Telling your colleagues...

Hi, sorry to hear about your diagnosis, I decided to work until a few days before my surgery to try and keep myself busy, but my managers knew so they could plan for me being off. They were very supportive. Like you I told a few close colleagues also.

On my last day I sent an email to others telling them I had been diagnosed with BC & I would be off having treatment. This helped me control the message & amount of information others were going to receive. What people did with that in terms of gossip was up to them.

Try not to worry what others will think or the gossips, in my opinion you need to focus on yourself & what lies ahead. 

Hopefully your treatment plan will start soon as waiting is the worst !

Best wishes x

I damage controlled.  I worked for a month after my diagnosis but fitting in all those scans was tricky and my cancer was quite advanced (it was missed first time round ️) so I was incredibly tired and struggling.  I wrote a memo outlining what I wanted people to know and my boss sent it with his additions of support and appreciation and how much I’d be missed. We set up a separate email address to update those who wanted to keep in contact/offer help but made it clear that we didn’t want to be contacted except through that email address.  That means they all know the same and we don’t have to answer individual enquiries or worry that we’ve told one person more than another.  We keep it very factual. It was useful when my treatment plan changed suddenly to include 4 months of chemo. I don’t mind who knows I’m not well but I don’t want to have to answer lots of questions. 

I've limited it so that way I don't need to answer any questions.  If anyone asks about my time off I say I've had a small op.  I want my treatment to be over before having to discuss it more widely.

I had told just my boss and 3 colleagues in office why I was off after biopsy.  When I had the news a week later I told my work friend first and she told other 2.   Then told my boss and gave him permission to tell the office,  I've worked in offices long enough to know if you share information with whole room it actually reduces gossip and misinformation.  I knew he'd email it and be short in his email.  A few friends in other departments I didn't want to find out through gossip I text them. If I hadn't done this they would have spent hours at kettle speculating why I was off.  I took 5 months off . 

Hi, I worked pretty much throughout treatment and my surgery (with time off) was later. I took the approach to tell my colleagues from the start and told them I was open about anyone knowing. Not only did this remove any speculation but it meant I got a huge amount of support. I appreciate this won't work for everyone, but it certainly was the right approach for me.  Best wishes