Employees with Lupus: A Supervisors Guide
What is Lupus?
Lupus is a chronic illness, an autoimmune disease that strikes 1 in approximately 185 people. It strikes women and men, adult or child indiscriminately without prior warning. Although there appears to be some evidence of genetic predisposition, the exact cause remains a mystery. It is not the type of disease that is contagious. It isn't something you catch from a person, place or thing. There is still no cure despite the fact that it has been around since the 1800's! This is not surprising considering the fact that the focus of current medical research is on those diseases that have the most notoriety and public interest.
Prognosis For Recovery
Lupus is not always terminal. With proper care a large percentage of people diagnosed with lupus are able to manage their illness for many years without the fear of eventual death, as was once the common fear. Today's medical research has only been able to design new and improved medications for managing the pain or discomforts associated with lupus. Unfortunately, in many cases, the adverse reactions from the medicines are worse than the disease itself.
Why Should Lupus Concern You?
By now, you are probably wondering why this should concern YOU, the reader. Whether you are a person battling lupus, a co-worker, relative or friend of one who has lupus, or a proactive supervisor who wants to learn about different illnesses as a way of assisting your employees, this article will concern you. This is not a legal paper on ADA (American Disabilities Act) policy. This is not even a paper on the establishment of reasonable accommodations for disabled employees. This is just a common sense approach to helping other employees manage one of the most difficult and often heart breaking times of their lives - the recognition that they now have drastic personal and professional limitations.
Managing Employees With Chronic Illness
When it comes to managing employees with an illness such as lupus, one must first recognize and learn to appreciate the fact that we all respond to illness differently. In the case of lupus, one person may exhibit obvious signs of a reddish facial rash or other skin discoloring, while another person only has complained of symptoms such as severe fatigue, muscle or joint pain, or difficulty walking. Unfortunately, many people, particularly supervisors tend to be less compassionate with illnesses that can not be visibly noticeable. I can not stress the importance of supervisors educating themselves on the various issues affecting their employees; this includes the management of employees who are affected by a seemingly invisible chronic illness.
Although the focus of this and my preceding article is to educate the law enforcement community as to the proper supervision of employees with chronic illnesses, the effects of lupus on co-workers, peers, family and supervisors is not any different in any organization.
The Employee
The best way to identify with an employee who is experiencing a personal or professional crisis is to wear their shoes for a day. Since that is almost impossible to do there is another way. Learning how to view the world from a variety of perspectives is the key to having successful person and professional relationships with people. Most of us continue on with our lives like we are wearing a pair of yellow sunglasses morning noon and night. We view circumstances, relationships and experiences the same way. Then suddenly some significant event occurs that has us look at things in an entirely different way. The yellow glasses come off and there is a complete paradigm shift.
The Scenario
I'd like to ask you to read the following scenario without your personal yellow glasses. As you read along, try and imagine yourself in the shoes of the supervisor, then the officer at the end of the phone, and lastly, the partner officer. You may need to re-read the scenario several times. Identify for yourself what emotions are surfacing when viewing the scenario from each of these perspectives. Do you find yourself becoming angry, frustrated, disappointed or irritated, resigned or humored?
To more effectively put you in the shoes of the officer calling I will make every attempt to give you a clear picture of what someone with this type of illness frequently experiences during a "bad flare day". If I have done my job, you should begin to not only identify with the officer but understand why an employee with lupus detests sympathy but longs for a sign of compassion from those they are in most contact with.
This scenario takes place in a busy patrol Division in the City of Los Angeles. It is a busy Friday evening and your staff is short one supervisor who called in sick and two employees who are off on job-related injuries. You are a supervisor tasked with arranging the deployment of this skeleton crew. You arrived at work an hour early to prepare for rollcall. The phones are ringing endlessly and you find yourself frustrated as you juggle around names and unit assignments. A desk officer yells out your name and tells you that one of your female officers needs to take a sick day off. You immediately deny the request. This officer has called in five times in the last two weeks and it is obvious to you that she is just playing the system. Officer Left is a good officer. You have known her for several years and have supervised her for the past two months. Lately, she has really disappointed you with her lack of loyalty to her job responsibilities.
She seems to call in sick every chance she gets, particularly in conjunction with days off! You hate that. After all, most loyal employees come to work sick. One day she calls in with leg cramps. Another day it's the joints in her hands. Then her legs hurt too much to come in. Now, what? She requests to speak with you personally. You angrily take the call so you could give her a piece of your mind.
Officer Left sounds like she has been crying. She tells you that she has been unable to get out of bed all day. She is physically exhausted and can barely walk because her legs hurt so bad. Yes, she saw a doctor. Yes, she has medication. And yes, it's the same condition as the week prior. You tell Officer Left to bring a doctor's note with her as soon as she is able to walk.
