BMJ: How can I support my colleague returning to work with long covid?

[SNT Gatchaman]

https://www.bmj.com/content/382/bmj.p1997

“They may not look unwell, but don’t let this mislead you—when attempting a return to work your colleague will be putting everything they have into making it a success.

“Your colleague is likely to have a structured return to work plan that has been made with occupational health or their line manager’s input. Please respect these boundaries and do not try to navigate around them. There is often a ‘go low and go slow’ approach which can look different to recovery from other conditions. Remember that no two people with long covid will be the same in terms of their challenges, so the approach to returning to work needs to be bespoke and may look different to others.

“If friends or family have had similar illnesses then mention it—your colleague will realise you have a better understanding of the impact of long covid and similar conditions. I found this very helpful as I felt that I didn’t need to explain everything in great detail. Share recovery stories of others that you know of in a sensitive and positive way as this can be inspiring and give them hope for the future.”

 

[bobbler]

Share recovery stories of others that you know of in a sensitive and positive way as this can be inspiring and give them hope for the future.”

Why is it that you can find many articles of recent years warning people of this particular topic/habit for those with cancer and how people need to perhaps stay well off it because of the harm it can do with insinuation vs not comparing like with like vs giving people dread. (EDIT for sense) and yet, with ME/LC etc even patients themselves end up having to self-bigot in order to be accepted 'for being positive enough' and pretending 'I understand everyone has good intentions' by not being able to talk about the psychological harm of doing the same for this condition? Oh because of the BPS and the nonsense psychologically harmful Recovery Norway manifestos

 

[bobbler]

“On one of my rotations, it came up in conversation that I had post-covid fatigue or long covid. I explained that one of the hardest things to manage at work was having to stand for long periods of time. As I explained this, three of my colleagues were sat on chairs and I was stood up. No one offered me their chair. I remember thinking that they seemed to be listening and they’d asked questions, but they hadn’t offered me support or understanding…"

“When you empathise with what that person is going through you can figure out how best to support them. And sometimes that support might be something as simple as offering your chair.”

An example really worth them including so it brings alive what it is like with the egg-timer vs if the 'environment' doesn't change/is as it is

A few other possibilities, like pretending to listen (or thinking they are ) but not really internalising and hearing to 'get it' or think 'oh that applies to me' more like tickbox culture of being seen to have paused whilst someone was talking and nodded a bit?

Although I don't know the timespan involved there or the context and I guess there is the chance of it taking a while for the translation into 'what actions' to happen, and of course some might have not wanted to make her self-conscious or whatever.