When Teresa Hollingsworth, co-ordinator of community and corporate services at the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority in London, Ont., learned that a colleague had been diagnosed with cancer, she and her co-workers found numerous ways to show their support.

This reaction to illness in the workplace was the polar opposite of what happened to Elsa Torrejon, a fomer leasing agent with Weston Property Management in Toronto. When she told her employers that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and would have to take some time off, she was fired. The provincial Human Rights Tribunal found Weston Property guilty of discrimination and wrongful termination, awarding Ms. Torrejon $22,000 for damages and lost wages.

Dealing with employees who face severe medical issues or other personal problems is a challenge for any company. For smaller businesses especially – ones that often can’t afford to offer long-term disability leave – doing the right thing may be even harder to figure out.

“Companies are often very fearful of addressing the situation of a person who is going through a difficult time,” said Sally Maitlis, associate professor at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business. “It becomes the elephant in the room. People tend to stay clear of them, and talk about them instead of talking to them.”

Sick and disabled workers are protected under Canada’s human rights legislation, which requires employers to accommodate them “up to the point of undue hardship.” This refers to an employer’s capacity to accommodate without an unreasonable amount of difficulty, and is always determined on a case-by-case basis.

For Dr. Maitlis, however, who is a member of a North America-wide network of business professors called the Compassion Lab, fostering empathy in the workplace can offer a better guideline to dealing with an ill employee. And employees “don’t have to be suffering to benefit from caring and empathy in an organization,” she said.

Just having a manager or employer show concern – not about a sick employee’s performance, but about him or her as a person – can make a big difference, she said.

Studies have also shown that small, supportive gestures – a gift card to help out with extra expenses, flexible hours, working from home or sharing the workload with others – matter most, she said.

“And these gestures are not at odds with being a productive and efficient organization,” she added. “They’re actually incredibly consistent with that. You’re trying to step in now so that they can recover more quickly and get back to full capacity.”

Read full article here: The Globe and Mail

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