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As an employer or manager, you will have a responsibility to support employees who have been diagnosed with cancer.

This section will help you find out more about supporting people with cancer as an employer and how Maggie's can help.

Talking about cancer with employees

When an employee receives a cancer diagnosis, it can feel difficult to know what to say or do to help them.

You may feel out of your depth and be worried about upsetting them or intruding as a colleague or as an employer.

Cancer is sometimes considered a taboo subject. Personal experiences and a number of myths and fears can get in the way of communicating and working out ways to offer effective support.

There is, however, a strong business case for supporting employees with cancer, as well as a natural human urge to do so.

Considerations for conversations

• There are many different types of cancer and treatment, and increasing numbers of people return to work during or after cancer treatment. However, each person's situation and their ability to work or stay in touch with work colleagues will be unique to them. 
• Things can change in the weeks and months after diagnosis. The person with cancer is facing a period of huge uncertainty until treatment options emerge, followed by finding out what these mean in practice and taking steps into recovery.
• Feelings, choices and decisions about work may change over time, along with the support needs.

Supporting people in work

Many people of working age are living with cancer. Other employees may be acting as carers and supporting someone with cancer. 

An increasing majority of people survive their cancer and may remain on the workforce. Therefore, management and support is essential throughout.

There is no single right way to support someone through a cancer journey. Rather, it is often a case of one step at a time. There may be periods of time out for appointments, sickness and absence. 

Some employees may be able to stay in work during treatment, if flexibility and reasonable adjustments are made. Others may feel unable to work, from the point of diagnosis, during treatment or when treatment has finished.

Limiting effects of cancer

Different cancers may have specific limiting effects requiring specific disability adjustments e.g. special chairs, text to speech equipment, and more frequent short breaks for food or toilet needs. Other symptoms can be more generalised, whether from the cancer itself or from major treatments.

Some symptoms will be direct side effects of treatment. They will start to ease off slowly as treatments are completed. Other symptoms may persist, or may arise during the period of recovery. These are called late effects.

Late effects might also include adapting to surgical changes, chronic fatigue and the emotional impact of living with cancer.

You might have your own preconceptions about side effects of cancer and treatment. For example, you may expect employees to look unwell, when in fact, some side effects are less visible or obvious. 

As an employer, you may be unaware of the specific effects on work abilities. This lack of cancer awareness can lead to misunderstandings, or even unlawful discrimination. For example, if you were to mistake the impact of cancer and treatment on concentration for poor attitude.

Keeping links with work

A cancer diagnosis does not necessarily mean the end of someone51É«APP™s working life. Whilst some people may need a period of time off, others may choose to carry on working. Many people find keeping contact with work to be an important objective following a cancer diagnosis. 

Feelings an employee may have about work can include:

• worries about supporting themselves and dependants financially
• a loss of independence, normality and purpose that can be tied up in work
• frustration and anger at not being able to work
• worry about what employers, customers and colleagues may think
• concern at extra workloads on colleagues or not meeting responsibilities
• feeling out of touch with what’s happening and changes in the field of work
• loss of confidence and self esteem

Changing needs over time

The challenges that may get in the way of work can vary considerably during someone51É«APP™s cancer experience.

There may be various stages in a cancer journey, with different implications for their life as an employee at each stage.

Initial period of turmoil and tests 

Someone may not be physically unwell, but they could be struggling emotionally as they attend appointments.

For some, carrying on working might offer a welcome sense of normality. Support for these employees may be around offering understanding, flexibility and time off to attend clinic appointments.

For others, the cancer diagnosis news may be overwhelming. They may need a short period of sickness absence to take it all in.

During and after treatment

There may be periods when work is out of the question, or where the employee may benefit from the flexibility of working from home and on less intense projects for a while.

With appropriate support, some people will chose to work during and after cancer treatment.

Different treatments may impact your working life in different ways. 51É«APP out more about cancer treatments and their side effects.

