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Working With a Long-Term Health Condition: What Women Need to Know About Their Rights at Work

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Your Rights, Your Choices, Your Decision


Hello and welcome to this week's WOOT blog. This one is for every woman who manages something significant every single day that most of her colleagues know nothing about. Who has quietly adjusted her schedule, her workload, her social calendar and her entire approach to managing energy around a condition that her workplace has never been asked to accommodate.


It is for the woman with MS who has restructured her mornings without telling anyone why. For the one with chronic fatigue who has calculated, with mathematical precision, how to pace herself through a working week without crossing the threshold that costs her the weekend. For the woman with an anxiety disorder, a chronic pain condition, an autoimmune disease, diabetes, or any one of the dozens of conditions that are invisible to colleagues but ever-present to the person managing them.


It is also a space to think honestly about the question that most women in this situation carry quietly: should I tell them? And if so, how much, when and what for?


The Scale of Women Working With a Long-Term Health Condition in the UK


  • Around 15 million people in the UK live with one or more long-term health conditions. The majority are in employment.

  • Women are more likely than men to live with multiple long-term conditions, and more likely to be managing them whilst also carrying the larger share of caring and domestic responsibilities.

  • Research consistently shows that the energy cost of working with a long-term health condition in a workplace that does not accommodate it is significantly higher than managing the same condition in a supported environment.

  • Many women describe spending a substantial proportion of their cognitive and emotional energy on concealment rather than on their actual work.


Why So Many Women Choose Not to Disclose a Health Condition at Work


The decision not to tell an employer about a health condition is almost always rational, made after a careful assessment of real risks. Those risks include being perceived as unreliable or less capable, being passed over for promotion or high-profile projects, attracting unwanted sympathy or changes in how colleagues relate to you, or simply not trusting that the information will be handled with discretion.


All of those concerns are grounded in real experiences that real women have had. The decision to disclose is not straightforward, and the people who have not done it are not being dishonest or overcautious. They are making a reasonable judgment call in an environment that has not always earned trust on this issue.


The question is not whether you have an obligation to disclose. You do not. The question is whether disclosure would get you something you need that you currently do not have.



Explore More with Women of Our Time


What Women Working With a Long-Term Health Condition Are Legally Entitled to Know


If your condition has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on your ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities, it may qualify as a disability under the Equality Act 2010. You do not need a formal diagnosis or a specific label for this to apply. The test is functional, not medical.


If your condition qualifies, your employer has a legal duty to make reasonable adjustments to ensure you are not substantially disadvantaged compared to colleagues without the condition. You cannot access that duty without some level of disclosure, but you control how much you share and with whom.


From April 2026, statutory sick pay applies from the first day of illness with no waiting period and no earnings threshold. This is particularly relevant for people with fluctuating conditions who may need short periods of absence when symptoms are acute.


What Reasonable Adjustments Can Look Like


The range is wider than many people realise. Reasonable adjustments are individual – they depend on your specific condition, your specific role and what would actually make a difference. Examples include:


  • Amended hours or flexible start and finish times to accommodate medication schedules, fatigue patterns or symptom management routines.

  • The ability to work from home on days when symptoms are more acute, without having to take those as sick days.

  • Access to a private rest space during the working day.

  • Changes to absence management policies that recognise condition-related absences separately from general sickness.

  • Adjusted workload or deadline structures during periods of acute symptoms.

  • Access to occupational health support or an employee assistance programme.


None of these is about doing less. They are about removing the additional barriers that mean a woman with a long-term condition has to work significantly harder than a colleague without one to produce the same output.


Thinking Through the Disclosure Decision


What do you actually need?

Before deciding whether to disclose, get specific about what you are hoping to get from it. If you need a practical adjustment, you may be able to request that through flexible working without explaining the reason. If you need your employer to apply absence management policies differently, you will need to provide some medical context.


Who specifically would you tell?

Disclosure to HR is different from disclosure to your line manager, which is different from a casual conversation with a colleague. Think about who you are disclosing to, what they will do with the information and whether you trust them to handle it appropriately.


What do you want the conversation to achieve?

Going into a disclosure conversation with a clear outcome in mind makes it significantly easier to have. You are not asking for sympathy. You are identifying what you need to do your job effectively.


A Final Word


You are doing something that is not acknowledged nearly enough: showing up, doing your job and managing something significant, largely without recognition for the additional effort that requires. That is not nothing. It is a very considerable something.


Whatever you choose about disclosure, whatever you decide about adjustments, you deserve a working environment that does not make all of this harder than it already is.



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Standing Up for Yourself at Work: FAQs


Q. Do I have to tell a new employer about my health condition when I apply for a job?

A. No. You are not legally obliged to disclose a health condition during a recruitment process. It is unlawful for an employer to ask health questions before making a job offer except in very specific circumstances.

Q. What are my rights if I am working with a long-term health condition in the UK?

A. If your condition has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on your day-to-day activities, it may qualify as a disability under the Equality Act 2010. This gives you the right to request reasonable adjustments. Your employer must have a genuine business reason to refuse. ACAS (acas.org.uk) and the Equality Advisory and Support Service offer free guidance.

Q. I requested a reasonable adjustment and my employer refused. What can I do?

A. Ask for the refusal in writing with specific reasons. If you believe the refusal amounts to disability discrimination, you may have grounds for a grievance or an employment tribunal claim. Seek advice from ACAS or a solicitor before taking formal steps.

Q. How do I manage workplace expectations when my health condition fluctuates?

A. If you have disclosed your condition, a reasonable adjustment might include a flexible policy on deadlines during acute periods. If you have not disclosed, documenting the pattern and its professional impact is a useful starting point for a conversation when you are ready to have it.

Q. Where can I find support for working with a long-term health condition?

A. ACAS (acas.org.uk) provides free advice on disability discrimination and reasonable adjustments. Condition-specific charities such as the MS Society, Arthritis UK and Mind all have workplace resources. And the Womeniverse™ is a community where conversations about managing health alongside work can happen in a genuinely supportive space.


 
 
 

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