首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Suffering in silence Despite a law designed to protect them, many people with disabling conditions are unaware of their righ
Suffering in silence Despite a law designed to protect them, many people with disabling conditions are unaware of their righ
admin
2013-04-25
43
问题
Suffering in silence
Despite a law designed to protect them, many people with disabling conditions are unaware of their rights. Carole Concha-Bell tells of her experiences.
Being diagnosed with a disabling condition is always a shock. Learning to live without the guarantee of health is like having to unlearn a previous life. The implications for your working life may seem intimidating.
There is the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), of course. But does it really provide the protection in the workplace that parliament intended? Are employers merely paying lip service to the DDA? Or are they even aware of an employer’s legal duties and responsibilities?
In my experience, it is the latter. I have received little support from employers to whom I have revealed my condition. This has often left me feeling at a disadvantage and wondering why I bothered doing so in the first place.
I had been struggling with illness long before I was diagnosed. In practical terms the diagnosis did little to aid me. Of course, it enabled me to understand my body, my limitations and set me on a course to stabilise my symptoms. But it brought a new dilemma. Where I had previously struggled to work while ill, ignorant of why my body was misbehaving, I now had a name for my daily struggle: Lupus (狼疮). This is a chronic (慢性的) auto-immune disorder that can affect virtually any system in the body. It also leaves a huge, dark question hanging over my head when seeking employment: should I tell my employers I have a condition? It is a dilemma that continues to be a root cause of anxiety both for myself and for thousands of other UK employees.
The rocky road to my unfortunate enlightenment about work and disability began just after graduation when I’d set my sights on a career in communications and landed my dream job with a respected public relations consultancy (咨询公司) in Bristol. But while I was learning the art of media relations, my body wasn’t quite making it in health terms. I often went to work with swollen limbs and fevers. At my first and last performance review, my boss was amazed that, despite my many capabilities, I hadn’t quite taken control of my responsibilities. A few months later, my contract wasn’t renewed and I plunged further into new depths of ill health.
However, I was determined not to be beaten and returned to the interview trail. My next job was in publishing. But despite a shining performance at the interview, I felt like a fraud. How long would it be before I sank into ill health and depression again?
The job was to end with a monumental bang when I became so poorly I could no longer function. A few feverish weeks in bed ended in specialist appointment, where I was diagnosed with Lupus and rushed into hospital for fear that it may have attacked my internal organs.
The next 12 months were filled with confusion. I had no idea about benefits, felt alienated (被视为另类) by the medical establishment and lived off my savings until I was broke. I realised I needed help from my family and moved to London.
As soon as I felt better, I marched into a marketing recruitment consultancy and, within 10 minutes, I had impressed the interviewer enough to be offered a job with the agency. We agreed on a decent salary and I told him I had arthritis (关节炎) and would need to work a four-day week.
Things went well at the start but soon the client meetings began to fall on my day off, and I rarely left the office on time. I began to slip both in health and professional terms. The 10-hour days crashed around my head; no amount of make-up could disguise my ill health as I battled against the odds to prove to myself that I could still make it in the business world. I often cried on the bus on the way back from work.
Not long before my contract was due to be made permanent, I was called to the boss’s office and given the "talk" about how my performance was slipping, how awful I looked. I felt too weak to fight back and agreed to leave. No attempts to offer adjustments to my job, such as being able to work from home, were ever made. I had a case for unfair dismissal under the DDA, but was ignorant of this at the time.
An estimated 10 million people in the UK, or 17% of the population, qualify for disability status under the DDA. I have encountered a number of them: the liver-diseased boss; the co-worker with a heart condition; and my asthmatic (哮喘的) trainee-teacher friend. None had disclosed (透露) their conditions to employers, and all were feeling the strain of not doing so.
To access your rights under the DDA and to request " reasonable adjustments" to your working conditions or your workplace requires disclosure. I had warned my former employer about my condition but it served little purpose. They were ignorant about their obligations to their disabled staff.
However, there are plenty of forward-thinking organisations that have inclusive recruitment policies; are more likely to employ a worker with a disability; and are more aware of their legal duties. The public sector out-performs the private, but not always the voluntary, according to studies for the Disabilities Rights Commission.
