Among the many challenges of being diagnosed with cancer is that there’s a lot to figure out and decisions, separate from treatment, to be made. One key work-related one—that can be surprisingly complex—is whether you want people at your job to know your health situation.

If you’re relatively new at your job, it’s possible you don’t yet know many of your coworkers or haven’t had time to develop a strong rapport with your boss. You also may not have been there long enough to witness how other employees have handled their own chronic health condition — and how supportive (or not) the rest of the staff was during that time.

For individuals who have more work experience, these factors can help inform their choices regarding workplace disclosure. But either way, the decision-making process is basically the same: You’ll want to do some fact-finding, be thoughtful and, most importantly, try to refrain from sharing the news at all (other than with your most trusted loved ones) until you decide whether to disclose about your health at work. Because, in the age of social media, once information is shared — even if only with a small group of friends — that news can make its way into the wider world, and you never know who might happen upon it down the road.

Disclosure – whether in your personal life or at work – look different for everyone. What is important is to identify your specific concerns and priorities in order to make the best decision for you. To get started, you’ll first want to gather information — from both your healthcare team and your employer.

Once a treatment plan has been established, speak with your oncologist about what you can expect. For example: Will you have to undergo surgery? If so, how long is the recovery period likely to be? If you’ll be getting chemotherapy or immunotherapy, what will that schedule be and will you have to go to a hospital/treatment center, or will it be something you can self-administer at home? What side effects are you likely to have—and how might they affect your work? Getting answers to these questions will help you develop a picture of how significantly treatment is likely to impact your ability to do your job.

At the same time, you’ll want to do some information gathering at work. If you’ve been on the job only a short while, you may actually remember what’s in your employee handbook — or at least where you saved it. Most companies provide new staff with various documents when they start, including details about benefits and policies (e.g., sick leave, vacation, remote work options). If your benefits include health insurance, you’ll want to read (or re-read) that information very carefully. It’s also important to consider your legal rights and what you might be entitled to.

Knowing the potential impact of treatment, what laws may apply and what kind of resources are available through your employer will help you determine whether you want to disclose your diagnosis at all—and if so to whom. Going to Human Resources can be viewed as helpful because, as a department that serves the entire organization, they will have definitive information on company policies; it’s also possible they’ve been through this before with other staffers and can offer guidance and resources. Disclosing to your direct supervisor can be useful, since they have a full understanding of your role and responsibilities and the ways in which certain tasks can be allocated differently if needed. And sharing your news with a close and trusted colleague can provide a source of moral support and potential help with a project, for example. For example, if treatment will require time off from work or a reallocation of projects , then you may want to loop in your manager, so they can work with you to strategize coverage for your shift or workload changes. Speaking with your manager may also enable you to discuss your needs (e.g., the option to work remotely or have a flexible schedule so you can make it to appointments and have time to recover afterward). And it gives you the opportunity to reassure them of your commitment to the company and your desire to keep working.

When deciding whether to share your health status, keep in mind that, if you do choose to share, it doesn’t have to be all or nothing: You don’t have to reveal every bit of information, nor do you need to share that information with every person in the office. For some, there is the concern that if they disclose their diagnosis widely, they will always be viewed at work as “the person with cancer” — and that’s something they’d prefer to avoid, especially if they’re early on in their career/new at their job and haven’t had a chance to fully prove themselves and their value. They also don’t want to risk having their colleagues form preconceived notions about their ability to do their job and carry their weight. Again, all of these are unique to you and your relationships at work.

If you opt to disclose, keep the following in mind:

• Reveal only as much as you want — and determine ahead of time what that is.

• Preparing notes to refer to during these conversations can be useful and ensure you don’t share more than you intended.
• Reassure the person that you want to stay on the job and are willing to develop a plan to make that work.
  • If possible, come to the meeting with ideas of what that “plan” might look like but be open to suggestions or tweaks.
• Emphasize that your situation is fluid and things such as treatment and side effects may change, but you will keep them informed, so you can continue to do your job.
• Be very specific about whether you want the person to keep this news strictly confidential.

For more on disclosure at work, consult our Sharing the News section, which takes a deeper dive into many of the topics referenced above, such as whom to tell and how to tell, but also explores whether it’s even necessary to open up about your diagnosis.

In addition, CAC has a free Manager’s Kit, which offers guidance for supervisors on how to support employees with cancer, a fantastic tool to alleviate some of the pressure on the employee to explain what they might need.

Updated 2024