“People have seen that my hair has grown and everyone expects you to be the same as before, not to be physically tired or to have mental consequences. Totally, you are alive. This is what bothers me the most, that there is no option in the system for a gradual return to work. »
This is how María Mejía, a breast cancer patient undergoing hormonal treatment, sums up what has been her biggest frustration lately: wanting to return to work with a certain normality – she works as a speech therapist – and not being able to do so because of the consequences of the medications she is still taking and the previous therapies he has undergone over the last year and a half. Five months after his last operation, he works four hours a week at the clinic where he previously worked twenty hours a week while maintaining his salary. Her partner takes her and brings her back in the car, she tolerates the pulling but when she comes home several days she has to lie down.
This is not an exception. It is common for patients to request this gradual return if they are able to return to work. The first barometer of cancer and work in Spain, carried out by the Catalan Federation of Cancer Entities (FECEC) after questioning 2,000 people – 12% of whom had the disease – reveals that more than half of patients are going through an oncological process. and I’m going back to work little by little. Among the 44% who immediately rejoined the group, the majority (52%) wished it were different.
Economic pressure plays a role in decisions, the study confirms: people who decide to continue working do so for “self-esteem problems”, for “a feeling of normality”, but also “for reasons economic”. Losing part of your salary by returning to part-time is a source of concern.
The results are published in the middle of a debate on the flexible sick leave proposal allowing partial work, put forward by the Minister of Social Security, Elma Saiz, a week ago. The announcement aroused contradictory opinions within the government itself: Labor rejected it head-on while Health considers that it can be useful in certain situations, such as oncological processes. The Spanish Association Against Cancer, for now, remains cautious until the idea is a little more concrete: it is a subject on which it has already worked but “we must find the best way to do it TO DO”. The ministry’s first meeting with social agents and employers is scheduled for next Monday.
“This flexibility must be matured so that the rights of the patient are respected. This cannot become a double-edged sword to put pressure on the worker or modify the recommended care to restore their health,” says Pilar Rodríguez Ledo, family doctor and president of the Spanish Society of General and Family Physicians (SEMG) . The doctor affirms, in view of the upcoming negotiations, that doctors should participate as a simple actor among others in the months of dialogue if, at some point, a reform of temporary incapacity is proposed.
This flexibility must be matured so that the rights of the sick person are respected. This cannot become a double-edged sword to put pressure on the worker or modify the recommended rest to restore his health.
Pilar Rodríguez Ledo, president of Semergen
Work is a lifeline for many people who are going through an oncological process because they interpret it as “a return to normal life and it is part of the overall approach to the patient,” explains César Rodríguez, president of the Society Spanish Medical Oncology (SEOM). “It is common for patients to register and cancel again, being absent for periods, to keep their job because it is an escape in that there are things they can do,” also emphasizes Rodriguez Ledo.
Noemí García decided to continue working as a secretary in a multinational because she wanted her routine to change “as little as possible” with the illness. “I knew that the first few days after chemo I basically couldn’t get out of bed, but when I felt better I would turn on the computer. It helped me to feel useful, to keep my mind focused on something other than cancer and to avoid the feeling that my life was falling into a million pieces,” says this 49-year-old woman diagnosed with triple-negative metastatic cancer. in June 2021 and currently in remission. Since then, she has negotiated with her company to telework 100% and still does not feel ready to return to the office. “For the moment, I cannot accept an avalanche of affection and questions and they allowed me to, but I know colleagues whose companies behaved fairly,” she justifies.
It is common for the return to work process to be surrounded by a feeling of anxiety and frustration, because “we live in an all or nothing system”. “In general, the system’s delays are not adapted to oncological processes. There is rigidity in periods of sick leave. If you have not returned to work after 18 months, you become permanently disabled – it is no longer your family doctor but the INSS (National Institute of Social Security) which dismisses and fires you – and it is a kind of threat for patients because some treatments last more than a year, even if cure is achieved,” expands Rodríguez.
Mejía remained in limbo because on the day of his last intervention, in April 2024, the INSS released him. “Cancer is not just about chemo. I have a bad lung, the in vitro came loose from my eye because of the chemo and that doesn’t count. Nobody talks about it chemobrainas you become blank with words, you lose the ability to pay attention and you slow down with everything. How can you fit into a 40-hour-a-week work life when your brain can’t? Since you are alive, the mandate is to throw away Go on As best you can, get back into the system because there is no other choice,” he analyzes.
He post-cancer “It is a period that opens many fronts and is invisible,” laments psychoconologist Álvaro Golvano. “There are many difficulties in returning to work and in daily life in general. Since you have overcome the disease, it seems that everything should be very easy and this is usually not the case,” explains this specialist who works for the Spanish Group of Cancer Patients (GEPAC). “Often it is a significant source of discomfort, both due to not being prepared and not being able to proceed with progressive reintegration, these are not only physical but also psychological consequences,” confirms -he.
We live in an all or nothing system. System delays are not adapted to oncological processes
César Rodríguez, president of SEOM
The Catalan barometer confirms that the majority of workers (two out of three, whether or not they have had cancer) believe that a protocol is relevant in companies to manage the impact of illness at work, but only 14% know that there are plans. . specific. Seven out of ten patients surveyed made changes to their work upon their return, such as combining teleworking with in-person work, a gradual return to work or working fewer hours.
Support for patients in the workplace “needs to be thoroughly reviewed”, says a group of women with breast cancer who have called for rallies next Saturday in several Spanish cities to say that “cancer is not not pink.” “Allow progressive and gradual integration into professional life, regulate the possibility of having flexible hours and easy access to teleworking when the position allows it, that there be a modality of reductions for sick leave which does not do not cover the entire working day or which extend. casuistry should not be limited exclusively to whether a patient is on or off” are some of the claims aimed at showing that cancer “is not a bad year” but a chronic illness “whose consequences affect all the life”.
Due to illness, two in three people (66%) feel more vulnerable at work; 51% have physical problems and 52% have emotional problems, although the majority return to the same job. Only a minority takes a break or leaves the company, according to the barometer results.