I decided to give the voluntary sector a go and was surprised to be offered flexible working conditions and other solutions to meet my needs as an employee. But given the choice, I would still prefer a career in the private sector, which for me is more dynamic, has more attractive salaries and offers better prospects than the voluntary or public sectors.
Despite the advances of the DDA, there will always be an army of workers who will soldier on, maybe aware of their rights but choosing to remain silent for personal reasons. It is important, though, to recognise the significance of the act, the protection it affords and the obligations that employers have to us as employees and as human beings.
When the author was diagnosed with Lupus, she was in a dilemma whether she should______.
选项
A、ask for assistance from her fellow workers
B、find employment at a different company
C、ignore her limitations and struggle to work
D、inform her employers of her disability status
答案
D
解析
文章第四段讲述了作者被确诊患上狼疮后的心理感受,第七句提到这为她留下了一个巨大的、黑暗的问题:在求职的时候是否应该告诉老板自己身体的真实情况。因此作者的两难境地是不知道该不该将身体情况告知老板,D)“告知老板自己身体残疾的情况”与原文的意思相符。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/BEg7777K
0
大学英语四级
相关试题推荐
A、Theyshouldn’tchangetheirplan.B、They’dbetterchangetheirmind.C、Thetennisgamewon’tlastlong.D、Weatherforecastsar
A、Itisentertaining.B、Itisacostlyhobby.C、Ittakeslotsoftime.D、Itrequirestraining.A细节题。本题询问作者对观鸟活动说了什么。根据原文可知,观鸟是一种
A、Chewinggums.B、Earphones.C、Magazines.D、Scatbelts.C信息明示题。文章指出,Afewminutesaftertake-off,magazinesandnewspaperswere
Theriseofmultinationalcorporations(跨国公司),globalmarketing,newcommunicationstechnologies,andshrinkingculturaldiffere
ShouldPeopleKeepBizarrePets?1.现在越来越多的人饲养另类宠物2.人们对这一现象有不同看法3.你的看法
OnStudents’TreatingFriendstoDinner1.现在不少大学生热衷于请客2.由此可能带来的问题3.我的看法.
JohnDeweybelievedthateducationshouldbeapreparationforlife,thatapersonlearnsbydoing,andthatteachingmust_____
A、Hedidn’thavethenecessaryequipmentforreproduction.B、Hedidn’twantthemtobedisplayedoutsideofhishome.C、Hethoug
Shewalkedsteadilynorth,__________________________(时面停下来),tocheckherdirection.
A、120kms.B、184kms.C、268kms.D、304kms.B由短文中提到的butitis304kilometerslongbetweenthetwocities.Thebridgewillshortenth
随机试题
张择端的《清明上河图》采用的是中国绘画美学原则中的()。
鉴别肝癌与肝血管瘤最佳的检查方法是
投标文件应对招标文件有关工期、投标有效期、质量要求、技术标准和要求、招标范围等实质性内容作出()的响应。
下列程序执行后的输出结果为()。K=0DO101=1,6,2DO10J=I,6,3IF(K.LT.I*J)K=I*J10CONTINUEWR
某勘察设计咨询公司A与某事业单位合作的成果,其著作专利权专有技术()。[2012年真题]
根据《生产安全事故报告和调查处理条例》,单位负责人接到事故报告后,应当向事故发生地县级以上人民政府安全生产监督管理部门和负有安全生产监督管理职责的有关部门报告,其时间限于()小时内。
2002年10月12日,甲公司以一批库存商品换入一台设备,并收到对方支付的补价15万元。该批库存商品的账面价值为120万元,公允价值为150万元,计税价格为140万元,适用的增值税税率为17%;换入设备的原账面价值为160万元,公允价值为135万元。甲公司
消费的客体是商品或服务。()
苏明是小学五年级学生,因为数学老师讲课很生动,使枯燥的数学变成了一串串美丽的音符,容、易理解和记忆,因此,他总是在课后预习和复习,并取得了优异的数学成绩。但新学期开始后,班级换了数学老师,这位老师讲课比较死板乏味,苏明觉得没意思,因此不怎么用心学习,成绩下
商品是劳动产品,生产商品的劳动可区分为具体劳动和抽象劳动。劳动二重性和商品二因素的关系是()
最新回复
(
0
)