| white.lynx 2005-03-23, 5:35 pm |
| The following two points summarise why I found it an easy decision to make
as to when it was time to quit working
Basically my self-imposed guidelines were
1) am I proud of the job I am doing compared to my peers -- for a while my
experience gave me an advantage, but as my symptoms affected me more and
more, the experience could not make up for all differences
2) would my employer be better off using my salary to get someone else who
could do as good or better than I could
I was fortunate enough to have a good disability insurance and benefits so
that finances were not a significant or necessary part of my decision making
process.
*****
the following is the full response I made to someone else's question a while
ago -- most people on this newsgroup would have seen it already
My first career was for 10 years with the provincial government as a
conservation officer in various locations including the far north of British
Columbia near the Yukon border. At that point I was still single and in
good health.
At the time of diagnosis I was married and working as the Canada Customs
superintendent in Prince Rupert. I was no longer able to climb up the
gangway to board freighters at anchor in choppy seas if my staff wanted a
superintendent on-site to help decide whether or not to seize the ship or
whether or not to pursue other serious enforcement options.
Because Vancouver had many more career opportunities, I moved to Vancouver
and worked in our IT section for a couple years. I saw the writing on the
wall because I reached a point where I no longer wanted the stress and
mandatory overtime required in the information technology section.
I could also see that I was having some mild cognitive effects that affected
my short-term memory and concentration. My hands started to be a problem
regarding the connection of cables, using screwdrivers, etc
I applied for a position as a compliance verification officer with the
international trade section of Customs. This was an ideal job for a person
with MS. Quality was everything, not quantity. Unfortunately for others, it
requires a lot of knowledge combined with field experience and a lot of
specialized in house training.
I could respond to clients and their representatives such as Customs brokers
on a day of my choosing. I tried to use a fax for everything so there would
be written trail of communication which was clear to the client (they liked
it because they could deal with my fax when it suited them) and did not
require me to access my memory with no notice by telephone call or to recall
specific facts if the review was forwarded to our investigations division.
At that time e-mail was not considered secure enough and was not as widely
used.
Part of the job was to make binding national rulings on tariff
classification and determinations on qualification for various trade
agreements such as NAFTA. Because these decisions could be appealed, it was
important to do a lot of research and homework.
For most of my career I took correspondence courses (first public
administration, then computer-based management systems by correspondence
through the university of Victoria). I took two thirds of this prior to my
first MS symptoms.
As it turned out, I was very fortunate to have 15 years field experience in
Customs field operations plus a self-motivated education which was to a
large degree subsidized by my employer.
Eventually I transferred to our targeting section (basically intelligence
specializing in commercial importations) in a unit which took advantage of
my education and experience.
This position let me do searches at my own pace amongst millions of records
in the mainframe database which I would import into various programs on my
PC.
The part I enjoyed the most about this job was that I got to download and
analyze data from millions of records in the mainframe, check international
shipping activities (Lloyd's of London, etc), background checks using
commercial sources such as Dun & Bradstreet, Registrars of Companies, etc as
well as Law enforcement databases etc. I especially like that just about
everything could be done on my schedule depending upon what kind of a MS day
I was having.
I got to get together with representatives from our uniformed Customs
officers at various locations ranging from our regional office to the
Customs border ports about once a month.
When I was the Customs superintendent responsible for northwestern British
Columbia I used to tell my bosses that we could talk all we wanted, but the
staff would believe that we value them when we were willing to spend money.
They paid for my relocation to Vancouver including a househunting trip, real
estate commissions, GST of my new condo that we bought and professional
moving. From time I requested a transfer, it was only a few months before
they found in a temporary position in Vancouver before they decided our
information technology section, which was just being established and staffed
with people on loan from other sections would be a logical fit for me and
them.
I was really impressed when they spent over $1,000 on an occupational
consulting firm specifically to deal with my situation. They then spent
more than $10,000 to implement their recommendations.
I mention this primarily to indicate that some employers will make
appropriate accommodations -- I think they would have done this for any
permanent employee with a satisfactory work performance and who had the
background to work in our regional office.
They combined two workstations into one so I could use my power wheelchair
easily and reach all the file cabinets which were raised higher off of floor
so I could reach everything when seated in my wheelchair. They modified one
of the stalls in the washroom and replace the existing hallway door on that
floor with an automated door with built-in security measures. They bought
me a 21 inch high-resolution Sony computer monitor (flat screens were very
rare and 15 inch was considered a large CRT monitor that time with only a
couple 17 inch monitors in the entire regional office. What they bought was
definitely high-end at that time)
This larger workstation allowed me to mentor some of the long service
employees in the international trade section by having them come to my
workstation on the same floor and getting them bring some of their current
work with them and showing them how they could download a lot of the data
from the mainframe and then put import it into Excel. They would be amazed
at what they could do in a couple hours when they used to spend two or three
weeks to accomplish the same result.
The large-screen monitor, combined with a large work surface that I could
could drive my power wheelchair under, worked out very well allowing them to
sit beside me yet I was able to make them use the keyboard. This was very
important because a lot of these people were intimidated by regular
classroom computer training or some young impatient techie trying to assist
them at their workstations. These long service employees did not want to
show their ignorance and could not keep up and because they were not
actually on the keyboard they would not remember what they were just shown.
Prior to computerization, they were the ones everyone came for advice and
opinions.
For the most part no one would see what we were doing which allowed them to
relax, and because I was their age or almost their age and knew the business
end of their job, they paid attention to me.
