Episodic disability and adjustments for work: the ‘rehabilitative work’ of returning to employment with Long Covid

Citation

Anderson E, Hunt K, Wild C, Nettleton S, Ziebland S & MacLean A (2024) Episodic disability and adjustments for work: the ‘rehabilitative work’ of returning to employment with Long Covid. Disability & Society, pp. 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2024.2331722

Abstract
Long Covid is an activity-limiting condition that causes significant long-term impairment that can last up to one year or longer and impacts labour participation. ‘Episodic disability’ is an apt conceptual framework to comprehend the fluctuating impairments of those with Long Covid and the barriers they encounter when returning to employment. Drawing on 65 narrative interviews, conducted between 2021-2022, from three UK studies involving adults with Long Covid, this article demonstrates how participants experienced a ‘spoiled identity’, had their ‘disability’ status challenged due to existing in-between (dis)ability classifications and experienced their ‘bodies-at-odds’ with their working environment. The additional ‘adjustment’ and ‘administrative’ work of navigating disabling systems required participants to balance workloads to avoid relapse. Utilising ‘episodic disability’ demonstrates that current sickness absence, return-to-work and welfare policies are disabling and unfit for purpose, requiring participants to take sole responsibility for the additional ‘rehabilitative work’ involved in returning to employment.

Keywords
Employment; episodic disability; long Covid; interviews; qualitative; work

Journal
Disability & Society

People

Professor Kate Hunt

Professor, Institute for Social Marketing

Dr Alice MacLean

Research Fellow, Institute for Social Marketing