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
23
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.
The author lost her job at the public relations consultancy in Bristol because______.
选项
A、her boss had found a much better replacement
B、she was in no mood at all to discharge her duties
C、her performance was disappointing to her boss
D、she failed to show up for her performance review
答案
C
解析
第五段第四句提到,在“我”的第一次也是最后一次绩效考核中,尽管“我”有诸多方面的能力,还是没能够很好地履行“我”的职责,对此“我”的老板感到非常惊讶。由此可知,失去第一份工作的原因是老板对“我”的表现不满意,C)“老板对她的表现很失望”与题意相符。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/IEg7777K
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、StudentswithaproperIDcancheckanybookout.B、Onlythestudentswithspecialpermissioncancheckoutreferencebooks.C
A、Tomakechildrenbuysomethingthemselves.B、Tomakechildrenlearntobeindependent.C、Tomakechildrenknowhowtoearnmon
SecretsofGrade-AParentsHelpingyourchildgetaheadatschoolstartsathomeWhenCareyGrahamstartedGrade
Forthispart,youareallowed30minutestowritealetter.Youshouldwriteatleast120wordsfollowingtheoutlinegivenbel
A、Partofatextbook.B、Alargechart.C、Arecentresearch.D、Partofasciencefiction.A讲话者在该篇开头、结尾都提到了“chapter”一词,并询问大家是否有问题,
A、Hewaspleasedtogetthemedal.B、Hewasverycourageous.C、Heusedtobeafirefighter.D、Hewasaccusedofcausingafire.
StartingCareerinaBigCityoraSmallTown?1.很多大学生毕业后留在大城市工作2.也有人选择到小城镇开始自己的职业生涯3.结合实际情况谈谈自己的想法
A、120kms.B、184kms.C、268kms.D、304kms.B由短文中提到的butitis304kilometerslongbetweenthetwocities.Thebridgewillshortenth
随机试题
下面的( )属于设备工程项目进度控制方面的信息。
《建筑工程施工转包违法分包等违法行为认定查处管理办法(实行)》规定,属于挂靠行为的是()。
企业年末资产负债表中的未分配利润金额一定等于“利润分配”科目的年末余额。()
目前,我国会计法规体系以什么为主体?会计法规体系由哪四个层次构成?并请分别阐述各个层次的具体含义。
某企业原材料按实际成本进行日常核算。2005年3月1日结存甲材料300千克,每千克实际成本为20元;3月15日购入甲材料280千克,每千克实际成本为25元;3月31日发出甲材料200千克。如分别按后进先出法和先进出法计算3月份发出甲材料的实际成本,两
中华民族一直以其强烈的责任意识享誉世界,在建立市场经济体制的新的历史时期,尤其需要________人们的责任意识,这既是构建社会主义和谐社会的必然________,也是时代的呼唤。填入画横线部分最恰当的一项是:
近年来,兴起了一股新的传统文化热潮,比如国学热、文物热、申遗热等。在这股热潮中,特别是在文化遗产保护中出现了一些值得关注的问题和现象,如:争夺名人故里,甚至争夺本来子虚乌有的所谓名人故里;兴建假历史文物,盲目举办祭拜活动等。这些都引发了人们究竟该如何对待传
积分∫-11=________.
使用IE浏览器浏览网页时,出于安全方面考虑,需要禁止执行JavaScript,可以在IE中(9)。
Thegeographicallocationofacountryanditsphysical【C1】______areveryimportanttoitsdevelopmentandprogress.TheUnited
最新回复
(
0
)