Just as you hang up the phone, Officer Left's assigned partner wants to meet with you. He requests to work with another partner for the remaining deployment period. He is tired of working with a partner that always looks like she is hung over, has sleepless nights probably from staying out late, and who is always calling in sick. Every time she calls in sick he is forced to work the desk answering phones because he has no partner that night. You tell him you will consider the request. As you do the deployment for the evening you shift his name to the desk assignment.
What you don't know about Officer Left is that she is experiencing what is commonly termed "a lupus flare". This is a time when the lupus predator living within her begins to rear its ugly head by reminding her body that it really exists despite days, weeks or even months without any noticeable symptoms. This often confuses the lupus patient causing some to emotionally deny that they even have the disease and others to have periodic outbursts of anger because it feels like life is playing a cruel joke on them. One week they feel great. The next week they may be physically hurting or even bedridden. These symptoms also confuse those around them as to the seriousness of the illness. Understandably so.
You As The Supervisor
You, as a supervisor, are most times tasked with the impossible. You are told to bring absenteeism to a manageable level while making certain that you are a coach and mentor, to show compassion for your employees who are in constant crisis yet, demand hard work and loyalty with fewer resources to do the job with. The above scenario is commonplace. You have a business or watch to manage and you can not allow employees to abuse their sick time. From the perspective of Officer Left who wants nothing better than to wear the badge she has worked hard to achieve, despite constant pain and silent suffering, you appear callous and insensitive. You represent the Department and the profession itself that has let her down. From the perspective of the partner officer, she has let him down. You are viewed as a weak manager for not disciplining her for her lack of loyalty.
The law enforcement profession handles sick usage very differently than the private sector. In any other organization, sick time may negatively impact production, payment due, maybe a reputation or two. But, in law enforcement, an officer calling in sick creates a negative domino effect that affects various entities, the supervisor who has to re-deploy personnel, the partner who often gets reassigned to a less desirable position, the other units who now have to battle radio calls with less back-up not to mention the loss of a patrol unit to respond to calls for service.
Suggestions for Effective Management
These concerns while effectively managing an employee with an illness? Here are a few suggestions:.
BE CONCERNED for the welfare of all your employees. When the attitude or attendance record of an employee begins to decline talk to the employee, demonstrate your concern and ask how you can support them in raising their performance level. This conversation can have lasting impact on the employee and may cause a shift in their willingness to suit up because they are cared about and appreciated. I once knew of a cancer patient (officer) who literally sat up in bed awaiting the arrival of the Chief when he heard he was enroute for a hospital visit.
BE COMPASSIONATE to the needs of others as if he or she was your own family member reaching out for help. Remember 1 in 185 get diagnosed with lupus. What if a member of your family or friend was diagnosed with lupus? How would you like to see them treated? You may not be able to change their circumstances. But, a little compassion goes a long way.
CONSIDER JOB ACCOMMODATIONS that can get the job done just as efficiently. Allow the employee to provide suggestions so that you can work together in getting the job done a different way. For example, can a desk officer be assigned to the desk for several hours then work a patrol assignment the remainder of the shift? Are there assignments allocated in your division to allow ill or injured officers to work without feeling useless? Are there assignments that do not require physical labor? Can there be some sharing of job assignments?
RECOGNIZE EMPLOYEE PRIVACY when dealing with medical discussions. Do not spread rumors or details about someone's medical condition.
EDUCATE YOUR STAFF about the proper way to handle co-workers who may have an unseen illness. Role model compassionate behavior towards others. Encourage the lupus patient to educate their co-workers so that the mystique of the illness becomes something tangible that they can relate to.
ENCOURAGE MORE SUPPORT SERVICES within your organization. Are their employee chronic illness support groups where employees can get emotional support from one another? Do you have a peer-counseling program?
Summary
These are just a few suggestions for managing an employee with lupus. Of course there will be times when there is no possible way to accommodate an employee is continuously off ill. There are times when the illness progresses to a point where no accommodation will allow the employee to continue working. These suggestions speak to the employee who is experiencing occasional or mild symptoms that allow them to be able to function in their jobs. The bottom line is that there may be times when you and the employee may need to have a conversation about the reality of their illness in terms of job performance limitations. However, we in the law enforcement profession truly need to stop viewing illness as a sign of weakness or professional irresponsibility and answer the call for compassion - not indifference or apathy. I ask you again, how would like your loved one treated if he or she had lupus and was able to function in a work environment with reasonable accommodation and compassion?