What It's Like to Live and Work With Chronic Illness

Table of Content

• Tips for Working from Home with Chronic Illness
• thoughts on “How To Work From Home if You Have a Chronic Illness”
• What It's Like Living and Working With a Chronic Illness
• Virtual Assistant Jobs
• Founder and CEO, Chronically Capable
• Companies With Work-From-Home Jobs Available Now
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Since its inception in 2009, The Work at Home Woman has helped millions of readers find legitimate work-at-home jobs and business ideas. Under Holly's guidance, The Work at Home Woman was named one of the best websites for your career by Forbes two years in a row. Holly lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband and daughter and enjoys reading, traveling, and yoga. If your chronic illness is so severe that you’re receiving Social Security Disability Insurance or Supplemental Security Income benefits, check out My Employment Options. They offer work-at-home jobs for individuals receiving SSDI or SSI disability benefits in 47 states. While most work-at-home jobs require a set schedule, some independent contracting jobs offer flexibility with scheduling and hours worked.

Your disability or illness should not affect the employers hiring or firing decisions as long as you are qualified to "perform the essential functions and duties of the job," according to theEEOC. Five years ago, I was diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease and had a PICC line placed in my arm. It was challenging for me to look for a job and know how to disclose my illness.

Tips for Working from Home with Chronic Illness

Join the conversation, and find out how much you’re worth. If so, Vocational Rehabilitation is a great option to explore . They can help you figure out what types of jobs are right for you, help with your resume and cover letter, teach you ways to look for jobs, and improve your interview skills. It’s a combo federal/state program with a department in every state.

Flexible hours are also becoming more popular, as employers recognize that a lot of people aren’t at their best from 9 to 5. And some companies are investing in new ways to take care of their employees as whole humans, beyond traditional benefits. Your body doesn’t work the way most do, so you have to figure out what makes it work better and what makes it worse. Bodies are complicated and so are the environments we live in, so it’s not always easy to tell immediately what’s making you feel a certain way. Some accommodations will help you and some won’t, and you won’t necessarily know until you’ve tried them out.

thoughts on “How To Work From Home if You Have a Chronic Illness”

Then there are those life tragedies that you can’t prepare for as Holly described in her post,What Will Happen to Your Business if Tragedy Strikes. She offers five practical issues to consider that apply to a single life-changing event or the ongoing challenges of running a business with a chronic illness. If you have very small kids and no childcare available for a few hours a day, the phone call jobs may not be for you unless you want to work the graveyard shift a few hours a night. During which times of day do you feel most energetic and focused? Take advantage of your most productive times of day by scheduling work that demands your full attention. Michael Breus, author of The Power of When, says you should reserve your peak hours for analytic and strategic tasks.

Inevitably, there will be days when you’re too sick to work. Wouldn’t it be ideal if you didn’t have to stress over meeting deadlines? Although things won’t always work out smoothly, having a back-up plan in place makes it easier to deal with the unexpected situation.

What It's Like Living and Working With a Chronic Illness

I don’t push my body to levels where I will struggle unnecessarily and further kill my work productively. DISCLAIMER OF HEALTH CARE RELATED SERVICES Amanda Patrick encourages her you/her readers to continue to visit and to be treated by his/her healthcare professionals, including without limitation, a physician. Understand that Amanda Patrick is not acting in the capacity of a doctor, licensed dietician-nutritionist, psychologist or other licensed or registered professional. Flexjobs has a huge board of remote jobs ranging from entry-level to executive positions. There are many ways to earn money in freelance writing so if you enjoy research and writing this could be a good fit for you. Both Appen and Lionbridge offer jobs such as data collection, transcription, and search engine evaluation which don’t involve talking on the phone.

I struggled to find an employer who would accommodate my needs. My thought process was that I couldn't be the only person going through this experience. When you want to work from home due to illness, you have to start by setting a routine, identifying your goals each day, and learning to push yourself. Since being diagnosed in 2013 with Addison’s Disease, a rare auto-immune condition, Anessa has been dedicated to raising awareness.

Virtual Assistant Jobs

But you will probably still have to work just as much as you did outside the home. The nice thing about being at home to work is that if you need to stop and take your afternoon nap you can. You don’t have a boss standing over you telling you to get back to work. Regardless of whether someone works out of the home or in the home, it all takes a lot of discipline and hard work.

Although I expected to feel overjoyed about returning to paid work, I’d become so used to struggling and failing that for weeks all I felt was terror. Things are busy over at Chronically Capable, with new employers like WhatsApp and Postmates on our website these days. Large tech companies like Twitter (and most-recently, Quora) have announced their permanent WFH plans. This is huge progress for our community, as many companies will likely follow suit.

If your work quality or production level starts to slide, the last thing you want is for your boss to think you’re being lazy or you don’t care about your work. I got offers from TELUS international, they were mostly bad pay, but one of them was really good pay for two months! I got another job though, going into data science/programming. It can often feel like work has no place for chronically ill people. Knowing my colleagues will understand if I disappear for a few days has made me feel more able to take time to rest when I need it—which has made it easier to get my work done when I’m feeling well.

Work and personal life can be very hard when the people identify you so closely with your illness. However, it’s important to remember you are separate from the disease you’re battling. Managing a chronic illness can take a great toll on your sense of self-worth, so it’s important to remind yourself you have value. And it’s important to do your best to maintain your self-esteem, so you don’t hinder your career advancement due to a lack of confidence.

When you’re chronically ill, it often feels like doubt rules your life. They doubt that you’ll follow through on your commitments. Many of you have heard of Wayfair, as it’s well known for its online furniture sales. Wayfair is looking for curious, analytical and adaptable people to join its growing team. Across its global headquarters, warehouses, and sales and service hubs, you’ll find a dynamic environment where growth opportunities are abundant and hard work is rewarded. Wayfair offers comprehensive benefits and work-from-home opportunities.