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Comment by elashri | Hacker News Reader

In related topic, Do people usually tell their employer about a diagnosis like that if they don't ask for special accommodation? I know that cancer would probably require adjustment in general (Not in this case according to the court case here) but I am talking in general terms.

My prayers goes to steve for a healthy recovery.

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Yes, of course.

If I worked somewhere I didn't feel I could tell my employer, it would demonstrate a lack of trust and a toxic relationship. I wouldn't want to work there.

I typically disclose it during interview, and disclose even to recruiters that I need a day off or two once a month for health reasons. ( I don't tend to go into details until later in interview if I feel like it's going well. )

Does it close some doors? Yes, absolutely. I had one recruiter tell me that their client was "startup-y" so perhaps I "wouldn't have the stamina" for it. I insisted I was very capable, but they made their excuses (they lied that they'd send through the job spec) and left.

But that's their loss.

Such a weird place to live where you are asking permission to get a day off for health reasons.

In EU you just go and take a sick leave from the doctor, no one at work needs to know what health issue you have.

It's not about sick leave, it's about knowing well ahead of time I'll be off on a regular schedule. Yes of course I can also disappear on short notice and there's no right for them to know beyond "medical", and I certainly take advantage of that too, but if I'm starting a new job I'd rather put upfront the expectation that I'll have every 4th Thursday & Friday off work.

I'd rather negotiate that into my contract than have a lot of sick days.

A Co-worker of mine recently died of cancer, before that there was a long period within which she clearly had a different deal then most of us, but generally it was not known that she had cancer. As I understood it she was not legally required to disclose the illness to her employer (Germany), nor was her employer legally allowed to ask.

Where I live health insurance is often provided by employer. Sometimes the employer opts to manage a separate pool of insured people - employees and their families. Such pool is fairly small so if one person comes down with an expensive disease the cost of everyone’s premiums must increase to cover that. Or the employer can just fire the expensive employee and thus keep the premiums low.

*sacrifice the expensive employee

That sounds like a plot from a dystopian novel, do you mind if I ask where?

In the US, this is called being a “self-insured” employer: https://www.reddit.com/r/HealthInsurance/comments/1c9ifi8/wh...

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