Thursday, November 27, 1997

Workplace discrimination against cancer patients being fought

By Jessica Guynn

Knight-Ridder Newspapers

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. -- At 32, Deborah Collyar was on the fast track. A top woman executive with a computer company, she felt like nothing could stop her.

She was wrong.

Collyar was diagnosed with a virulent form of breast cancer. Though she continued to work through six months of chemotherapy and six weeks of radiation, the disease took a toll on her professional life. Her boss announced Collyar had cancer in the company newsletter and the news sent shockwaves through the company.

After she finished her treatment, Collyar began to notice subtle changes in how she was treated by upper management. Collyar says she felt the position and influence that had taken 13 years to build was slipping away. In the end, she agreed to resign.

Collyar, now 39, says she fell victim not to her cancer but to a common misperception that cancer patients and survivors can't be productive employees. But a career can survive cancer, says Collyar, who now runs her own consulting business in Danville, Calif.

With new drugs that combat chemotherapy side effects such as nausea, anemia and infection, most people can work through and around their battle with cancer. Collyar as well as medical, legal and pscyhosocial experts offered that perspective at a recent seminar in San Francisco on how to manage career and cancer. The session was sponsored by the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship and Amgen, the biotechnology company that makes drugs to lessen chemotherapy side effects.

Part of a movement afoot to change workplace attitudes, the seminar aims to dispel myths about cancer to keep discrimination from spreading into a workplace epidemic.

Cancer will strike one in three Americans in their lifetimes, putting thousands of cancer patients at high risk for workplace discrimination, legal experts say. A survey conducted last year showed that cancer patients are fired or laid off five times as often as other workers. The U.S. Equal Employment and Opportunity Commission reports that 2 percent or 1,400 of its discrimination cases involve cancer patients or survivors.

When ailing workers do keep their jobs, they often are stripped of important duties by supervisors who believe their disease or treatment will slow them down or color their performance. "Even though there are (federal and state) laws barring discrimination against cancer patients, it happens every day," Collyar said.

Fears of dismissal, demotion, loss of benefits or on-the-job hostility are common. Nearly half of San Francisco workers said they would worry about losing their jobs if diagnosed with cancer, according to a phone survey conducted by NCCS and Amgen.

Four out of 10 San Francisco workers polled said they would not tell their supervisor if they were diagnosed with cancer. Even more would conceal the struggle from the rest of the office.

That apprehension may be justified. Seventeen percent of San Franciscans polled believe cancer patients undergoing treatment are incapable of working and 32 percent said they would have to pick up the slack for a co-worker with cancer.

Workplace discrimination strikes cancer patients when they need their jobs the most. As they set out to get well, finances and health insurance become grave concerns. Just as important, keeping their careers alive often helps save the lives of cancer patients.

"I was desperate to keep my life going in a normal way," said Gretchen Dumas, 46, an Oakland, Calif., resident who practices law in San Francisco with the California Public Utilities Commission.

Dumas began her three-year struggle with a deadly melanoma at 31. While still recovering from intestinal surgery, Dumas traveled with her husband to Washington, D.C., to sit in on the arguments of her most important case before the U.S. Supreme Court. "Even though I could hardly walk, I knew I would never get a case like that again," she said. "I didn't want to miss it. I just can't describe this absolute desire to pull yourself back into life."

Dumas had radiation treatments on her lunch hour and went in for chemotherapy on Fridays so she could be back at work Monday morning. When she needed to, she worked four days a week at the office and one day a week at home. "I tried to keep things as normal as I could at work," she said. Like many cancer patients, she continued to function at a high level.

Joan Goodshaw, 61, a customer satisfaction manager for Lucent Technologies in Fremont, Calif., insisted on returning to work while still undergoing chemotherapy. "I never missed a day or even an hour of work except for doctor's appointments and treatments," Goodshaw said. "I went through nine months of treatment including radiation. If I had to stay home that whole time, I would have gone nuts."

It was the support of her supervisor and employees that made the difference, Goodshaw said. On the same day she was diagnosed with breast cancer, Goodshaw accepted a new job in the company, a job the company held for her until she was able to return to work. And at the exact moment Goodshaw had her second lumpectomy, her workers joined hands in prayer.

Most cancer patients welcome that kind of support from co-workers but say they don't want to be treated differently as a result of their condition. That still leaves plenty of room for employers to play an important role in the physical and emotional recovery of their workers. Pacific Bell, for instance, holds support meetings for employees with cancer.

Companies find they can retain valuable employees by offering minor accommodations, cancer patients and survivors say.

As the controller for TRI Commercial Real Estate, Marilyn Castelli, 56, crunches the numbers that helps the business run smoothly. First diagnosed 11 years ago, Castelli is a three-time cancer survivor who, although on chemotherapy for the last five years, has never missed a beat at work.

"It has been my salvation to keep working. If I didn't have that, all I would do is sit home and feel sorry for myself," said Castelli, who works in Walnut Creek. "And that's not anything that is going to help you get better."

(c) 1997, Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.).

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