Recovery

This may be a time of a phased return. The person with cancer may wish to build up gradually to the usual working week. They may need longer term reasonable adjustments.

Early recovery may be a gradual easing of the immediate side effects of treatment or healing from surgery.

There may be less aggressive, long-term follow-up treatments that have their own side effects.

Later into recovery, it may be learning to adapt and manage late effects. It can be now that the emotional and psychological impacts of the diagnosis and treatment can come to the surface.

After treatment is finished, changes from surgery and long-term effects of treatment may need to be managed, and additional support might be required.

Looking to the future

Many may not need further treatment, and in time they may be able to put their cancer experience behind them.

Others may experience a recurrence or their cancer may spread requiring further treatment. Some may develop long-term side effects with changing needs for workplace support.

This might lead to a rethink regarding work, and early ill-health retirement may be a consideration.

Carrying on in work, however, is often both possible and important, even for some people with advanced cancer.

Benefits of supporting an employee with cancer

Supporting an employee to remain in work has benefits to the workplace too, including:

• retaining the value of an employee51É«APP™s knowledge, skills, contacts and experience
• saving recruitment costs. Rushing to replace someone comes with recruitment and training costs, as well as a period of time for the new recruit to get up to speed
• easing pressures. Providing options to remain in work during treatments, or return to work gradually, means less of a staffing shortage
• encouraging staff loyalty. A supportive response will be rewarded with greater loyalty and goodwill, not just from the employee concerned, but also from their colleagues
• good business reputation. Partner organisations, potential applicants and customers may appreciate working with an organisation known for good business ethics and values
• meeting your legal obligations. Cancer is considered a disability under the . Meeting obligations is not only good practice, but it is also the law. It avoids compensation, legal costs, management time and reputational damage that you may otherwise incur

Employers and managers conversations around cancer

As a manager or employer, you may need to talk about work issues. Some suggestions to help meetings with your employee go well include:

• allow privacy, space and time for conversations. Let the employee know they can bring a friend or staff representative with them, while emphasising that this is an informal initial discussion
• take your lead from your employee on how much they wish to go into detail and how much they have taken in at that point. Your employee may already be feeling overwhelmed
  
• a willingness to be open, flexible and supportive around work adjustments. It can be hard to set a clear plan in an uncertain and changing situation
  
• avoid scheduling an appointment directly after your meeting with your employee in case you both need more time. Be as open ended as possible, but also be willing to continue talking in a further session. It may be that an initial discussion is a scene setting one, where you can offer both information about policies around absence for medical appointments and sick leave if needed. 
• have an open and flexible approach to being supportive for whatever lies ahead. You might also signpost to other people in the organisation to talk to including HR, occupational health and any workplace support and counselling provisions
• take further time to think through reasonable adjustments to make work potentially possible if required. Neither you nor your employee should be feeling that the only option is to give up work
  
• be aware that your employee may still be processing the life changing news or deciding between treatments, especially if it is soon after diagnosis. Your employee may have further tests ahead before they know where they stand and what their treatment plan looks like. This is not the time to focus on managing absence.
• remain flexible with any plans, as the impacts of treatment can vary and may only emerge once your employee starts. Discussions may need to focus on the short and medium term. There may be scope for your employee to work through treatment, but consider how that can be facilitated.
• keep the option of a return to work during recovery open in your planning, even if time off sick for a while is inevitable. At that point, long-term impacts and late effects may be known, so it can then be easier to plan around reasonable adjustments then.
• be prepared for the focus to shift. It may be that as things develop, priorities may change or the cancer proves much more difficult to treat. The focus may move to looking at ill-health retirement, special provisions in pension schemes, or a desire to carry on working for as long as possible

Practical support in the workplace

Legal obligations and rights

In employment law, cancer counts as a disability. This means that: 

• it is unlawful to discriminate against your employee in terms of redundancy, promotion, opportunities for career development, etc.
• employees have a right to request reasonable adaptations around hours, workloads, roles and additional equipment, which should not be refused unless it would be unreasonable or impractical to make the adjustments.

