Love @PillPopcast, a podcast about chronic illness co-produced by @wheelercentre, and this episode about the complex issues chronically ill people face while trying to attain / hold down / navigate employment + work was so real with so many resonant lines ! Ty @Jacinta_Parsons <3 https://twitter.com/wheelercentre/status/1285147671330582530

“We need to change how we think about work. Workplaces need to not just sound like they are helping or wanting to be flexible, but actually thinking fundamentally about how they can be more agile when it comes to ensuring people w chronic illness can be included in workplaces.”

“I would push through work, then lie in bed for 2 days. I felt such a compulsion to keep up with everyone else. I didn't want to get left behind because I wanted a career. I didn't want illness to be my identity. I wanted the things I had missed out on for a really long time."

“There's an expectation around utility as opposed to humanity. We miss efficiency. We miss a lot of things when we think about it like that. We need to change (the way we think about work) but I don't know how that will happen.”

"Everything I do now is a result of my illness. Before I got really sick I was on a completely different path. I got so sick and I lost everything – I couldn't pay rent, I couldn't hold a job. I was forced to reevaluate my entire life."

"An interesting discrimination was very well-intended colleagues or bosses, wanting to minimise the amount of work that I did, for fear that it would make me unwell – because I was unwell at the time. I felt like I lost my autonomy to make those choices myself.” (!!!)

"I think 'chronic' is one of the hardest concepts to understand. (..) You go through all the different iterations and experiences of (your illness) and each time you go... oh my goodness, this thing is actually not going to go away."