Job Interview

No, don't say anything till after you've landed the job. Right now, it's none of their business, and if/when you start having problems, then say something. I wouldn't say a word before I got the job. This is just my opinion.

I would not say something in an interview for a couple reasons... first, you don't have the job yet. So why start explaining why you might miss a day of work or be late in the morning? It seems too soon. Second, I think it's nicer to let the employer decide they really want you without having to consider extraneous information. If I were interviewing someone and he told me that he was sick and I didn't know much about the disease, I might get distracted by that instead of focusing on whether I really want to hire the guy. Then I would worry that if I reject the guy he'd sue me or something. Isn't it just better for the employer to consider you as a really good candidate for the job without having to worry about your health stuff?

I know it seems like full disclosure is best but I definitely think it could wait. Do you really think it could make an employer mad to find out that an employee has health issues? I wouldn't want to work for that kind of employer. :)

Definitely don't bring it up. It puts the hiring supervisor in the difficult position of trying not to factor that in when selecting the best candidate. Prospective employers aren't allowed to ask about disabilities of illnesses that might affect work, only if you would be able to perform the required job functions, either with or without reasonable accommodations. And they have to either ask everyone that or no one.

Absolutely not! You have no obligation to the employer at this point, but you do have personal need for income + dependents to support. I would never have mentioned UC to my employer except that I got into a severe flare at one point when I had to take disability leave for 3 months. Even though I work under management of well-educated people, I find most of them to be clueless about IBD & its complications. Unless someone has heart disease or cancer, they tend not to take health issues compassionately! / Old Hat (nearly 30 yrs with left-sided UC; currently on 3 Colazal daily for maintenance of remission)

Never disclosed personal information at an interview!!!!! It is not important. I wouldn't say anything until you have an issue.

But also be aware, that merely having a doctor's note does not protect you from loosing your job. At this point, in the US, you don't really have any protections if you have a chronic condition, until you have been at your job for one year, and have worked 1250 hours in that year, to qualify for FMLA (Family Medical Leave Act).  

ADA would not necessarily protect you from being fired for excessive abscences from work. ADA requires a REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION. This is a broad term but does not mean that an employer would need to accommodate someone missing work beyond the attendance policy or what they consider "excessive". Nor would it require an accommodation for tardiness. It could mean that you are placed closer to a bathroom or the flexiblity to work from home (if this is possible). I'm sure there are other accommodations, but it would depend on what you needed.

If you did disclose your condition at any point and were fired or not hired because of it, then you would have a case. But it would have to be because they fired you because you have an illness, not because you missed work. It doesn't really sound fair, but really if you think about it does make sense. If you can't work, you can't work. It is a burden for coworkers if everyone isn't at work as required.  

I work in HR and recently had to terminate someone that has IBD. It was hard for me, and I felt great compassion for him (obviously!), but in his first two months of employment he was hosptialized twice and missed a total of about 3 weeks of work. It was unfortunate but we couldn't work with it. I did tell him I would work with him to find another position in the organization after he had gotten things a bit more under control. He emailed me last week and is feeling better so I am trying to place him in a position. He will be a great employee, I think, if he can get his symptoms under control. Really I think he tried too hard to come back to work before he was ready and it just snowballed for him.

Sorry if this sounds harsh but it is the reality out there.

BigLucy- No a doctor's note doesn't really protect you in any way.With that said, I think most employers will work with you, at least for a time. But really if you are missing work that is the bottom line for them. And if they feel you are missing too much than they will let you go. That is why it is very important if you have been at your job for more than a year and you have problems to get on FMLA. Are you on FMLA? That is your best protection and one that is guaranteed. If you aren't on FMLA I'm surprised because if we have people that start missing work but have a doctor's note I always call the employee to see if they need FMLA (a lot of people don't know about it.) If they haven't talked to you about it you need to contact your HR person as soon as possible to get it set up. It does sound like you ahve a good situation but you never know when your boss might have a bad day and decide they are done with you. (I get calls like that a lot too from managers. Luckily for the employee, I know what it is like to be sick!)

YOu can take FMLA intermittenly too- it doesn't have to be 12 weeks consecutively. This is something that the gov. is looking to change but hopefully that won't happen. It seems like most of the leaves I work on are for people that have chronic conditions that just flare up- like asthma and diabetes. If the law was changed it would be very detrimental to people like us you know, where you have times of good health and times of bad health.

It would have been very different if the IBD person had been with us for 10 years. First I would have put him on FMLA. And even if he used all of his allotment for that we would have extended it by 30 days as a personal leave. I personally think that when someone has been loyal for a long time it is important to be loyal to them as well.

First off, I'm with everyone else. Never disclose that type of information in an interview.

Second, if you already have a job, how they deal with it depends on a ton of factors. First, are you union or not, second, are you a govt employee, third, is your job one that requires you to be on your feet, on the floor at all times, etc, etc. Is there someone else that can perform your activities if you are out? Can you telecommute? Can you work flextime? How does your company handle disabilities? How big is your company? If you work for a larger firm (or the govt) there should be some information out there for you on how to deal with this. If not, if you start to feel flar-ish, you can talk to your management to see how to work thru this together. If you are a good employee, it benefits you both to see if things can be negotiated.

look at it another way, you don't know what is going to hapapen in the future. For instance, I have legal guardianship over my mother and at times I need to take time off of work or come in late etc. or take/make calls during the day from time to time.

I would not disclose this information and I would not disclose my UC. They are different but kind of the same in that the needing to take time off of work. Everyone has stuff to deal with and that is what personal, vacation, sick, and fmla is for.