I found it very gratifying to be visiting around the floor and see them
teaching others something new that we had covered in the last week or two.
You could see their self-confidence go up and them really enjoying the
respect they got from their coworkers when they were able to help them with
real work and make it easier.
A couple issues that this raises is
1) thoughts about your (Jamie's) situation
2) when is the right time to go on disability if you are entitled to
disability insurance -- not applicable to you at this point but others may
find it is of interest
3) employment equity legislation in Canada and how it may be of interest to
you
It sounds like you would be wise to try to get employment in a larger
organization like big business or various governments.
First you have to pass the test before you can worry about step 2 with the
municipal government. I certainly wish you luck.
You may wish to consider either provincial or federal government border some
industry regulated federally which has to comply with employment equity
legislation. Banks, airlines, via Rail, port authorities, airports etc.
While I am not overly impressed with what I have heard careerwise with
working at branch offices of banks, I have been led to believe that they are
actively recruiting staff in order to meet employment equity guidelines for
people with disabilities. I definitely would try to work in a regional or
national Center as opposed to the branch level.
The approach I would take any of these, either private or public sector,
would be that your current layoff situation provides you with an ideal
opportunity to try a new challenge. You would prefer something that does
not require long hours or lots of overtime. You already have had lots of
experience dealing people (including very stressed individuals by the time
that they call) While you are open-minded, you would prefer a
behind-the-scenes position where you can utilize your computer skills.
For a change, you would like to do something where you create results rather
than just helping other people get results. You would prefer something that
you did not have to keep up-to-date on on a daily basis like the computer
industry, but rather could take a breather while still allowing time to
learn new skills.
Revealing that you have a disability could actually work in your favor if
there is a place on applications form to voluntarily disclosed it. Of
course, in that case it would be reasonable if they ask, to say that you
have MS. If they do, I would not dwell on cognitive symptoms, but rather
say what accommodations they could make that would be of benefit to you for
example not having to do a lot of walking, having a work location near
restrooms, working regular hours without the need to time for overtime,
working in an air-conditioned environment etc.
With these large organizations or government, you should not need to worry
about your MS being a concern regarding group benefits such as health plans
or disability insurance. By letting them know, (it is not a secret although
you may wish to keep it private) they can help you or make reasonable
accommodations which they cannot do if they do not know. You also do not
need to worry about it coming back sometime in the future to haunt you
because you have been honest from the beginning.
Employment equity legislation in Canada only applies to federally regulated
industries and federal government. There are no penalties to make federal
departments comply, but a senior managers are definitely aware of it and it
is considered when their performance is being evaluated. Private, but
regulated, companies can be penalized for not meeting targets. It is not
like human rights cases where individual settlements can be ordered on a
case-by-case basis. It is more to deal with a corporate mission and
goals,than it is to deal with an individual's rights.
The company is under obligations to make reasonable accommodations for
people with a disability. Reasonable will depend on every circumstance and
be different in every case. A work location with only a couple employees
cannot be as flexible as one with a hundred people doing a similarly or the
same job at that location.
In the past, several discussions have been held in this newsgroup about when
it is the right time to go on disability. For some people this will be a
financial decision and another cases it will not be so much matter and
matter of choice as it will be obvious.
Just in case anyone is curious how it works -- In my case (Canadian federal
government), the rules are you qualified for short-term disability (two
years) if you could not perform the duties of your current position. In
order to qualify for long-term disability you have to be unable to perform
the duties of any job that pays 2/3 of the salary when you went on
disability. Basically they will insist you apply for Canada pension plan
disability insurance which requires that be unable to do any work. If you
do not qualify for CPP, it does not matter financially to you until you
reach 65 years of age.
Every pension plan and every disability insurance plan are likely to be
different. It is really important to check the details in advance to avoid
future surprises.
In my case, I get 70 percent of what I used to make (once that amount is
determined, it is indexed to the cost of living to a maximum of three
percent a year). In my case, I get funds from three different sources --
and early retirement (27 years x 2 x my average wage for my last six years),
my Canadian pension plan disability benefit and then the disability
insurance tops it up to 70 percent until I reach age 65.
From the very beginning, I decided to do work for as long as I felt
comfortable doing so, but to then go for long-term disability and early
retirement as soon as I qualified to minimize stress and have some finality.
I found it an extremely easy decision to reach. Basically my self-imposed
guidelines were
1) am I proud of the job I am doing compared to my peers -- for a while my
experience gave me an advantage, but as my symptoms affected me more and
more, the experience could not make up for all differences
2) would my employer be better off using my salary to get someone else who
could do as good or better than I could
It was actually pretty easy to come to that determination and it was not a
matter of gray as much as black-and-white for me. I recognize that
everybody is different in has to make their own decisions. I also realize
that financial and economic circumstances may strongly influence that
decisionmaking.
If you have a disability insurance plan, I think that the two points I make
above are valid for everyone and, in my case, are morally and ethically the
right thing for me to do. You would be surprised at how much 70 percent of
your current pay is if it is not having pensions, unemployment insurance and
Union dues etc deducted from it
Just a few things to consider and of course it depends whether that person
is looking for new employment, or already employed and near the end of their
career
Hopefully some people from this will be interesting.and will put it in the
context of their situation
Good luck to everyone in their own situation
--
Larry
Rather than building character, adversity tends to reveal it
written using voice recognition software
--
Larry
Rather than building character, adversity tends to reveal it
written using voice recognition software
..
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