32 Comments
At your current job (or most recent, if you are not currently working), do the coworkers with whom you regularly interact know you have T1D?
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I am a nurse. My co workers are aware of my T1D. I never make a secret of my diagnosis. It opens questions and also may save my life during a low BS.
I have always wanted both friends and colleagues to know because there were many times my blood glucose would suddenly drop and I needed help due to hypo unawareness. It’s much less a problem now with CGMs and Tandem CIQ but I’ve always been grateful when a knowledgeable friend or colleague knew when to get me some orange juice. They also learned a lot about diabetes!
All of my coworkers are aware and know where my supplies are in case of an emergency. Have never had said emergency in 30 years of T1D – but am prepared.
I don’t advertise my T1D, but I also don’t hide it. If I’m going to be working closely with people, they need to know in case something bad happens. No one deserves a nasty surprise.
Retired
I am now retired, but at all my places of employment, some but not all knew of my diabetes. I always share my condition with upper management and my immediate supervisor and functional work team members. Only at 1 employer did I have a close team member refuse to walk with me anywhere due to my diabetes. She ‘didn’t want to have to save me’. She had a bias against my first name and my condition (don’t ask! LOL!). It’s too bad, she was a talented person, but her prejudice made working with her very difficult.
Now working from home most of the time, there isn’t the need for coworkers to be aware. I think a few close work friends know.
I do not wear my T1d like a badge but I do not hide it either, if it comes up or they ask I’ll fill in the blanks to their questions.
All of them did. I wanted them to be able to help me if I got in trouble with my sugars.
I’m a fitness instructor so all of my students know and see the Dexcom CGM on my arm.
I’m retired now but when I was working I let everyone know I had diabetes.
I don’t recall discussing it with my group after I told them about my initial diagnosis in 1992 to explain my dramatic weight loss and fatigue. I also used myself as an example of interactions among different hormones (dawn effect) when I was teaching. Even though I didn’t tell people individually, it seemed to be passed along from one group to the next. It mostly came up in the context of why I wasn’t joining them for recreational eating 🙂 Luckily, I never needed anyone to rescue me.
I work prn in a diabetes research center. The owner recruited me after I had participated in a sensor study.
People know I have diabetes but I doubt many would know how to treat a hypo
One colleague had T1D. She was a great worker and great diabetic. But she was not so good at moral and legal issues ending up spending six months in jail. Haven’t seen her since. Oh, well. 🥺
Everyone knew. I did necessarily appreciate some who tried to tell me what to do and not do, but I’d rather have people know just in case.
Yes, I always made sure that all of my coworkers knew that I am a type 1 diabetic. I also explained to as many as possible what to do if I acted unusual.
Got fired once when they found out.
I should have said all of them. I don’t hide
I’ve never been bashful of my diagnosis, teased as I tested (a police meth lab?), dosed at lunch (curing the zombie apocalypse…), and made a point to challenge younger employees to keep pace. Wear a bracelet that was kind of obvious, and while shrugged the diabetes off carried a sweetened drink into a crawlspace and have been known to crawl to it in a panic. Three companies recruited me knowing my diabetes, and have been introduced to contractors and adjustors newly diagnosed by others in the field (even had a manager at a competitive company to meet a new diagnosed employee at job they drove by).
I’ve been self-employed for many years. When I last worked with others I notified my supervisors and attempted to educate them on what to do if I was hypo. They were advised not to act because of “liability”. The position only lasted six months, but convinced me that I needed to be able to work on my own schedule.
Having worked in the CCU as a clinical Pharmacist the nurses and intensivists that I worked with all knew I had T1DM. They were a great bunch that would always check if my pump alarmed, would page me when pump patients were admitted, and were so receptive to learn the correct way to basal/bolus patients.
I mostly work remotely now. Almost everyone knew I had T1D when we were in-person but not now that we mostly interact over a screen.
Especially physical labor jobs, I usually did not tell employer, because I was warned by my endo that they would use it as an excuse not to hire me. “Prove that you can do the job first before letting anyone know.” That was my mantra. But volunteering for Jobs with Justice and other social activist work, I did the opposite. I let people know right off the bat. No regrets.
I got LADA at age 66, almost 2 years after retiring. I often wonder what office life would have been like if I had diabetes during my career.
I haven’t worked in years, but when I was working, my colleagues knew I had Type 1 diabetes.
I let the people I work w
Must have fat fingered that. Should say- anyone around me, Management, and those who may notice I might be having a low reaction I did not have notifications on. I had a job that in the early days of CGM did not let me Carry any device because they insisted it was a distraction from my job. I quit soon after.
I am only one
I have been working as a Guest Teacher, so I don’t always interact with the same teachers. As a result, some know and some are not aware, but the office staff and nursing staff at all of the schools are aware.
I always try to have someone trusted around me or aware when I would be working remotely to check on me. These were my mothers’ orders since being diagnosed. Having work colleagues being aware of your disease was getting to be more popular as I was retiring, and it was a nice sometimes relaxing feeling. Over my entire career my diabetes was mostly kept secret , as it had to be, if you didn’t want to lose your job which would be very irresponsible as a main family income source. Having diabetes has changed today, be grateful.
Not to my knowledge, no. I don’t want to know their sexual/dental/psychological health issues why on earth would I ever share with them, my intimate and personal health conditions/issues. There are people who knew but I did not tell them. Whom they may have told I do not know. I would love to learn those names. They are not entitled to my information.