It's a Fact: People with Cystic Fibrosis Need More Job Opportunities

Current research on cystic fibrosis views CF as a long-term medical condition of childhood, falsely portraying the condition as one where children with CF rarely transition into adulthood. Regardless of the fact that nowadays people with CF are gradually living longer than ever before, there still remains little evidence into the employment rates and employment opportunities of adults with CF.

Cystic fibrosis and the workplace

A few studies have found CF to lead to employment problems due to several factors. One particular study, conducted back in 2014, involved the participation of 254 subjects, of which 65% were self-employed/employed or in school. The study found that over 40% of the subjects had reported to stopping working due to CF, 47% felt CF affected their career choice, and 24% changed tasks and responsibilities due to CF. In addition, 10% reported to having received cuts in their pay and 23% reported discrimination in the workplace due to CF. This particular study, along with findings from several others, show the impact that CF can have on an adult’s ability to work.

For a majority of people with CF, an ‘invisible illness’ can only remain invisible for so long. It is especially problematic when it comes to professional life. In the United States, people are protected by equal employment opportunity laws and a few rights relating to medical privacy. However, for those people with CF who transitioned into adulthood, such laws seem rather flimsy. Interviews can be quite difficult to power through when employers ask questions about gaps in resumes – especially when they are due to bad health periods associated with CF. Either the person needs to be upfront about their health or be dishonest and avoid revealing their disease.

Difficulty job-hunting

Brad Dell is a deaf 24-year old living with cystic fibrosis. He is a writer for Cystic Fibrosis News Today and editor committed to spreading awareness on CF and organ donation. Throughout his life, Brad has experienced difficulties while job hunting due to his condition, as is the case for several others in his shoes. “I’ve been rejected from multiple curricular, extra-curricular and employment opportunities because of my disease. I’m not implying every rejection has been because of my disease — the majority of rejections have been because of non-CF-related reasons. But some potential employers in my past were frank about telling me my CF was a cause for major reservations. I probably should have stood up to those people, even legally in some cases. But I was never a confrontational person. Now, though, I realize I would have been taking a stand for all disabled and chronically ill people, not just myself,” he wrote.

Unfortunately, for a number of employers, the moment they hear illness, it becomes associated with negative health connotations such as sick leave, burden, reduced productivity, or lawsuits for mistreatment. For many other people like Brad who are coping with a long-term medical condition, the desire for employers to recognize relentlessness in the face of CF is high. “I wish they’d see us meeting deadlines with high-quality work while in the ICU. I wish they’d know we are battling multiple infections while interviewing and not breaking a sweat or tremoring a muscle. I wish they’d know how many of us have self-taught advanced microbiology and chemistry to understand our disease and pharmaceuticals. I wish they’d know many of us could turn a dreary situation into one of full of opportunities. I wish they’d know how hard we worked to get where we are. Many people have told us we can’t, and so we did,” wrote Brad. 

Read on to learn more about CF and job opportunity.