Table 5.

Themes arising when workers do not communicate their episodic disability: Denying workplace difficulties and casting disability as a performance problem

Challenges arising when a worker denies a disability
“This one individual was saying that people were talking about her… Staff would come in and do some work, and she would think that they were spying on her…. we talked to the physician, the psychologist about it, trying to get some information about accommodation—is she getting the right kind of treatment or does she need any treatment?… She thought she was fine. We don’t know if she was or not…. But really, she came very close to being fired.”	(Resp 1, HR, service sector)
“People themselves, they may not see it. It may be a slow progression…People don’t see it and then suddenly…they start missing deadlines, showing up late for work, looking dishevelled…. If a person doesn’t realize, they’re just thinking, ‘I’m having a bad day.”	(Resp 17, DM, disability consulting firm)
Casting disability as a performance problem
“What happens with episodic conditions is that they have incidental absences and… if they pass that ten-day threshold, then a progressive discipline approach is taken with them and that’s not always the right approach to take for someone who just needs time off periodically to attend to their health”	(Resp 05, DM, healthcare)
“Too often where we find out as the representatives of the worker, it’s when they’ve come forward to get our assistance because they’re in a position of discipline. Because they’ve missed time from work, or their work performance is lacking, and they have not indicated that they have an issue and have tried to sort of hide it. Then suddenly it reaches a point where it’s now become discipline… That’s a really common situation for us.”	(Resp 23, union representative, multiple sectors)