What You Don’t See Could be Causing you to Lose Employees

Supporting Staff with Invisible Disabilities

I remember the first time a colleague referred to me as having an invisible disability. She was one of those people who always had incredible insight and showed deep wisdom. My first thought when she commiserated with me using this novel language “invisible disability” was how dramatic it sounded. I’m not disabled. I don’t need a wheelchair or hearing aids, and I don’t have a placard that allows me to park in the spaces usually nearest buildings.

Fast forward six years to today. In the meantime, not only have I come to terms with the language and label of having an invisible disability, I have found it to be a means of expressing something I struggled to articulate before as well as a validation of my experience.

I have lived in chronic physical pain since my early teenage years. A few years ago, I was diagnosed with an additional invisible disability, this one cognitive. I went through the same stages of acceptance as I had a few years before when I first heard the term, invisible disability. I was in disbelief at such a “strong” label, then upon reflection, and research found it to corroborate what I had been struggling my whole life to express.

When most people meet me, they see a healthy woman in her early 30s. How do I know what they see? While they don’t say it directly, I know it because of the things they allude to by what they do say. As an example, more mature adults will warn me of the pain that will befall me when I am their age, never guessing that I have been in chronic pain over half of my life. Or when I am silent in a meeting, people assume it’s because of shyness and not because of past trauma which has resulted in me being easily triggered in meetings of more than a couple people. They don’t see the pain, so they don’t know it’s there.

So, I am left with the question, “what do I do about my invisible disabilities at work?” Can I bring this up in a professional way in a workplace without making others feel uncomfortable or should I just wait and hope they don’t flare up so I don’t make anyone else uneasy?

Responding to invisible disabilities is tough, not least because they are invisible. Often co-workers only know of them because they have flared up, require the use of specific accommodations to complete their role, or resulted in the need to take time off. While not an exhaustive list, based on my journey so far, here are a few things employers can do to create spaces for their staff with invisible disabilities to not only be comfortable, but to reach their full potential.

Develop an inclusive culture

One of the best ways you can support your colleagues with invisible disabilities is by creating a culture of inclusion. A culture of inclusion normalizes and at the same time appreciates physical and cognitive differences. It is a space where individuals with invisible disabilities are more likely to share their unique way of experiencing the world, which allows for proactive (instead of its less effective counterpart, reactive) support. In addition, an inclusive culture gives your employees space and permission to accept and appreciate themselves and their abilities, which will not only increase their performance, but will also foster loyalty to you and your organization.

Have inclusively-created policies in place that take into account invisible disabilities

Don’t wait for your first employee with an invisible disability to come to you in rough shape to create policies related to invisible disabilities. Not having structures in place to address your employees concerns and needs isn’t just an oversight, it’s something that will negatively impact the experience of your employees, decreasing your productivity, reputation and can have rippling and unforeseen negative impacts on your company.

Your organization likely has policies related to disabilities, but are they inclusive and applicable to individuals with invisible disabilities? Was the creation of these policies a team effort or was it simply a handful, or in some cases only one person drafting your employee guidelines? Taking the step to go beyond what is legally required and ensuring your policies are inclusive will make a big difference when an employee comes to you with concerns or requests accommodations. Though it may feel like creating policies that are inclusive would result in more work, in many cases it will actually have the opposite effect. When done effectively, allowing employees to be part of the process creates buy-in which mitigates and, in some cases, prevents potential issues.

Trust that your staff with invisible disabilities know their own needs

Individuals with invisible disabilities live their reality 24/7. We know what we need to function, sometimes better than medical professionals. One of the best experiences I had with an employer, when one of my invisible disabilities flared up, was them giving me the space to do what I needed to do in order to continue to work. They didn’t require me to jump through any unnecessary hoops or make a big deal of the special chair I required to mitigate the grueling pain I was feeling. They simply let me bring it in, use it when I needed it, and trusted me to let them know if I required anything else.

Conversely, my next employer, when faced with the same situation was more worried about optics and following unnecessarily cumbersome protocols than caring about me and addressing my needs. They dictated where I could use this relief-giving chair and even went as far as saying it would be easier for them if I were in a wheelchair (something which ironically would have resulted in me having the same pain level as a standard office chair). Trusting that I knew what I needed would have saved everyone in the situation angst and increased the chances of me staying on the team.

Individuals with invisible disabilities have incredible capacity. We go through the world with secret struggles inside of us; yet we are constantly expected to exist as if we don’t. The strength, awareness, creativity, and compassion created by existing in this reality is an asset to any team that has the forethought and business sense to create the inclusive space necessary to allow it to come forth. Don’t diminish your employees’, and ultimately organizations, potential by creating unnecessary bureaucracy and additional hardship on them. Instead, by creating an inclusive environment, you can give them, as well as the rest of your team, the opportunity to flourish.