Please think twice before you fire, lay-off, downsize, reduce hours or penalize a person you employ battling cancer without first considering anything else they may be able to do to continue contributing to your success.
There are approximately 17-million Americans currently trying to manage and overcome the emotions and pain associated with a diagnosis of CANCER. They represent a large and productive percentage of the workforce, and often some of the most hardworking, honest, capable, loyal, and intelligent employees who appreciate the value of a job and hard work. They didn’t ask to get cancer, and there is no way for them to have prepared for it. They are trying hard to maintain some sort of “normal” in their life. For many, work is exactly that constant, and they desperately need you to understand and be patient. For most the loss of a job escalates the uncertainty, fear and puts in motion a financial situation that is impossible to recover from.
Business owners are very special people – We fully recognize that as a business owner, whether you are the CEO of a fortune 500 company, an owner of a small service company, or a retailer on Main Street trying to keep the doors open, it is a hard thing and we honor you for the courage it took to start your business in the first place. As a business owner you bear an extraordinary level of uncertainty and are ultimately responsible for the economic lives of those you employ. Recognizing the sensitive reality of the US healthcare system and mandates also add an additional stress and cost to your business. Often on paper, cost increases, especially for insurance coverage, appear to be the right thing to do. That being said, we encourage you to sit across from your employee diagnosed with cancer and look into their eyes with compassion. See them, not as a number but as a valuable part of your team; don’t react to their situation by first worrying about a premium increase and using that narrow view to drive your decisions. Cancer affects all of us, and someday that could be you or someone you love facing cancer just like your employee is.
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