating bacon rolls for breakfast and although he casts longing glances at his radio, I’m sure he much prefers listening to me chattering away about something and nothing in between checking Twitter on my phone and sitting in the van to keep warm.

Thankfully for him, I’m not on site much. More often than not I get to sit at home and make phonecalls and undertake important research, like a project manager kind of role.

‘Hello, is that Bricking It Ltd?’

‘Great, um, I just wondered how much your red bricks are?’

‘How many? Oh, that’s a good question.’

‘Shall we say, enough for an extension? Nope, don’t know the size, but it’s kind of big.’

Anyway, the Boss decided to have a Quiet Word last week and started with, ‘look, this isn’t working out, is it?’ Oh. As I was about to hand over my Stanley knife, woolly hat and McDonalds coffee loyalty card (only one coffee bean sticker left to collect), he put an interesting proposition to me. He asked me not only continue to work on his quotes and paperwork, but also keep his website up to date and run a Twitter account in his company name – become his Social Media Manager (posh).

Getting all excited, I grabbed his arm and said, ‘Yes! Right, we need to find your voice, sweetie, your voice. What kind of Twitter voice do you want to have? Funny? Factual? Serious?’ To cut a long story short (let’s just say the Boss’s eyes glazed over), he’s going to leave that all to me. Well, my mind’s been working overtime.

I will tweet the latest Gregg’s sausage roll deals, interesting facts about architraves and skirting boards and throw in a few philosophical musings, such as ‘the journey of a thousand miles begins with one brick.’  I reckon the Boss will be most impressed.

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May 24 2013
10 Comments
Emotions

Transformation. Complete?

When your world is turned upside downTomorrow it will be exactly a year since I was unceremoniously ushered out of the MS Limboland waiting room and into a whole new world of clinically definite multiple sclerosis.

MS has had an impact upon every area of my life. Everything has been transformed and I’m not the same person I was last May, but for my MS anniversary, I am going to concentrate on the positive changes.

I’ve done my grieving, I’ve cried myself hoarse. I could either live out a sad, bitter life, railing against the injustice of it all or seize this opportunity to change my life for the better.

I’m full of gratitude for the support network I have – the family and friends who stuck by me through the dark times. The ones who made a swift exit? Probably for the best, eh? I’m indebted to all the healthcare staff who pulled me through and who continue to support me and I’ve made a whole new circle of brilliant friends.

Being bullied at work and subsequently sacked simply for having MS showed me that when I’m pushed into a corner, I can still come out fighting. Ironically, as my colleagues were trying to crush my spirit, the whole experience made me stronger, braver and has restored my self-esteem.

Probably the biggest transformation though, is within my own character. I’m no longer willing to live a life according to what is ‘normal’ or what is expected of me. I am choosing my own path. For far too long I have gone through life reacting to the whims and actions of other people, forgetting in all the chaos that in fact, I had a choice all along.

It took something far bigger than those people to turn my world upside down and to put into perspective just how fleeting and how beautiful life is. MS is here to stay, for now, and as long as it does, we have to learn to get along. It’s part of me, so I can’t hate it. I have to keep learning to adapt, take the good days with the bad. Is the transformation complete? You betcha. Phase One at least….

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