Group diverse of people with disabilities work together in office. Disabled different people stand ... [+]
The Office of National Statistics reported a rise of half a million people now considered “economically inactive” in the UK from 2 million in the spring of 2019 to 2.5 million in the summer 2022. Worryingly, the largest jump is with relatively young people, aged 25 to 34, a jump of 42%. Among this age group, the largest increase was for mental illness and distress as well as progressive illnesses such as cancer. However, overall, “other health problems or disabilities” are the largest single rise at 41%; compared with a 31% rise in muscular skeletal disorders, a 22% rise in mental illness and nervous disorders and a stable rate of depression, anxiety and progressive illnesses. The report indicates that while covid and increased health care waiting times caused by covid can explain some of this difference, the trend started in 2019 before the pandemic. What is going on?
Health Care Waiting Times
One consideration made in the report was the increasing NHS waiting times for diagnosis and effective treatment which was worsening before the pandemic and has grown significantly since the start. Without diagnosis and treatment, many people fall out of work and become unable to manage. Fatigue and pain, from whatever source, pose significant compromises to performance at work and social engagement in daily activities. This issue is not limited to the UK, health care providers worldwide are struggling with backlogs and late diagnoses because of the pandemic.
The Aging Workforce
We’ve known for some time that an aging workforce will coincide with a more disabled workforce. Many businesses are planning for and getting ahead of this trend, as seen with membership of organizations such as the Business Disability Forum and the Valuable 500. The late forties to early sixties are the most common age for acquiring a disability, this is more likely if you are marginalised by poverty or race. As our society drops in wealth per capita, so does our health. Acquiring a disability just as you reach your peak career earning potential is devastating for long term finances, self-esteem but also represents a significant risk to businesses. We’re spending decades developing expertise and industry knowledge and then losing all that career capital because of poor health.
Covid
The “other health problems or disabilities” growth includes many conditions such as chronic fatigue syndrome, Ehler’s Danloss syndrome, Crohn’s disease, heart and lung conditions as well as long covid. They create difficulties for workplace performance such as the dreaded “brain fog.” But what is brain fog? What’s happening psychologically is a compromise to “working memory”, which is the cognitive skill that allows us to hold details in our short-term memory while we work with it. For example, mental maths or working out which order to approach a number of tasks. Working memory is affected by tiredness, pain, dehydration, hunger thereby incorporating many long-term conditions and disabilities. Covid and the combination of social isolation and social media saturation have been responsible for a high spike in anxiety as well.
Three Things Employers Can Do Right Now
1. Support healthy living in your workplace. The Occupational Medicine Journal reported this week that cardiovascular fitness is not just a good preventative for long term health conditions but has a direct relationship with absence and productivity at work. Whatever you can do to encourage your colleagues to move more is going to help.
2. You need to prepare for a disabled workforce. As our society ages, this problem is going to get worse, not better. You might want to start fundamentally rethinking job design and making better provision for part timers.
3. Start building disability support and accommodation into your everyday practice. Make it accessible and easy for employees to start conversations. Don’t let them “just leave” for the want of a flexible hours / location agreement, reduced hours or a more comfortable work station. These small adjustments are easy to implement, but people need to know they are on offer.
I once met a man with arthritis so chronic that the swollen joints in his hands were sawing his ligaments every time he moved. It was excruciating. He wasn’t working because as a youth worker, he needed to type up records and reports for young people and typing simply wasn’t feasible for him. No one had ever shown him how effective speech to text software can be for writing. It is possible to accommodate disability in the workplace. There are a plethora of support services, such as Access to Work in the UK, to help you navigate the need for technology, tools and coaching to help with the transition. Employers who snooze on this growing human resource imperative will be losers in the long term as talent is squandered for the want of a tech training session.