In practice, conversations may be far more informal, helpful and supportive, and the law may never need to come up in conversation.

An employee may be concerned that a cancer diagnosis means that work is over. They may also be worried that they may be forced to work whilst they are unwell. It is important to show that this need not be the case. 

Reasonable adjustments at work

As an employer, you don't have to agree to every request for a reasonable adjustment. However, you do need to consider them and provide clear reasoning for your responses to the requests.

Part of the difficulty with the limitations that cancer imposes is that they can be generalised and variable in nature.

It may be only simple adjustments are needed. Changes to work stations, regular toilet breaks and meal breaks, or assistive software or equipment after loss of voice. 

Some ideas that people have found helpful include: 

• greater flexibility in hours, such as shorter days, different start or finish times, taking breaks during the day, or part-time working
• working from home, perhaps on some specific or less time sensitive projects, where it may be easier to adapt and manage the workload between good and bad times
• temporarily changing the role to remove some aspects that are difficult, while perhaps taking on others that might fit better instead
• understanding and support around issues such as concentration or a needing to take time out
• being sensitive and aware of how physical changes may affect a person’s self esteem. Some people may feel self conscious about these changes and need support to integrate back into the work setting

Your employee is not seeking special treatments or advantages over colleagues. It may be that the routine has been fixed hours, and full time posts. With creative thinking, it may not have to be that way in the future.

With some added flexibility, perhaps some special equipment (for which grants are available), you can help your employee. They can work normally and effectively as possible for the team.

While there may be some limitations to be overcome, there may also be something new and different to the mix. This can be used to contribute to positive change and increased productivity.

Other support in work

Access to Work Grants

This is a scheme run by JobCentre Plus, part of the Department for Work and Pensions.

The scheme can help pay for any specific equipment that you may need as an adaption to enable you to work, additional costs of travel to work (e.g. if you need to avoid public transport because of infection risk), or a support worker. Sometimes it can help with indirect costs too.

51É«APP out more about .

Occupational Health and counselling support

Advice on work adjustments and when to stay in work may be available from your organisation or company, along with access to counselling around major changes and work stress. Both could be bought in if self employed. 

Practical and emotional support

More cancer specific emotional and psychological support may be via your clinical team or cancer charities. Help and support is a key part of what is available at Maggie's.

Financial support from employers 

At the start of a cancer journey, employees are covered by sick pay from work. Depending on contractual provision, they may be free from financial worries in the short term. For example, if on full pay for a period, or if able to carry on working.

There may still be additional costs that employees may face, even on full pay. They may also face reduced income at some point. The benefits system might be able to help with this. Some benefits are non-means tested, meaning they aren't affected by pay from work or other income.

Others benefits are means tested or income-related, but they may become relevant as contractual sick pay tapers off, or during periods of part-time working or easing back into work.

For an overview of the most likely benefits of assistance to your employees, see benefits when in work and links to further information from there.

Getting further advice and support

If you are looking for further support as an employer:

• get in touch with your nearest Maggie's centre about joining a Cancer in the Workplace workshop
• download our on supporting an employee with cancer

There are a variety of people who can support employees whilst they explore, and make decisions, about working through cancer or easing back into work in recovery.

Emotionally, the employee has a lot to think about, and work is often a huge part of someone's life and role.

• Maggie's can offer psychological support for anyone with cancer finding the changes around work affecting their feelings and emotions
• Our benefit advisors specialise in helping those with cancer, and those close to them, to claim all the benefits they are entitled to, both when they are unable to work and when carrying on in or returning to work. Appointments for benefits advice are available, or you can simply drop into your nearest centre to find out more about benefits and other support available.

Last review: May 2026 | Next review: May 2029