Every year, 160,000 French people are diagnosed with cancer while working. The occurrence of this disease has strong repercussions on their professional life: perceptions of employees, lasting consequences, daily fragility, difficulties when returning to work… This is the reason why many companies are committed to making life easier. work of sick employees and support them during their periods of absence.
In France, nearly 400,000 people learn that they have cancer each year. Among them, 160,000 are working at the time of diagnosis. If the rise of therapeutic innovations, such as oral chemotherapy taken at home, or the shortening of hospitalization phases, facilitate treatment and help keep patients employed, the adverse effects of cancer nevertheless impact their professional lives.
Active workers can indeed have difficulty combining work and therapeutic treatments and be impacted by the latter in terms of fatigue, pain, sleep disturbance and concentration. They may also feel marginalized within their company and their team, and suffer various discriminatory measures (dismissal, isolation, loss of responsibility, refusal of promotion, etc.).
Fortunately, many companies are committed to supporting their employees during the fragile period they are going through. This civic duty is essential for patients, but also advantageous for employers, as the director general of the National Cancer Institute (Inca) Thierry Breton reminds us: “A professional activity, during the course of care, is a factor that contributes to improving the patient’s quality of life. If there is a benefit for the employee, this is also the case for the company which, by keeping its competent and trained employees in employment, maintains its level of performance”.
Among the major French economic players in solidarity in the face of cancer is the La Poste group. Signatory of the Inca’s “cancer and employment” charter since 2018, the company with a mission supports its sick employees during their absence. It also adapts the organization of their work to facilitate their return.
The group also acts for the prevention of cancer through actions to promote health and raise awareness of this disease in which all its employees can participate (communication systems, prevention campaign, e-learning module, etc.).
Cancer is a drama that impacts the patient, but also those around him. This is why La Poste supports its carer employees by giving them flexibility in the organization of their work and the time to take care of their loved ones affected by the disease.
This month of February, La Poste decided to go further by joining the coalition « Working With Cancer ». Launched in early 2023 by the Publicis Foundation, this movement promotes a corporate culture that is more open, more supportive and more favorable to the professional integration of employees with cancer. Many other large French and international companies support the initiative such as L’Oréal, Carrefour, Sanofi, Meta, Toyota and Nestlé.