Coping with diabetes in the workplace : client and management perspectives

Abstract

The key objectives of this research study were to explore the impact of type 1 diabetes, a chronic illness, on one’s employment, and to investigate as well how the context and conditions of this same employment can have an effect on those bearing such a chronic illness. Simpler and more researchable questions were also proposed, stemming from these concerns and interests. These searching questions include: how does type 1 diabetes, if at all, affect employment choice? Does having this chronic illness impact employees in reaching their goals and employers from hiring and engaging such employees? Does employment have an impact on the everyday management of type 1 diabetes? Is there an awareness of type 1 diabetes at the workplace and, if so, does the workplace provide any kind of support to employees living with this chronic illness? The number of individuals living with this chronic illness is on the rise. Therefore, in order to collect a substantial amount of data to represent the population and conduct an in-depth examination of their multi-faceted, nuanced experience, a mixed method approach was adopted. 73 questionnaires were filled out by employees, 20 questionnaires were completed by employers, and three voluntary unstructured interviews with employees were held. These quantitative and qualitative data-collecting tools yielded a vast amount of data, eliciting an in-depth understanding of why questionnaire respondents answered in such a way. After the data was collected and analysed, it could be seen that employment does have an effect on one’s chronic illness and diabetes has a marked effect on one’s work. Such an impact can be seen at the very beginning of one’s employment. This is because the change in one’s routine already caused multiple disruptions in one’s management of time and work obligations. This chronic illness also interfered with a person’s work tasks and as a result affected their diabetes care management. On the other hand, data gleaned from employers provided insight into the extent of their knowledge and the support they provided to such employees. Therefore, these results shone some useful light on the relationship between type 1 diabetes and employment. Such data suggests that although type 1 diabetes does impact one’s employment, it becomes so intertwined that it is normalised for and by the individual. The persons living with this chronic illness will have grown used to their new ‘normality’, by the time they reach working age. Therefore, it is normal and usual for them to experience such intense emotions, to change according to their new routine and to adapt to their new work environment. From such data, a number of recommendations as well as suggestions for future research regarding this area have also been proposed. Although type 1 diabetes awareness is slowly but surely gaining increased acknowledgement, much more needs to be done in order to gain a better comprehension of the current situation in Malta and Gozo.