Problems with lens adjustment - suggestions?

[Jugger]

Lia,

You've been most helpful - muchos gracias!

Jugger

[longhoc]

Hi Jugger

Briefly (by my standards !) I just wanted to ask a bit more about something you wrote that really got to me. When you mentioned that you think you may be at risk of losing your job because of the difficulties you're facing in finding suitable contact lenses, I was really concerned that -- in addition to managing your Keratoconus -- you've also got that to contend with too.

No-one should ever have their employment placed in jeopardy because of them having Keratoconus.

Have you considered initiating a discussion with your employers HR team or Occupational Health ? I know it can seem scary and you almost inevitably worry about making things worse in doing so. But you might find they actually want to work with you to resolve any work related issues you have. Do let me know what the situation is in more detail if you'd like any more information on this subject.

Best wishes

Chris

[Jugger]

Chris,

Thanks for your concern. I’ve tried to make this as concise as I can, while being explanatory.

At work, while they know I wear contacts, I haven’t/ nor will I tell them that I have KC. Work is such that everyone works more hours than they are paid for, so there is a degree of flexibility to working conditions. On the days when I go for hospital appointments, I either work from home afterwards or make up the time in the subsequent weeks. Thus, I don’t take that time as time off/ a sick half day, because of the potential future implications of doing this (future reference checks on the amount of time I have been off work sick).

With my employers, their public message is often divergent from the internal application of those messages. For example, a few people who have been let go over the past couple of years, the official reason(s) they were let go had no correlation to the ‘real’ reason as to why that happened. To address you question directly, I have not sought to discuss my eye condition or general health with HR.

Many of the brands we work for are global, so there are times when I work on multi-country projects. Because of time zone differences for example, for some projects, meetings have to be in the mornings, which is when my appointments always are. The problem then becomes that I can’t reschedule those meetings, nor can I afford to miss my hospital appointments, given the time it takes to get these set up (my optician only has a contact lens clinic on Thursdays). Meetings have always had to be the causality. With teleconferences I can dial in from wherever, the problem is there is no mobile reception at the hospital where I am seen. While this hasn’t happened often, it’s now often enough to be a problem. I work for a small agency, so there are certain aspects of what I do that I am the only one in my office who can do it.

Earlier in the year, I also had issues with the removal of the RGPs such that I damaged the lining of my eyes a few times in fairly quick succession, meaning my eyes were out of commission for a week at a time, whereby I couldn’t work. Added to which I used to do lots of running and got injured from that and needed another operation recently. Therefore, its been an accumulation of things that have resulted in my often seemingly fleeting appearances at work, thus I can ill afford more time off for my eyes. Thus my desire (despite the complexity of this) to find one solution to go with henceforth.

Jugger

[longhoc]

Hi Jugger

What you said there is so familiar because that was pretty much my situation up until fairly recently. Until I had to have a graft, it was possible -- as you describe -- to keep silent about Keratoconus. It's not like there's much in the way of visible symptoms to give the show away. And I quite understand your motives too. With all the progress in equality legislation -- and to an extent a shift in cultural attitudes to disability -- it's not at all easy for blatant discrimination to be perpetrated by unscrupulous employers. But that's a mixed blessing too because those same discriminatory attitudes are still there in a great many people only now they are more adept at covering their tracks. To given an example, one large company I know is lauded in disability politics circles, fated by disabled charities /campaign groups (to which it makes not insubstantial donations) and theatrically gives great a play of its equality policies towards disabled people. Scratch beneath the surface though -- and you don't have to scratch very far -- and you realise that it's a lot of tokenism. Unenlightened thinking still exists, indeed, it prevails. But it's been forced underground -- which makes it all the more difficult to identify and challenge because the discrimination is done covertly, surreptitiously.

In many ways, discussing one's disability with an employer is almost a classic case of The Prisoner's Dilemma (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner%27s_dilemma). There are definitely rewards for keeping your silence. But that silence comes at a cost too.

Anyhow, I totally respect you choices here. Large corporations, SME businesses, even public services -- and their iron handmaiden the unemployment line -- have an unequal balance of power with the individual. No getting away from that. Legislation to ensure equality is promoted is great and a real step forward but it is no way a panacea or a cure-all.

Okay, enough theorising for one post ! On a practical level, and just my own opinion, and only if you can afford it, you might well be able to manage your Keratoconus (and more importantly, trialling different sorts of lenses) more efficiently and with less impact to your work through a private operator. Appointments can be made more-or-less at your convenience and with comparatively little notice. "Chair time" can be up to an hour (with more usually available if it's needed) and the optometrist is incentivised to get the right lens fit first time as opposed to "try this one, come back in a month" "didn't work ? okay, try this one come back in a month" "hmmm that didn't work either ? try this one..." (you get the idea !). Expect to pay £250+ per lens though -- and in medicine, a consumer approach doesn't alas guarantee a perfect outcome. If no lens will do what you want it do, it doesn't matter how much you pay. But getting to that point -- either a successful outcome or at least going through all the options -- is potentially quicker outside of the NHS. If you want to pursue that channel, send me a private message and I can let you have the details of some private operators I've dealt with who might be ones you'd like to consider.

Best of luck, do ask if you get any questions on your journey. Keeping fingers firmly crossed this all works out with the minimum of hassles for you.



Chris