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It is health which is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver,” Mahatma Gandhi once said. Good health is indeed precious. It is needed to be able to work productively — and with enjoyment. So, what happens if you suffer from a serious or long-term illness? What effect might it have on your working life, and what should you do about it?

“The first step is to get as informed as possible,” says Laurie Edwards, author of In the Kingdom of the Sick, a book about chronic illness in the US. “Try to get a realistic idea of what your limitations will be … the more information you have, the better equipped you are to make the right choices.” Edwards has suffered from a chronic respiratory disease since childhood and understands well the frustrations of trying to manage serious illness alongside career aspirations. In these uncertain days of Covid-19, many people are reflecting on their health and worklife priorities.

In the US, employee claims to health insurance are at an all-time high. The National Health Council estimates that half of all American adults have a chronic condition, and one third have multiple chronic conditions. In the UK, the NHS reports that while 72 per cent of the general population are employed, only 59 per cent of people with long-term health conditions are working. Absence because of an illness and productivity lost to chronic ill health cost the UK economy €110 billion each year. The personal costs of being diagnosed with a condition such as multiple sclerosis, heart disease, diabetes or arthritis are, of course, immeasurable. of people employed in the UK report having at least one long-term health condition of long-term ill-health work absences are due to musculoskeletal conditions of people with a long-term condition say their health limits the type or amount of work they can do of employees in unskilled occupations have long-term conditions, compared to...