Should I Tell My Co-Workers About My Breast Cancer Diagnosis?

Career counselors advise treading lightly when disclosing your health history.

By Elaine K. Howley, Contributor |Dec. 26, 2017, at 11:06 a.m.

hen she was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in 2003, Kathy Flora was at the top of her game professionally. The human resources pro and career counselor was living in New Hampshire and leading a team of 100 other career counselors for a nationwide HR company and juggling lots of initiatives. Her travel schedule was grueling, but her career was thriving. When she went in for a follow-up ultrasound to a routine mammogram, she told the radiologist, "Look, if this is cancer, I don't have time for it." She was so engrossed in her work, she says "I could only think about what [a cancer diagnosis] would mean for my career."

But it was cancer, and in short order, Flora had to make a series of decisions about to whom she would disclose her diagnosis and just how much information she would volunteer about her situation and the accommodations she might need to keep working through the impending surgery, chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

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