No Room for Cancer in Corporate

This isn’t a sad story about cancer — it’s the opposite.

At 37 I was diagnosed with cancer (dammit, I was JUST promoted).

I had also recently gotten married, exactly one year prior.

In fact, since it was still during the pandemic and we weren’t doing too well financially, we waited about a year to go on our honeymoon. One week later, my doctor rang the alarm when I went to check about the weird ‘cyst’ I found.

I’m grateful to be on the other side and feel like I’ve grown to be a much stronger person because of my journey. Chemotherapy, surgery and radiation. Since I’m under 40, doctors felt I can take the treatment better, so I became their guinea pig and willingly took everything they gave me. Chemotherapy was harder than the norm; radiation too. I was somehow granted “5 bonus rounds!” without ever having signed up to do so. Adjuvant chemotherapy treatments, introduced into my system every other week.

My biggest mistake? Going back to work in a corporate environment only 4 months after the end of treatment. I should have taken the time that I deserved for recovery. In fact, I had EI set up specifically to do just that. I’m still undergoing scans every 6 months in case of recurrence, am I even recovered? Do you ever truly and fully recover from cancer?

Bad idea.

You can scream ‘DEI’ and ‘Accessibility’ in our faces all you want, corporate world, but at the end of the day, how much of it is red tape lingo that isn’t actually taken into practice in the office? It’s the new ‘’Going Green!”

The short and long-term effects from cancer treatment aren’t very well-researched in the science and medical worlds. Partly because there’s more focus on the cancer itself. We’re at a time in human history where 1 in 2 people are affected by cancer in their lifetime. 100% of us have had some experience with someone in our life who has also taken the journey.

I applied to an entry-level position in sales at a very large media company. The logic being that I’m familiar with the work, the position and the industry although the salary-range indicated that this would be an easier job than the previous one I held before diagnosis (this one was about $5-10k under industry minimum standards). Psychologically, I needed the sense of normalcy and routine that comes with work. I needed the mundane day-to-day, and to focus on some dipshit software that’s deemed to be the be-all-end-all for corporate management. I needed to not think about my own mortality.

However, I learned that the corporate world is definitely not well-equipped to provide the proper support for their employees, physically or psychologically. I’m afraid that the introduction to AI will only make this problem grow. At the same time, there’s an increase in companies boasting about their accessibility and diverse cultures, but it’s all smoke and mirrors.

Why was the pace of training for me at the same level as everyone else? Why isn’t it understood that I will require more time for training and that I will be needing longer support than most new employees?

You’re expected to perform at full capacity and speed as your healthy coworkers as soon as you’re deemed okay to do so. What is that measurement based on? Am I supposed to be okay because you don’t see my disability clearly in your face, despite discussing it with management on my first day in office?

Where do invisible disabilities fall within your company policy? How can you accommodate me so I can gain my strength while continuing to work for you? You chose to hire me, so shouldn’t you be responsible for my well-being to some capacity? You can be affected by cancer at any minute too, how would you like to be treated when it happens?

I suffered from severe brain fog after treatment, which came with memory loss and bouts of confusion. I felt like my brain was operating at one third of its capacity when I started my new job. But I knew it was temporary and the doctors had told me that I would be ‘’back to normal’’ at any moment. I would eventually catch up. I’m 2 years removed and the brain fog is still there, albeit much less.

You’re expected to have the same level of energy as everyone else. If you don’t engage in their socials because your fatigue has taken up every fibre of your being after an 8-hour shift, you’re not a ‘team player’.

You’re immunocompromised? Who cares, you can handle 3 mandated days in office for a job that can fully be done from home. Take public transit, with all its glory, and your reward is a 1 hour lunch break halfway through your day. Wear a mask if you have to, we don’t care. In fact, it looks good on us if you do so. No exceptions.

Fatigue? What’s that? You can worry about that after your sales rep makes their numbers at the end of the day on their time and at their expected level of urgency. You’re not making any commission on it either. We promote a flexible work environment, but how does that work when you just really need to lie down but your sales rep has a giant list of revisions for you to do and absolutely no patience or time for you in the meantime?

And at the end of a gruelling year when the company hasn’t met its financial goals, what happens? They can slap a ‘’poor performance report’’ on their compromised employee; that will do the trick.

They can slap a 2 week deadline to ‘’improve their work performance’’. Make it sound really personal, about how they’re just not ‘’good enough’’. Don’t specify what areas of improvement they can work on. It’s just all of it. It doesn’t matter if they’ve been skipping lunch or taking half-lunch in order to get it all done. It doesn’t matter that they didn’t take any breaks in between tasks and left work with pounding headaches, almost daily. It doesn’t matter that I tried harder than I had to and for less pay.

So the best decision I’ve made since my biggest mistake? Quitting Corporate.

AI — you can have it.

I’m sticking with human empathy.

I’m taking the time off now that I deserve and when I’m strong enough to go back to work, It will be for an organization that serves its employees and its community.

And for all of you who will be or are affected by medical hurdles in your life now, please know your worth. Don’t let the zombies tell you that you’re not good enough. Take the time off that you deserve to get stronger. Work hard in your life, not for someone else’s paycheck. Take a breath and don’t distract yourself from your personal journey, even if you need the distraction (like I thought I did). The distraction can be focusing on living. Live with the trauma you’ve endured or are enduring. Love yourself enough to tell Corporate where to go.