When Health Interrupts Work: How to Communicate and Adapt Effectively

There are 2 scenes being imagined in the article below. The 1st one focuses on the manager and the 2nd one on the employee who is sick in this situation. Continue reading below to see their inner dialogues on dealing with the situation.

Scene-1

Employee: "Hi Arjun, good morning!"

"This is unusual. I don't receive messages from him this early in the morning," Arjun thinks as he opens the chat box.

Then a realization hits him. "Oh, maybe they are not well and want to take the day off."

Employee: "I will not be working today as my health has deteriorated again. If I am feeling better, I will be online and ping you."

Manager: "No, it's alright. Please take a rest and feel better. We will take care of it tomorrow."

Arjun opens his notepad, brings his tea from the kitchen, and sits down on the sofa.

"I will have to change the task alignment for today," he thinks to himself.

"You need to redo the task alignment for all the coming weeks and months," a voice comes from within him. "This team member is becoming less and less reliable these days with their growing health concerns."

"He is going to get hurt when he knows that his tasks are distributed to other team members," another thought pops up.

"He needs to understand that this is how the corporate world works. Projects can't be stopped when someone is sick or when they leave. This is the harsh but real truth of life." Now there is a dialogue going on in his head.

"That is true on average, but how you deal with an individual situation is in your hands."

"I can't keep a project on hold for them."

"Maybe they don't need that either. Maybe they are mature enough to understand that. But as a human being, they might have some other expectations."

"I will sit with them when they are back to talk about the changes that we need to bring here. I can try to explain why these changes are necessary, how they can even help other team members with taking up the new tasks, and the plan I have in mind for them when their health is stable enough."

Scene-2

The employee is lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling. He just realized that it was the hour at which he usually starts office work, and today he could not do it because he was not well. That's been the case on many occasions recently.

"Shall I apologize to Arjun for missing out on work for so many days recently? I wanted to have a good performance this year at work, keeping in mind the feedback from last year, but my health hasn't been helpful at all. No matter what I try, this is not changing its course. Eventually, I am going to lose all my projects with this team and have difficulty finding new projects."

"Project work is the last thing you should be worried about today, in this moment, and for the next few days. The sole purpose of this break is for you to be able to recover from the health challenges you are facing right now," a voice rises from within him.

"I have made the lives of others difficult by not being present for my work."

"I understand that you would wish this to be different, but this is part of being human. You cannot have complete control over your health. If this had not happened, you would have been a consistent employee. So instead of thinking about what could have been and worrying about your work, focus on yourself for now. You need it the most at this moment."

"I am going to talk with Arjun when I am in better health and apologize to him for making his life difficult and that of others."

"You should talk with him, but instead of apologizing for your health, you can tell him that you wish it had been different and thank him for maintaining his candor during this time and giving you support. Neither of you have much control over how things pan out."

_______________________________________

As a manager to 7 people in my current role, I came across the situation of getting similar message from the teammate about their health. This is never a good situation to be in, especially when you have promised a deliverable or have a deadline looming. On a few occasions, I asked the employee to have a conversation, for me to be able to understand the current status of the task so that I can carry it forward with someone else. My team was always helpful that way.

On 1 occasion, we had a teammate who was getting sick very often for the span of 2-3 months. It was a small team and they were the only one who could perform their tasks. We had to adjust our timelines many a times then. Whenever they returned, they performed their tasks with full composure and we had a successful project, although the timelines kept shifting the clients were understanding as well.

While we spend tremendous amount of time thinking about this or that project, there are very few people who think hard about the people who are working for or with them. People have genuine personal concerns at times and if the employer is able to be supportive in those time, they are more likely to have a long-term relationship with the employee which is always better that filling one role every year or so.

Please share your thoughts. Thanks for reading!