<aside> 💭 Everyone’s experience of chronic or long-term health conditions are individual to them. Some people experience mild symptoms that doesn’t require too much change to how they go about their work. However, those with more severe symptoms need to actively manage their needs, and may benefit from changes to their role or working pattern.

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Introduction

Defining chronic or long-term health conditions is very difficult — many conditions are invisible and people may have more than one condition. Mental health, physical health and neurological conditions can all play a part in chronic and long-term health conditions, so it’s important that you let us know if you’re going through a difficult time and how we can help you.

Support Available

• Chronic or long-term health conditions qualifies for paid sick leave. If you’re suffering, prioritise your health and wellbeing and take time-off (Sick Leave & Pay). Speak to your manager or the People team if you’ve got questions about this
• If you can't take time off for whatever reason, make use of our Our Approach To Flexible Working. Sometimes you might just need a little extra time for yourself during the day
• We provide mental health support with Spill. If you’re struggling mentally, whether it’s health related or not, please take advantage of the support offered by Spill. You can read our Mental Health Support page to see what other support is available
• Set-up up your home office to be as comfortable as possible. Speak to the People team if there’s something that you’d like purchase
• Making adjustments. We want to help you as much as possible, and sometimes this might be making simple changes to your role or your working environment to make you more comfortable while at work. Speak to your manager or the People team — we will listen and learn more about your needs, and work together with you to get you all of the support you need
• Let’s talk about it. We know this is sometimes easier said than done, but talking to your manager, or the People team, can help us support you better. While we do our best to check-in and recognise signs that someone might be struggling, these conditions are often invisible and it can be tricky to detect when someone is suffering in a remote environment

<aside> 💭 We’re designing our policies and explainers to be inclusive and meaningful. They’re not exhaustive and we recognise that we might not always get it right. Please be candid with your feedback and suggestions.

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