OK, I have MS as many of you will probably know. Originally Relspse Remitting but now diagnosed with secondary progressive MS.
As a result of a client downsizing the number of consultants i have been unemployed now for a year and a half.
Apart from being bored rigid with lack of work, I am currently volunteering at Scotland Cheast Heart and Stroke but it is only one day a week. Am I being selfish in trying to get back into work? I am lucky that I have my disability benefit and mobility car all put in place, but I feel like I am worthless. 53 was the retirement age I was aiming for as mortgage 1 cleared, mortgage 1 was for a 1 bed flat in the southside if Glasgow, then met my current wife, sound like King Henry the 8th, lol so me and my wife by a new house.
I am more than capable in software testing but all the local work want:
Standing at a till for 10 hours, yeah attempted that but fall over. Where I was told âwe can either sack you or you hand in your resignation letter. Thank you Morrisons, I told them I had MS at my interview
loads of work for working behind a bar or working in coffee shops. What could go wrong eh?
my personal favourite to be a personal carer. Again for obvious reasons that is not practical.
So anyone else going through this sh*t where you want to work but you just meet closed door after closed door?
Not wanting the big bucks I was on just a part time job to pay my way?
When the brain works but the body wonât stand up to the rigours of an ordinary day.
My career was a real-time thing and construction-related. Not on the tools, but nevertheless was unsafe on a building site! Needed to get out and meet people during a normal working day, which is hard for so many of us.
Ideally Iâd want a job when I can work when I am able but being wide awake in bursts of a couple of hours, day or night, weekday or weekend, makes me âtimesheet-unfriendlyâ.
A mate of mine is a solicitor and like many in that profession, is self-employed. He gets a package of work, a project, which provided he meets the end deadline, can work when he wants. Which he does! He has a sleep disorder and might work 3 days solid on the bounce, then crash out before doing another one. I could do that - except Iâm not qualified as a solicitor with experience and a reputation. Could be an accountant, auditing accounts, but not qualified at that eitherâŚ
If Iâd known I was going to end up with MS, Iâd have selected a more âconvenientâ profession!
Hey, desk jobs are just as at risk, there are no safety nets, despite what other folk say. Critical illness insurance, which was a benefit from my previous employer. Did not pay out as I should have told them I had MS prior to being diagnosed. No kidding. Oh and as it was a group scheme no chance to fight it. I know only to well, I had my local mp look into it, got a lawyer to do it probona (no win no fee) now when all channels have been exhausted the end result was they are not paying out. Unbelievable!
That is so disappointing to hear. For people like us, group schemes tend to be the best bet, and I am sorry that this has turned out badly for you. Maybe they only work in a world where you get your first job and before anythingâs the matter with you, join their scheme and stick to that employer like glue for 40 years. But thatâs not the world we live in any more, is it? I would be scunnered too.
The kind of blanket-coverage occupational scheme (usually part of the pension scheme) by which youâre automatically covered if your health breaks down just because youâre an employee, regardless of your individual age, health status, pre-existing conditions or whatever. Itâs worth rubies as an employee benefit.
Thatâs the very one I was in, a group scheme. You think you are covered and then they change the rules. By that I mean a group scheme through your work is not that great. I got the law changed for these policies, or I like to think it was me as my MP read my name out in Parliament and the law was changed as a result. Or at least thatâs what I tell myself lol. But I am sure there are or weâre hundreds if not thousands of other folk like me also pushing for this with their MPs.
Good for you. Luckily for me, I joined up when I was far too young to have any pre-existing conditions! But it certainly hasnât occurred to me that that would even apply, and I was in Personnel and should have known about such things. Iâm sorry that it caught you out.